Venetian lifestyle
Today Venice is without doubt one of the most relaxing cities in the world, thanks to its unmistakable lifestyle, with its slow pace: all Venetians move around the city nearly always on foot, and when necessary they take the waterbus. Because Venice is a world of its own, where everything becomes closer and distances get shorter and are on a human scale.
“Venice is like a big house where you meet walking along its corridors, wandering through the calli you always come across people you know; here you always feel protected”, says Arrigo Cipriani, one of the city’s most emblematic characters.
And how to contradict him? The bacaro, where you go to drink an ombra – meaning a glass – of wine and to eat cicheti, appetizers based on fish, salami or vegetables, is for Venetians like staying in one’s living room, a place to meet one’s friends.
In Venice you can still do your shopping in a corner shop, like in the old days: not far from the Biennale gardens, for instance, you can find dairies, while in the Dorsoduro district fresh fruit and vegetables can be bought directly from a boat, that has become a real institution in the city.
On Saturday Venetians go to the Rialto market to buy fish, that will then be prepared according to traditional recipes, like the sarde in saor (fried sardines left to soak for a few days in lightly fried onion sauce), scampi alla busara or seppie col nero (respectively prawns fried in garlic and cuttlefish cooked in their ink).
This is where they also buy flowers, fruit and vegetables, without ever missing an occasion to drink a spritz: in Venice it’s always the right time for this aperitif, prepared according to the usual recipe based on Aperol or Campari, white wine and an olive.
The Sunday outing is always by boat, heading for one of the islands in the lagoon: one can take a relaxing cycle ride on Lido or have a picnic on Isola della Certosa or on Mazzorbo. Without forgetting the island of Sant’Erasmo, known as Venice’s vegetable garden, this is where delicacies such as baby artichokes and white peaches come from, the latter being the fundamental ingredient of the Venetian cocktail Bellini.
