New Year's Eve 2013 in Venice

Tonight's festivities in Piazza San Marco are being advertised (see photo of poster below) as White Christmas 2013. Too bad- we have no snow.  Perhaps everyone will be wearing white!

If you are here and want to be where the action is tonight-

10:30 pm- live music in the Piazza with the Venice White band, and entertainment by Mr. White.  (Don't know who Mr. White is, I'm almost tempted to go to St. Mark's just to find out!)

11pm- free toast with Bellini Canella

Just before 12pm- the countdown to the New Year. Just like in Times Square!

12:15 am - Fireworks in St. Mark's basin

12:30 am - music in the square with DJ Maci

The stage in St. Mark's square will be the center of all the festivities, until a little after midnight when the fireworks begin.

I was present in St. Mark's square for New Years Eve two years ago, I will not be returning this evening. I will avoid the masses, probably will be 7,000 to 10,000 people there. Instead, we will have a quiet dinner at home. At midnight, we'll stroll over to the waterfront just up from Sant'Elena at Giardini to view the fireworks. No one does fireworks like the Italians. I think they invented pyrotechnics.

Cotechino or zampone and lentils are traditionally served for dinner on New Year's Eve, which is called Cenone di San Silvestro.  Cenone literally means "big dinner".  Lentils, because they look like coins, are eaten in the hopes of having lots more money/luck in the coming year. We were given a gift of a cotechino last year, we tried it, we're  not having it again this year. Our dinner is a little less traditional. Roast chicken, roast potatos with onions and raddiccio, and yes, lentils. We will hope for a little bit of luck in 2013!

(photo courtesy Italianfood.about.com)

My initial idea for today's blog was a month by month review of my 2012. As hard as I tried, I couldn't come up with anything that satisfied me.  It's been a good year. A bit trying at times, but on the whole, a good one.  We traveled- the month of February in Portugal (Porto, Lisbon and Madiera Island) and the month of November in China (Beijing, Xian, down the Yangtze River, Shanghai and Hong Kong), with a brief  2 day visit to Istanbul. Both of our dogs, Sam and Leo, passed away this year. We had great visits with family and friends, including a month with my daughter Shannon, and made new friends along the way.  We sadly said goodbye to loved ones who succumbed to cancer this year.  We survived the move to the new apartment. 

 Mike and I were just commenting over lunch this afternoon that the move feels like we flipped the page, closing a chapter of our lives and starting a new one.  Perfect sentiment for today, the last day of the 2012. 

With that, I will wish all of our family, friends far and wide, and all my blog readers the happiest of New Year's. Buon Anno. Tanti Auguri a tutti!  

Buon Anno!!!! Happy 2012

(photo taken at Rizzardini's near Campo San Polo)

Happy New Year and Buon Anno to all!!!  

As we were clinking our prosecco glasses at midnight in our apartment, here's what was going on down at St. Mark's square-  

For the last 4 years, the city has sponsored a LOVE fest and countdown to the New Year in St. Mark's square. This year, 70,000 people attended, all kissing in the New Year at midnight, followed by fantastic fireworks over the lagoon.  Kind of like our own version of Times Square New York City!!  

I think 2/3 of these people walked by my apartment on their way out of the city last night between 2-3 am!  Today, all is quiet. It's sunny and the streets are empy, the perfect day for a nice walk.  Later I think I will watch the annual New Year's concert at Teatro La Fenice on TV.  

From our house to yours, Happy 2012 !!!

A Christmas gift from our Butcher

It's a HUGE holiday weekend here- Christmas Eve, Christmas and then Monday, Santo Stefano day.Santo Stefano day (Festa di Santo Stefano) is the celebration of the announcement of the birth of Jesus and the arrival of the 3 wise men. Three important holidays back to back, and that translates to  LOTS of eating.  So, we've been getting ourselves prepared  for the last few days.

Thursday I spent the morning at the Rialto fish market picking up everything we needed for our Christmas Eve feast. Traditionally, Christmas Eve  (Vigile di Natale) is the day Italian families usually eat fish. The Christmas Eve dinner in most parts of Italy is called the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Seven courses, all fish. We're not going quite that far- but we will have some smoked salmon, shrimp, oysters and baked salmon.  We'll be stuffed at that point, but must leave room for a traditional Italian Christmas dessert- Panettone!

Another mission on Thursday was to find the duck breasts we're making for Christmas dinner. Mission accomplished.  By the time I finished marketing on Thursday, I had just about everything needed for the weekend food fest.  When we double checked our cooking plans after I got home from shopping all over Venice, I discovered there were a few items still needed, so I sent Mike out with a list yesterday afternoon.

Mike's first stop was the butcher's to pick up some sausage for Christmas morning breakfast. As he was paying, the butcher gave him a Christmas gift- a Cotechino!!!!

I've seen them in the grocery store, and knew what it was, but have never eaten one. Cotechino is a traditional Italian meal served on New Year's day. It's sausage like, made of pig parts and lots of spices including mace, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove and cayenne. I had to look up a recipe for it.  You pierce the skin with a fork, wrap it tightly in foil, and either simmer it in water for several hours, or cook it in the oven. When ready to serve, you peel off the casing, slice it in thick slices and eat it while it's still hot with either polenta, lentils or potatoes.  Guess what we're eating for New Year's??

The butcher on the corner by the Scuola dei Carmini ,who has been open a little under a year now, has been one of our favorite new additions to our little neighborhood. Besides the fact that he has the best meats, this is another opportunity for us to shop local, and develop a relationship with the owners.  For us, one of the draws of the Italian lifestyle has been the little mom and pop stores.  We love being able to pop into the wine store, the cheese store, our local fish guy, or the butcher on a regular basis. It's a good life.



Buon Natale a tutti.

Auguri a Tutti! Buon Anno Nuovo

Happy New Year to all!!!  I want to wish everyone a healthy and happy 2011!!!!

Here in Venice there is a great celebration about to kick off in St. Mark's square for the countdown to midnight with entertainment and fireworks over the lagoon.  This year, we stayed in.

Today marks two weeks at home after the knee surgery, and boy it's been two busy weeks.  My orders from the doctors and my physical therapist were to walk, walk, walk, and do my exercises every day, so that's exactly what I've been doing.  We walked in the snow. We walked in Aqua Alta.  When it's been really too cold, I walk a circuit in the apartment with my dog Sam trailing behind me every step of the way. 

Every day gets a little better and there is a little less pain. I spend most of my day working my knee- either walking, or doing exercises, followed by an ice pack break. This week I did my first walk outside solo.   After the holidays I will be returning to Fate Bene Fratelli for a few weeks of outpatient rehab.  

There are people in the streets yelling, and setting off small fireworks. It's that time!  Auguri, tutti!!!

La cena di trentuno - New Year's Eve dinner

There are a few more days of "big eating" in Italy than we are used to during the traditional holiday season. You have Christmas eve, Christmas, Santo Stefano day (day after Christmas), then New Year's eve dinner (la cena di trentuno) and Capo d'Anno which is New Year's Day.

Last year we spent New Year's Eve eating at home, then walked to St. Mark's square to join in the huge celebration there and watch fireworks. This year we had an invitation from friends in Mestre to eat dinner and welcome the start of 2010 with them.

I'm not sure I would have managed the whole St. Mark's event anyway, as I'd had major pain in my knee all week, in fact I was barely moving. We accepted this invitation to dinner thinking I'd be ok, but as the day wore on it became more questionable whether I'd be able to even walk anywhere. We got ourselves prepared, I took my pain medication, and we walked to Piazzale Roma where we were scheduled to meet Paolo, who was picking us up at 8:30pm. More Aqua Alta was predicted for 11:30 pm, so we carried our water boots with us, just in case we had to trudge through water on our way home. When we heard the sirens go off around 8pm,. we were both glad we had not made plans to go to St. Marks, which surely would be knee deep in water at midnight.

Piazzale Roma was a traffic nightmare, as there were tons of people being picked up tonight. It didn't help that the polizia were all over the place either. When Paolo pulled up, we got into the car as rapidly as possible. Given my knee situation, this was less than gracefully done.

We arrived at Paolo and Renata's apartment in Mestre in a few minutes. Paolo parked the car in the underground garage, and we went upstairs in the elevator. We don't see many elevators in the old buildings in Venice. I know my knee was doing a happy dance that we got to ride instead of walk up several flights of stairs. Shortly after the two other couples arrived, there were introductions, and we began the first course, the appetizers, in the kitchen.

First there were prosecco toasts, then the appetizers began. There was an unbelieveable assortment of appetizers, but Renata always goes way over the top with food. We got seated for the primi piatti (first course)- two different seafood dishes, one lobster, one shrimp. A lovely scroppino followed this, which I would have been happy enough to call dessert and be done with it. Everything was fabulous and I was stuffed.

Wait.. there's more. The secondo piatti of baccala and polenta was served. Yummy. And then the SECOND secondo came out- orate (a white fish, poached) and vegetables. We had no idea how we could fit this all in.

About this time, it was midnight. We first got instructions that in Venice, at midnight on New Year's Eve, the men wish each other Auguri - best wishes, but NOT the women. That's pretty different than the American tradition of everyone kissing each other at midnight. We did the countdown, which was pretty funny, we had a couple of commedians in the group, and then with a 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 we ushered in the new year. Outside, fireworks were going off in the streets, and we could actually see the ones going off in Venice in the distance.

And then, desserts. Panettone, one of my all time favorite's, but this time it had been stuffed with a fabulous creamy filling. A few minutes later we were served an almond torte, nuts, fruit and torrone. I thought we would all pop. But we weren't done yet. Out came the grappa, and whisky, and a few of Paolo's signature funny stories and jokes.

One of the other couples, Renata and Giulia, who live in Mestre volunteered to bring us home to Piazzale Rome. Fortunately there was no high water waiting for us!

One more great experience to close out an incredible year.

Life in Venice - New Year's Eve in St. Mark's Square - Love 2009

Our New Year's Eve celebrations in Baltimore have been spent at home with our dear friends Steve and Lisa. We dress up formally, decorate the house with balloons and streamers, cook a wonderful gourmet meal together,and then enjoy counting down the minutes until the New Year. We're not really into the huge crowds or big parties.

2008 has been a whole different year ,though-- and this seemed to call for something a little out of the ordinary in the way of a New Year's Eve celebration. We still can't believe we've been here in Venice for a full year already-- the months and days have just flown by! When I inquired what people do for the holiday, the most common answer was go out to dinner then have a small celebration with friends. My daughter Shannon has been here with us for the holidays so we decided to go see the fireworks at St. Mark's. In 2008 the city put on a big party, called Love 2008, where they did the countdown to the New Year and everyone joined in for a mass kiss. This year, Venice was planning to repeat the event, with a bit more in store for the crowd.

Earlier in the afternoon on the 31st we walked through St. Mark's Square and could see a huge bandstand had been erected. They were doing sound checks, and unloading cases and cases of Bellini, and we saw a huge blow up balloon of a Bellini bottle, which reminded me of the Macy's day parade balloons! This looked like the city was really getting ready for quite the party! with expectations of 60,000 in attendance.

Love 2009 started at 10pm. We walked to the square from our apartment out in Santa Croce and arrived around 11. It was cold, just starting to snow, and we didn't want to spend 2 plus hours out in the cold just waiting for the countdown. By the time we arrived, St. Mark's Square was packed with people, and the hosts of the event were up on the stage in the midst of some "Practice" countdown kisses with the crowd. A band played on the stage, and people were singing and dancing in the crowd. This whole set up reminded me of New Year's Rocking Eve in Times Square with Dick Clark. This picture is of the stage area complete with large screens and all.


All sorts of cute images were projected onto the wall of the Campanile which was on the opposite end of the square from where the stage had been set up. They were doing the 10-9-8 -7 etc. countdown by displaying the numbers up on the wall for everyone to count along with.

We decided to move out to the molo before the stroke of midnight to get in position for viewing the fireworks display over the lagoon in front of the Doge's Palace. We wouldn't hear the countdown to the New Year by the event hosts on the stage, or take part in the free Bellini toast, but we were able to participate in the kiss at midnight along with everyone else around us out on the waterfront. It was snowing pretty heavily all this time, and everyone was cold and wet!!

We had just about decided to give up waiting and start walking home when we heard the first blasts and saw the showering of colors out over the water. The Italians do love their fireworks!!! It was a wonderful display, ending in a huge splash of colors that seemed to last for a good 5 minutes. While we may not do this event year after year, it was the perfect way to end our first year and begin 2009.

It's midnight!!! Mike and Karen's first kiss of 2009!!

Fireworks over the lagoon in front of St. Mark's Square - 2009

You can justbarely see San Giorgio Maggiore across the lagoon ! What an awesome sight!

Buon Anno, Tutti!!!!