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.”

Ancient Water, Venetian Water

On our way to Italy today, we visited Postojnska Jama (Postojna Cave), the world’s third largest cave behind Carlsbad and Mammoth in the states. Pictures were unfortunately not allowed inside, but it was as awesome as Blanchard Springs in Arkansas. 

Did you know that caves are, as this had been, safe places to be during an earthquake because they are hollow? Slovenia has 21,000 known caves with 300 new ones discovered each year. This is earthquake and natural hot springs country. Some of the stalactites and stalagmites we saw take 10-30 years to grow one millimeter, other formations like the limestone curtain shapes take 100 years to grow a millimeter. It was amazing to see rock that predates Christ. We headed into Italy, entering first through Trieste ending in Venice. Arriving the evening of June 18^th, we also spent the 19^th and 20^th of June in the city directly with a transition to Tessera for the night of the 20^th. 

Perhaps because it is June, Venice’s beauty is all the more tragic. People go to see it but there are so many people there taking it in, that it’s far beyond its human capacity in the touristy areas of the city. While car free, the boats and smell of diesel, noise and canal stench takes away from the experience. I’m not sure the future of this place unless somehow it is treated more like something precious and a larger entity intervenes. Our hotel, while optimally located suffered from mold and inability to properly handle the mid 80s humidity. I wish our stay had been much shorter. 

Venice didn’t disappoint me with its artsy and traditional food creations. I now have a third Venetian mask for my collection.

The Naval history museum which is partially translated and even has a Swedish section is time well spent. The museum has a very impressive collection of armaments from wars and model boats. The oldest pieces on hand are 17^th century vessels and a lovely room devoted to the evolution of the modern gondola.