In Search of Pizza in Glorious Venezia!

On the recent Taste of Britain Curry Festival in Slovenia, we took a cultural trip to Venice to savour its wonderful architecture, scenic waterways, romantic atmosphere … and pizza.

 

Venice is not renowned for pizza; in fact it’s not even a typical Venetian dish, but a trip to Italy’s most romantic city wouldn’t be complete without sampling the food so loved all over the world. And we were hungry!

 

Pizza actually originated in the south of Italy, in Naples, when resourceful inhabitants decided to jazz up their leavened or unleavened flatbreads by adding garlic, lard, salt or cheese and, (after they were introduced into the country in 1548), tomatoes.

 

Today, pizza making is a profitable business – Italians eat over three billion of them a year. But according to recent reports, native Italians are shunning the traditional role of pizzaiaoili or pizza maker because of the long hours and hard work involved. Instead, the gap is being filled by the country’s immigrant workers who have more motivation and many of the cooks in Italy’s 25,000 pizzerias now hail from Egypt, Bangladesh or even the Ukraine.

 

Whatever nationality, we found there were still plenty of chefs to man the hundreds of takeaways, pizzerias or simple hole-in-the-wall outlets that form part of almost every street and piazza of Venice. Wandering from the station, through narrow streets, lined with shops, window boxes and washing, our stomachs were set rumbling by fragrant smells emanating from wood burning stoves. Inside shops pizzaioili stretched uncooked balls of leavened dough by hand or with a rolling pin, sometimes performing air acrobatics with the discs for the entertainment of passers-by.  The pizzas were gargantuan, in raised Neapolitan style or flat Roman, smothered in gorgonzola or mozzarella with artichokes and musky chorizo they adorned shop windows and tempted with their smiling rings of thinly sliced peppers and onions.  

 

As we were in the most beautiful city in the world we put our hunger on hold to admire the wonder of our surroundings. They were stunning. Venice is an island within islands – 118 of them to be precise - separated by canals and joined by 409 bridges. Not so many years ago the whole city was sinking and there were fears it would eventually disappear into the marshy lagoon in which it was built. Now, thanks to a ban on the Artesian wells which supplied local industry, the world famous buildings and precious art works are safe and visited by thousands of tourists every year.

 

 

The city is made for strolling and part of the joy of a visit to Venice is in soaking up the atmosphere. Eventually, and inevitably, we wound our way into the breathtaking Piazza San Marco, or St Mark’s Square. Flanked by the Basilica di San Marco, a great dome shaped church and the Doge’s Palace, the Square is also populated by thousands of tame pigeons which provide hours of amusement for tourists (and chefs). In the famous Caffé Florian, established in 1720, we paid the equivalent of a small ransom for a coffee but it was worth it to take in the delights of the piazza, listen to the small orchestra play, and watch the elegance of the aperitivo or promenade taken by Italians to see and be seen.

 

At the evocatively named Bridge of Sighs under which prisoners used to go on their way to and from the courts and prisons, the Grand Canal opened out before us. The busiest waterway in the city has all the movement, light and colour of a Canaletto painting. Three bridges cross the Grand Canal, the most famous being the Rialto built in 1588 with its double row of shops selling souvenirs, gold and Venetian carnival masks. A gondola ride, particularly a serenaded one, would have been the ultimate in romance but was, sadly, matched in price. The next best thing, a traghetto; is a similar vessel but one in which passengers have to stand, balancing precariously as they cross the waterway. A cheaper and more stable option is humble waterbus, or vaporetto which takes passengers on a fascinating journey away from the tourist hot spots along the back routes of the city.

 

At the Bacaro lounge in San Marco, gondoliers join the chic and trendy to eat, piatto del giorno (or plate of the day) priced from ten euros.  If we hadn’t had our sights set on pizza, more, typical Venetian recipes served in traditional restaurants include Sarde in Saor – sweet and sour sardines or Risotto di Zucca; risotto with pumpkins, onion and parmesan cheese. The local pasta is bigoli; a thick and coarse spaghetti sometimes black when mixed with squid ink, seasoned with fish or game sauces.

 

As for pizza, there were endless possibilities. In the Arte della Pizza, a hole in the wall restaurant off the Strada Nova, a huge pizza cost around six euros; or at Ae Oche in the Santa Croce area, we could have chosen from 90 types of wood-fired pizzas. All’Anfora on Lista Bari offered a plethora of traditional pizzas loaded with local tasty produce. Near the Rialto Bridge, the Muro restaurant specialised in calzone, and cicchetti (tapas) while the Antica Birraria la Corte on Calle S Bernando, a former bull fight pen, served up traditional pizzas with arugula, bresaola – a salted, seasoned aged beef - and Grana Padana.

 

Unfortunately, all we can only imagine how wonderful all these were. In desperation we satiated our hunger at a rather touristy restaurant behind St Mark’s Square where the immigrant pizza makers served up a bland Capricciosa pizza, and a coke at five euros a can. After feasting our eyes on so many varieties, it was, admittedly, a slight anticlimax. But eating the world’s most popular food in its home country and in the most beautiful city in the world was an experience to be savoured forever and anyway, now that the city’s no longer sinking, there’ll always be a next time.

 

The Curry Life Team stayed at Hotel Park, Ljubljana Tabor 9, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Phone:+386 1 300 25 00