chazzarelli

We then did some wandering/shopping. I was trying to work my way over to a shop that I had read about, Camicieria San Marco. They make personalized, tailored silk Pajamas. In that same article, it said Jack Nickleson always orders his from there, along with Elton John and Joe Dimaggio. I figured I needed to be included in that list! When I finally made it over to where the store was suppose to be, I was disappointed to find out that it wasn’t there. I was looking at some shoes and mentioned to the lady helping me that I was looking for the store, and she told me they moved recently. With the new address in hand, we walked over there to where she told me and there was Camicieria.

The two older ladies running the store were so helpful and nice. They helped me pick out the material, took my measurements and went over all the details. I planned on ordering a couple of sets of PJ’s. I had made the mistake though of not asking how much first. I guess I had not prepared myself for the cost of the PJ's. After I found out how much this was going to cost, I cut down my purchase to a single set of pajamas. They told me they would have them made in 2-3 weeks and would ship them to me. My friend couldn’t believe I was still going to buy a set after she heard the price. I usually don’t regret anything I buy. And I don’t regret this purchase either, but I am embarrassed to think what I spent on pajamas.

http://www.camiceriasanmarco.it/en/home.asp

Quick note – there was a problem shipping as they couldn’t ship to my US military address in Qatar. They contacted me about a week ago, and I gave them my parents address in the states and they arrived at their house just a few days ago and are now on their way to me.

On our way back to the hotel, I stopped by A Beccafico to make a reservation for dinner that evening. I had read very good things about the restaurant, so I wanted to eat there. A really nice thing about A Beccafico was the location, as it was right in Campo San Stefano so we didn’t have to walk very far. We got to the hotel, rested for a little bit and then went out for dinner.

Dinner was so good. In fact it was the best meal I’ve ever had in Venice. This place deserves all the praise it gets and then some. It exceeded my expectations, as good places to eat in Venice are a bit harder to find. Looking back, it still stands as one of the best meals I had on my trip (although I think I said that about 10 times during the trip).

We had a special antipasti for 2, which was a zuppa di cozze al profumo di basilico. It came prepared in a huge terra cotta bowl, with a layer of thin bread over the top. It looked like a huge pot-pie, and when we poked through the bread, the aroma of the seafood broth and mussels was to die for. The thin bread tasted so good with the broth and this antipasti could have been a main course based on the taste and size. Honestly, I would have been happy if I had 3 courses of that by itself. For the main I ordered Spaghetti alle vongole Veraci and she had Cavatieddi al pesto delle Lipari. Both were amazing. We also had a bottle of Valpoliccella Classico Superiore.

We were both stuffed but the waiter insisted that no matter how full we were, we needed to try the Tiramisu. I thought I was going to burst, but since the hotel was just maybe 100 yards away, I figured if it came down to it, she could roll me back to the hotel. So we took an order to share. Out came this huge glass bowl of Tiramisu. Without question, this was the most delectable Tiramisu I have ever eaten. Writing about it right now is making my stomach quiver. I would do anything to board a plane, and just go there to order that again.

http://www.abeccafico.com/home.html

The next day would be our final morning in Venice, as we planned on departing sometime after noon. I did however make a mistake that I should not have made. Usually when I arrive somewhere, I purchase my train ticket to the next destination ahead of time. For some reason, I didn’t do this. I had hoped to catch the train at 1pm to Siena (through Florence) but there were no seats available and we had to wait until 2:30 instead. So we got to sit around the Venice train station for a bit waiting for our train.

chazzarelli

Thanks everyone for reading this, I'm enjoying telling my story very much and hope that I can provide some useful info for others.

I'll post the next installment about Siena tomorrow.

annhig

After I found out how much this was going to cost, I cut down my purchase to a single set of pajamas. They told me they would have them made in 2-3 weeks and would ship them to me. My friend couldn’t believe I was still going to buy a set after she heard the price.>>

come on, you've got to tell us now. How much were those pyjamas?

Holly_uncasdewar

Yeah, inquiring minds want to know!

chazzarelli

It's 3 am for me here, I couldn't sleep.

So you want to know how much? I don't regret it, but as I said, embarrassing to say I paid 500 Euro for pj's.

Weekender

No wonder why you can't sleep!

raincitygirl

chazzarelli: Really enjoying your report so far, and have bookmarked a few things for our next trip.

We enjoyed Murano also and I found a shop where I fell in love with almost all of the merchandise...going back there and this time won't be afraid to buy those bigger pieces and have them shipped.

Love the pj's story; you are loving those pj's to bits aren't you?! Now tell us, are they super well-made and unlike anything you could ever buy off the rack?

Looking forward to Siena.

jdc26

"I thought I was going to burst, but since the hotel was just maybe 100 yards away, I figured if it came down to it, she could roll me back to the hotel." LMAO at that sentence.

Wow 500 euro for pjs!! I not only must see them, I'll have to feel them. I also agree with weekender, for that price, who could sleep.

Tiramisu is my favorite dessert so my stomach too was quivering for a taste.

Really enjoying your detailed report. Will be patiently waiting for the next installment.

jdc

Holly_uncasdewar

Good for you with the pj's, chaz! Heck, you can't take it with you, right? I just hope they last longer than the 6 E. pair I bought at the outdoor market along the Strada Nova a few trips back.

ggreen

I clicked on your TR with the intention of scrolling right to whatever you may have written about Positano. But it is so engaging that I too am now hanging on every word! Keep 'em coming, I can't wait to read the next adventures.

<<I like to think I’m pretty young, but I was easily in the upper age group at this concert. ... It was brutal.>>
LMAO, I can definitely relate!

ekscrunchy

Chazz this is fantastic! I would travel with you anytime! You have no idea how fabulous that is that you were able to buy those pjs for yourself.

Waiting for the next installment.

tarquin

Agree about the jimjam details. What kind of glasses did you buy, wine or tumblers? Coloured ones or clear with coloured rims? Did your friend buy any glass necklaces (my addiction, especially the ones by Marina and Susannah Sent)?

Your report is very enjoyable.

kathrynj

Wonderful reading--thanks for posting! Hope to try A Beccafico when I go back to Venice (which may be soon since I fell in love with a necklace there, not quite as $$$ as your p.j.'s)
Kathy

chazzarelli

Thanks everyone, it's nice to know others are enjoying this.

I'm gonna answer some questions before I post about the next part, Siena.

I can't comment yet about the quality of the PJ's but I'll be back to my home in Doha on Nov 6th (in Bahrain right now) and they should be there when I get back. I'll be sure to take pics of them to post online for those who are interested. I saw examples there, and they were really good quality.

As for the glasses that I bought in Venice, for my mother I got tumblers that were different colors - each a different color and they had diagonal lines/grooves. For myself I bought tumblers and wine glasses. Again, I'll post pics of them when I get back home.

As for my friend, she bought several necklaces, and in the end even bought some for herself. She also bought some rings there. I bought wine toppers and other things like that for cousins and other family members.

I'll be posting part of my Siena trip shortly, as I just have to do a few things for work first.

chazzarelli

<b>Siena: Tuscan Cooking and Wine</b>

We arrived in Siena a bit before 7pm. This was my third trip to Siena, and I have always said that this is my favorite city in Italy and one of my favorites in all of Europe. Last time, I had stayed at Villa Scacciapensieri, just outside of the city. This time, due to availability, I opted for Villa Elda. The hotel has an amazing view of Siena, and is located near the football stadium and where the Wed weekly open-air market is held.

http://www.villaeldasiena.it/

The hotel is beautiful and is highly recommended. I booked a panoramic double room, which had a small second room that had a nice chaise with 2 large windows that opened up to a spectacular view of Siena. Breakfast is served downstairs, or in the garden. The breakfast was simple; juices, fruits, cereal, yogurt, meats and cheeses, croissants, coffee/tea/cappuccino/espresso are all available. The Villa Elda staff was very friendly and attentive to any need we had. The room itself was great, shower was perfect and bed was very comfortable. I will definitely be staying there again on my next visit to Siena (next time though I’m renting a place for a week as there will be 6 of us).

That night we wandered over into the Campo, and admired where the Palio is held. Siena never loses its charm. I could be happy sitting around there all day watching all the people, drinking a cappuccino or reading a book.

I had a few places I wanted to eat at while I was there one being Cane e Gatto and another being Trattoria Papei. Since we were right there, we chose Papei. We sat down immediately (no reservation) at a nice table outside. There isn’t much of a view there, however, the food and service more than makes up for this. We had an antipasti of pecorino stagianato with honey and insalata caprese. We ordered a liter of the house wine, which did not disappoint.

I ordered the Paparedelle con ragu di Chingale and she had Pasta Amatriciana. I have never had Chingale (wild boar meat) before but after one bite, I fell in love. I love food to begin with but this was so divine. I had planned on eating a Fiorentina as a main, but thankfully the waiter told me that was too much and that I would be full after the primi. He was right. I used the bread to sop up every last bit that was on my dish. The older waiter told me I ate like a true Italian using the bread to eat it all. We both ordered Tiramisu for desert and we both agreed it was good, but nowhere close to as good as we had in Venice.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel, which is less than 2km away from the campo. We had bought a bottle of wine, Lemoncello and Amaretto and decided to sit out in the garden of the hotel and enjoy the evening. We had a couple of shots of Lemoncello, I had 2 glasses of Amaretto and smoked a cigar.

MileHighHC

Bookmarking; I'm loving your report so far - keep it coming!!

txtree

really wonderful trip report (and wonderful trip!). hilarious about the PJs, but what an awesome story. i hope they last forever!

annhig

chaz - those PJs should come with a life-time guarentee.

i was expecting your accommodtion to be similarly priced, but the villa elda seems to be quite reasonable !

loving the report - keep it coming!

TDudette

OK, I know I'm being crotchety but could your give your friend some initials? In my HO, "She" falls into the same category as "the wife". Sorry, it's a thing with me. Even MF would be OK (that's for my friend not the other-LOL).

Oo la la! $500 for pj's. Did you get them monogrammed? Inquiring minds are looking forward to the picture!

My DH loved the smell of Siena-on our first trip, the aromas of a bakery hit you as soon as you walked into the campo.

More, please!

chazzarelli

The next day was a big one. I have taken a few cooking courses on previous trips to Italy and wanted to do this again. MF (my friend) was interested in it as well but when I told her the cost, she was less receptive to it. The cost was much less if we did this with a group, however I usually hate doing things with other people, and I was only going to do this as a private lesson. So with that said, I decided during planning that I would just pay for the both of us, since I wanted to do it.

I had worked with the instructor, Gina Stipo before and had remained in touch with her. So when I told her that I was returning to Siena, and was considering doing another class with her, she was all for it.

This time though I wanted to incorporate a market tour where we went and selected our food, walked around the market and she would give points to picking out what we would cook. So I booked that with Gina and we planned on meeting at 9 am at the market. Gina gives the classes about 15 minutes outside of Siena in an old mill building that is now a small B&B. After the market tour, we would then head out to the mill to begin our all day cooking course.

We were running a bit slow this morning (err should I say MF was). Luckily Gina called and said she was going to be a couple of minutes late and said she’d be there by 9:15 and I said that wouldn’t be a problem. Well, as it turns out, we became a problem because MF couldn’t pry herself away from shopping at all of the little stalls in the market. This was the beginning of me starting to get tired of travelling with someone else.

I should point out, that I’m not the most patient person. So waiting around while she shopped at all these places, knowing that we had to meet someone had me boiling inside. I didn’t say much because I’m just too nice to stop someone who was enjoying themselves. I wouldn’t have minded so much if we didn’t already have plans. I started to feel bad after the 2nd call from Gina asking where we were. I finally pleaded to MF that we needed to stop shopping and to get to the meeting point.

We arrived to find out that because we were 45 minutes late, Gina had already bought the main ingredients for our meal that she decided on. I can’t say I was mad at Gina, because as she said, she was worried that the good selections wouldn’t be there if she waited much longer. So of course, now I’m even more upset. I just bit my tongue and held it in.

Gina was nice enough to walk through and show us some things, and explain about some of the meats, fish and cheeses. Gina was explaining how the Tuscans ate and prepared foods; if it grows they’ll find a way to cook it. They use every last bit of a plant, animal etc.

Here is the menu we settled on cooking:

Pears, Pecorino and Balsamic
Zucchini Risotto
Handmade fresh spaghetti with a light tomato and ricotta sauce
Stuffed Cuttlefish and stuffed Squid
Tuscan tart with fresh jam

To start we made the stuffing and cleaned the squid and cuttlefish. I love both of those, but my friend had never had cuttlefish. The stuffing that we had was made from fresh bread which we cut up, and then stuck in the blender, that was mixed with fresh herbs from the garden and we added chopped up shrimp and tentacles from the squid. That was then stuffed in the large squid and cuttlefish. We drizzled on some olive oil and into the oven it went.

We then began making the fresh pasta. I had done this before, but last time we made Garganelli, where as this time, we used the pasta roller and then cut the pasta on an old pasta wire cutter that looked like a funky old string guitar. After doing that, I had to find one for myself. I have a pasta roller back home, but I wanted this guitar pasta cutter. We made the sauce, added the fresh ricotta and tossed the pasta after it was finished. We prepared the Tuscan tart in a spring-form pan, and cooked it while we ate the pasta, risotto and cuttlefish.

All the food was amazing. And we ate all that with a bottle and half of wine and some Vin Santo with the desert. MF didn’t like the Vin Santo, but I surely do enjoy Vin Santo. Our day concluded around 4pm with Gina and she provided a copy of her cookbook to us. I already had a copy so I gave it to my friend so she could give it as a gift.

This is something I can recommend as a fun thing to do while visiting Italy. I can say that Gina is such a wonderful person to learn from and her understanding of food, ingredients and skills is so in-depth. I will tell you that you are missing out if you don’t book time with her. I plan on next year taking my family and friends that are meeting me in Italy to spend another day with her.

http://www.eccolacucina.com/

That night, neither of us was hungry since we had that enormous lunch that we cooked. We decided to just walk around, and eat some gelato, and would sit again in the garden at the hotel and would have some wine back there.