Lluna de Mel Anniversari Natalici (“Honeymoon Birthday” in Catalan)

Today is David’s 41^st birthday. After waking up in a lovely marble-floored house where our kind hostess runs a guesthouse in Tessera outside Venice, we took in the agrarian farmland as a desperately needed breather from the suffocating humidity and humanity of Venice. Close to our bed and breakfast, we find Torre di Tessera, a 9^th century former lighthouse now turned tower built by the Venetians overlooking the farmland which sits on the lagoon. It’s not pedestrian area- it was filled with small farms, melodious birds heat and humidity! We had lunch at a tiny café in Tessera where Italian men in brightly colored muscle and t-shirts enjoyed a lunchtime drink while teasing each other mercilessly.

Before departing, our proprietress who didn’t speak a word of English insisted on sending us off only after serving coffee, some local wine and plum cake. Our conversation was challenged, even after her friend who spoke Spanish arrived to triage our dialogue. I’ve had 2 years of Spanish, 3 years of Portugese, 1 year of French, 8 weeks of Italian and I still don’t conjugate verbs well in any language and am reduced to context, gestures and pleasantry phrases—paaa-thetic!

At Girona airport, our .01 Euro flight on Ryan Air revealed its dark marketing underbelly: our bags 10 kilos over the weight limit. The 8 {euros] per kilo penalty is what we might have been charged had the flight had it not been a sale. Our flight back to London next month is also on Ryan Air.

We rented a car and drove to Barcelona, arriving at 10pm. Ten minutes later, we were out the door again for the most impressive dinner we’ve ever had anywhere in Europe: Moo. Happy Birthday David.

Joan Roca's Tasting Menu for June 21st

Rachel: [Looking up from the orange almond sole] Will we ever be able to eat at Chez Panisse again?

David: A very long wine-induced intellectual answer that ended with the sentence, “Marx would eat here and think ah, Communism brought to life.”