Introduction to our blog

Our blog will be dealing with food and wine and a section will be dedicated to pastry. The main idea is to suggest Venetian recipes and explain when it is possible some interesting anecdotes and facts that might be peculiar and related. We hope you will enjoy reading it and that you will succeed when you are in Venice to taste some recipes we offer you.

When you think of Venice you think of its unique shape, of its history, art and architecture and very seldom of its gastronomic tradition. Due to its geographical position between land and sea, Venetian cuisine has been influenced by various cultures and is completely different from the rest of the Veneto region. Thanks to its trade with the Eastern world, Venice imported tons of spices every year, that were resold in the West. Pepper, raisins, ginger, saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves were and are used in the kitchens to flavor both fish and meat.

The presence of spices adds an exotic taste to a wide range of dishes that stand out because of the use of very simple ingredients. It does not mean that they are easy to prepare!

Moreover, fresh and quality products in step with the season are preferred if possible to other ingredients. Over the years the Rialto food market has become an institution for locals and also for food lovers. When you come to Venice, we suggest you eat like we do and that you try different specialties and delicacies not forgetting to drink a glass of good wine. It is hard to make a choice among the many recipes that you can eat at home or at a local restaurant. Some of the most famous ones are: Sarde in saor: marinated sardines Baccalà mantecato: Venetian salted cod Risotto al nero di seppia: risotto and black ink stew Risi e bisi: rice and peas Bigoli in salsa: whole-wheat bigoli pasta, onion and salt-cure fish Fegato alla veneziana: Venetian liver Moleche: lagoon crabs

Spoils of war, the sack of Constantinople

In the early 1200s knights from all over Europe came to Venice to meet the doge in charge, Enrico Dandolo, in order to organize a new religious expedition to free Jerusalem from the Muslims.

The doge made an agreement with the crusaders that in return for passage by boat to Jerusalem, they would have first stopped on the way at Constantinople.

With this ploy the fourth crusade never reached its real destination and ended with the sack of Constantinople.

The final result was the transport to Venice of a huge booty of spoils of war including columns, slabs of marble and other famous treasures such as the triumphal quadriga and the tetrarchs.

The reuse of this material can be admired, as the most striking example, in St. Mark’s church.

On its main façade there were once four bronze-copper gilded horses, now kept in its museum. For a long time they were thought to be from the late imperial Roman period but some scholars consider them Greek originals from the third century BC.

They were removed from the hippodrome of Constantinople and were placed on St. Mark’s Loggia as a sign of victory and independence. When Napoleon took them to Paris in the 1800s, Venice was no longer an independent city.state.

Another example of stolen monument fragments are the tetrarchs fixed to a corner of the façade of St. Mark’s church. The sculptural group, in Egyptian red porphyry marble, dates back to the 4th century AD, and they are meant to depict the two Caesars and the two Augustus, members of the first tetrarchy at the time of Diocletian. At that time being the Roman Empire too big it was divided into four parts and each one was assigned to one of them.

The most famous reuse of pieces put together in one whole is the so-called Pala d’Oro, the golden altarpiece, considered one of the most famous still-existing refined works of Byzantine enamels. Dotted with nearly 2000 thousands gems and jewels, it develops two major themes: the life of Jesus and the life of St. Mark. It was just used during important religious festivities and celebrations and turned toward the audience on those occasions. Then it was turned back to its former position.

Walking around in the city it is possible to admire other fragments of spolia but it is really nothing compared to what is preserved in this great and stunning church.

St. Mark’s relics: a matter of faith

“Where other cities were founded on faith or ideas, the bedrock of la Serenissima (Venice) was mercantile.” Venetian nobles traveled everywhere in the Eastern countries to accomplish their business. Right from the start they have always been at the forefront of the spices market and Egypt was one of their main destinations.

In the mid-first century A.D. its most famous city, Alexandria, became seat of St. Mark’s bishopry. At that time he had already written his Gospel in Rome and St. Peter, the Apostle, had assigned him to Egypt, where he founded the Christian church.

Centuries after his death, his relics were translated from Alexandria to Venice by two Venetian merchants. His body was hidden under a mound of pork, that Muslim officers at the custom did not inspect. (see picture). With this furta sacra (“holy theft”), the Venetian republic linked its history to the name of St. Mark’s for ever. Flags, statues, and buildings all did adopt the evangelist’s symbol of the winged lion. There is even a whole neighborhood named after him — San Marco and of course a church was built to preserve his relics, called St. Mark’s church.

By acquiring the remains of such an exclusive figure it would undoubtedly bring social and economic benefits. On top of that, it would serve to reinforce the impending liberation from Byzantine control by legitimizing the authority of the Venetian Doge.

Moreover, the course of Venetian history changed plausibly and gave way to Venice to buttress its ecclesiastical independence.