Restaurant Review: Trattario Alla Madonna (Venice, Italy)

Trattoria Alla Madonna

It was now evening when we ended our tour of the Rialto Bridge and it was now time for supper. We wanted to try a specialty of Venice - Spaghetti al nero di seppia (squid ink spaghetti). You can find this pasta dish in many authentic Venetian osterie or trattorias but one of the best that offers this dish is Trattoria alla Madonna, also said to have the best Seafood Risotto in Venice.  

Check out "Rialto Bridge"

It was very close to Rialto Bridge, a block off the Grand Canal but, as it was off the beaten path, we still needed to seek it out. We found La Madonna on a narrow alley far from the maddening crowd, in one of the most charming corners of the city.

This renowned seafood eatery was said to be often visited by cultural and show business celebrities who prefer an informal setting with an attentive quick service. However, their clientele is still diverse, with a mix of locals and tourists. The restaurant was opened in 1954 by Mr. Fulvio Rado but, for the last 35 years, it was managed by his son Lucio.

Upon arrival, we first noticed the antipasti counter and seafood chiller. As it was still early, we didn’t have to wait for our table. While seated, it was entertaining to watch the waiters, in their black trousers and starched white jackets, busily assembling antipasto plates and seafood dishes ordered by customers.

The dining area

The walls of the nine dining rooms of this popular and busy trattoria are all adorned with a wealth of Italian contemporary paintings of famous Italian artists. The menu was quite varied, with lasagna, spaghetti and soup but the fish dishes predominate.

Trattoria alla Madonna specializes in seafood and the main dishes in the menu of Venetian classics were fish dishes such as the Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia (squid-ink spaghetti), Antipasto Misto di Pesce, Risotto ai Frutti di Mare (seafood risotto) and the Fritto Misto (mixed seafood). They were  prepared in the most natural way to preserve the typical taste of each ingredient as well as enhance the typical flavors of each single dish.

Antipasti counter

Venetian Fried Sardines (10€)

For those who don’t love fish, they have of course an alternative menu with different traditional meat dishes such as Fegato alla Veneziana (liver), Scaloppine di Vitello (veal scaloppine) and Costato di Vitello (grilled veal chops). 

The traditional Venetian squid ink spaghetti we ordered (11, 00€) with its strong squid ink aroma, was excellent. A word of warning though.  Before leaving the restaurant, check that your lips and teeth are not stained with the black ink sauce.  

Roast Chicken (10€)

You might scare someone off when you smile in the dark. We also ordered Cutlet (breaded the Milanese way, 12, 00€), Venetian Fried Sardines (10, 00€) and Roast Chicken (10, 00€).

Though we didn’t order wine, their wine cellar offers a wide choice of wines from the Friuli region of Collio as well as any prestigious principal regional Italian wine labels such as Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti Riserva.

It was not cheap but we had very good value for money.  The menu clearly states there is a 17% service fee, plus cover charge which is normal for many restaurants. Highly recommended.

Cutlet (breaded, Milanese way, 12€)

 

Spaghetti with squid ink (11, 00€) 

Trattoria alla Madonna: Calle della Madonna, San Polo 594, 30125 Venezia VE, Italy.  Tel: 39 0415223824 | E-mail: trattoriamadonna@gmail.com. Website:

www.ristoranteallamadonna.com.    Alla Madonna only takes reservations for tables of four or more.  If there’ only the two of you, just show up and join the queue.  It’s best to get there at 7 PM (when it opens) or after 9 PM. Tourists are ushered to the left section of the restaurant. All credit cards are accepted. The restaurant is closed on Wednesdays.

How to Get There:

Take the vaporetto (Line 1) and get off at "Rialto Mercato," a narrow street along the Rialto market street. From the foot of the Rialto Bridge, at the San Polo end of the bridge, turn left and follow the Riva del Vin along the Grand Canal. Look out for Sottoportego della Madonna, the second passageway on your right, which then becomes Calle della Madonna. Trattoria alla Madonna, with a big yellow sign across the street, is on your left. 

Hotel and Inn Review: Hotel Plaza Venice (Venice, Italy)

Date of Stay: May 30-June 1, 2016

RATING (Scale of 1 to 10)

Location: *******

Rooms: ********

Condition and Cleanliness: ********

Staff Performance: ********

Room Comfort: ********

Food and Beverage: *******

Other Amenities: ******

Value for Money: *******

Hotel Plaza Venice

About 50 m. across from Venezia Mestre Train Station (we did not have to walk far with our luggage), this contemporary, 4-star hotel is 9 kms. from the Venetian Lagoon (a 10-minute bus or train ride away to Santa Lucia Station) and 13 kms. from the iconic Saint Mark's Basilica. The 226 airy, elegant, spotlessly clean and spacious rooms, which range from classic and ornately decorated to sleek and modern, feature classic furnishings in warm colors. They have three different kinds of rooms: Classic (22 sq. m.), Executive (30 sq. m.) and Club (40 sq. m.).

Hotel lobby

They offer free wi-fi (you need to get a fresh user ID/password every third day from the reception), wall-mounted flat-screen TVs (about 40 channels, half of them Italian), work desk, magnetic key locks, fully-equipped bathroom with modern shower (some rooms feature marble bathrooms) and ample toiletries (they even provided a toothbrush) and hair dryer, electronic safe in the closet, coffee-making facility, and minibar.  Room service is available. The beds were very comfortable, with good quality sheets.  The carpeting was clean and the room was smoke free.

A free and extensive, Continental-style 
breakfast buffet, including eggs (scrambled or sunny side up), ham/bacon, yogurt, chocolate croissants, cereals, chocolate and cream brioche, fresh and canned fruit, tea, fruit juice, sausage, several kinds of cold cuts and cheeses, fruit salad, coffee/espresso (from a self-serve machine) and a variety of pastries, sweet pies and tarts, is served daily. 

The 24-hour trendy, eclectic ground floor Soul Kitchen Italian restaurant, with its bold, artsy décor, boasts an eclectic menu of Italian and international dishes. This doubles as bar in the evening. The smartly dressed staff, at the front desk, were very friendly, if a bit formal, spoke very good English and were professional.  Everyone, from the maid to the receptionist and the bell boy, were very helpful.

Buffet breakast

The hotel also has 3 meeting spaces, 2 small lifts and luggage storage room. There were several internet stations available for use in the lobby and the mezzanine floor. Pets are allowed with prior notice. 

Public parking is possible at a location nearby (reservation is not needed) and costs EUR 14 per day. There’s a large supermarket 5 mins down the road where you buy cheap snacks and drinks. There are several bus stops also across the street including bus #2 that will take you to Piazza di Roma in Venice. A public bus to Marco Polo Airport (a 20-min. drive) stops 100 m. from the hotel, while Treviso Airport is 25 kms. (a 40-min. drive) away.  

Soul Kitchen

Hotel Plaza Venice: Viale Stazione, 36, 30171 Mestre, Venice, Italy. Tel: +39 041 929388.

The "Rigor and Grace" Exhibit (Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy)

Rigor and Grace. The Confraternity of San Benedetto Bianco in 17th-century Florence (Rigore e la Grazia. La compagnia di San Benedetto Bianco nel Seicento Fiorentino)

One of the temporary exhibits we encountered during our tour of the Palazzo Pitti is the Il Rigore e la Grazia. La compagnia di San Benedetto Bianco nel Seicento Fiorentino (Rigor and Grace. The Confraternity of San Benedetto Bianco in 17th-century Florence), a unique art exhibition of little-known paintings made by great 17th century masters for the Brotherhood of San Benedetto Bianco, one of the most important secular brotherhoods of Florence. Supposed to be held only from October 22, 2015 to May 17, 2016, it must have been extended as our visit was almost two weeks after its supposed end.

Crucifixion (Ferdinando Tacca)

 

The Brotherhood of San Benedetto Bianco, founded in 1357 in the Camaldolese monastery of San Salvatore, later moved to the Great Cloister of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella and then moved permanently inside the Old Cemetery and, more specifically, in the halls built by Giorgio Vasari in 1570, where it remained.

Esau Sells his Birthright (Lorenzo Lippi, 1645)

In 1866 the headquarters of the Brotherhood became the little-known 19th-century church along Orti Oricellari Street. It was then moved to the parish of Santa Lucia sul Prato. Before its dissolution in 1940, the congregation donated, to the Florentine Curia, the entire artistic heritage acquired over the centuries, which was (partly) deposited in the Major Seminary of Cestello, where it remains today.

Jael and Sisera (Antonio Ruggeri, 1648)

One of the most important and prestigious Florentine lay groups, at the center of the Confraternity’s spirituality was the sacrifice of Christ which is a recurring theme in the works commissioned and purchased by the Confraternity. This must-be-seen art exhibition, held in the annexes attached to the Palatine Chapel in the Museo Degli Argenti, featured 36 works, 21 of which have been finely and meticulously renovated and restored to their original splendor.  Of the 21, 14 were paintings while others were a fresco, a sculpture in papier-mâché, a manuscript and three cups, all belonging to the Archbishop’s Curia and various Florentine churches.

Jeroboam and the Prophet Ahijah (Vincenzo Dandini)

Two wonderful paintings, depicting St. Julian (San Giuliano) and St Benedict, by Cristofano Allori, were brought to light by the restoration after the damages suffered during the terrible flood of 1966. Initially, the tables were united and formed the great altarpiece that protected the relics on the altar of the Brotherhood.  Thanks to a special mechanism, the altarpiece could then be spectacularly raised on the occasion of the exposition of the relics of the two saints.

Lot and his Daughters (Simone Pignoni)

Intending to present the audience with a sort of rediscovered secret treasure, these were paintings by artists such as Ferdinando Tacca, Vincenzo Dandini, Agostino Melissi, Carlo Dolci, Matteo Rosselli, Lorenzo Lippi, Mario Balassi, Onorio Marinari and Cristofano Allori who, through their work, wanted to embellish the premises of the brotherhood.

Repudiation of Agar (Giovanni Martinelli)

The art exhibition was, also above all, a unique opportunity to admire the splendid Palatine Chapel, at the ground floor of the Pitti Palace, from the inside. Though the chapel always remained a place of worship, it was, usually, opened to the public only on rare occasions. Also, thanks to the dedicated restorations and the new exhibition rooms, which have also been renovated and added to the exhibition halls of the Museo degli Argenti, it was also a way to protect and enhance the cultural heritage of Florence.

St. Benedict and St. Julian (Cristofano Allori)

The  exhibition wound through three rooms located to the left of the Palatine Chapel which, as well as the adjacent buildings, were once part of a large apartment that was home to numerous members of the House of Medici, including Cosimo II and his wife Marguirite-Luise d ‘Orléans and Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de’ Medici. It was only in 1765 that Peter Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, ordered that the salon be transformed into the current chapel.

Flagellation of Christ (Agostino Melissi)

The exhibition was made particularly interesting by several study findings.  Through a large and precise archival work, the authors of the essays in the catalog were able to retrieve some valuable documents which show the original furnishings of the Palatine Chapel as well as those of the historical site of the Brotherhood in Santa Maria Novella Cathedral.

Susannah and the Elders (Agostino Melissi, 1648)

The painstaking work has also helped to establish the paternity of works and paintings made for San Benedetto Bianco by famous artists such as Agostino Melissi, Jacopo Vignali and Volterrano but, above all, to retrieve the archival collection of the Zuti family, a very important document not only, from the artistic point of view of the city, but also useful to define its history.

The Finding of Moses (Jacopo Vignali, 1645-46)

Eight paintings, with Biblical subjects, bear the signatures of some of the most celebrated artists of the Seicento in Florence.  They represent scenes from the Old Testament which refer to facts that really happened to brother Gabriele Zuti, linked to the scourge of the plague in 1630. The eight are Repudiation of Agar (Giovanni Martinelli), Jacob and Esau (Lorenzo Lippi), Healing of Tobias  (Mario Balassi),  Jael and Sisera (Ottavio Vannini), Lot and the Daughters  (Simone Pignoni), Finding of Moses (Jacopo Vignali), Susanna and the Elders (Agostino Melissi) and Jeroboam and the Prophet Ahijah (Vincenzo Dandini).

The Healing of Tobias (Mario Ballassi, 1645)

These masterpieces are, certainly, the most important donation received by the Brotherhood.  The brother Gabriele Zuti commissioned it around 1650 to beautify his house and then gave it to St Benedict at the time of his death in 1680.

The Altar of the Confraternity

Michel Scipioni, Alessandro Grassi and Giovanni Serafini, the young curators of this exhibition, were able to express the best of the art and spirituality of the Brotherhood by highlighting its main feature – the propensity to seriousness and discipline but also to beauty.

Jesus Falls Under the Weight of the Cross (Vincenzo Dandini)

Rigor and Grace. The Confraternity of San Benedetto Bianco in 17th-century Florence: Palatine Chapel, Pitti Palace, Piazza de’ Pitti, 1, Florence, Italy. Tel:+39 055 294883. Open Tuesdays-Sundays, 8:15 AM – 6:50 PM. Admission: Palatine Gallery (€8.50), Silver Museum (€6.00), Gallery of Modern Art (€8.50), Costume Gallery/Porcelain Museum/Boboli Gardens/Bardini Garden (€6.00).

How to Get There: Take the C3 or D bus to the Pitti stop.

The "Buffoons, Villains and Players at the Medici Court" Exhibit (Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy)

 

 

uffoons, Villains and Players at the Medici Court (Buffoni, Villani e Giocatori alla Corte dei Medici) Exhibit

The first temporary exhibition we encountered during our tour of the Palazzo Pitti was the barely two-week old Buffoni, Villani e Giocatori alla Corte dei Medici (Buffoons, Villains and Players at the Medici Court) Exhibit ongoing at the Andito degli Angioni from May 19 to September 11, 2016. The exhibition, curated by Anna Bisceglia, Matteo Ceriana and Simona Mammana, is promoted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism with the Uffizi Galleries and Florence Museums.

 

 The exhibition presented about 30 selected paintings, of some of the most bizarre and unexpected figurative subjects recurring in the Medici collections came, for the most part, mainly from the deposits of the Palatine Gallery and some from the Gallery of Statues and Paintings (both part of the Uffizi Galleries complex created by the recent reform).

Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, these marginal and deviant characters (fools, ignorant or grotesque peasants, dwarves and practitioners of both licit and illicit games) found significant, and sometimes curious, artistic representations through artists such as Anton Domenico Gabbiani, Faustino Bocchi and Hieronymus Bosch.

 

Four Servants at the Court of the Medici (Anton Domenico Gabbiani, ca. 1684, oil on canvas)

This colorful and unexpected collection of often real-life characters, from the Medici court, illustrated the comical aspects of social life and life at the court and embodies the ambivalent world of buffoonery, rusticitas (holy rusticity) and play. These characters were entrusted with the entertainment and leisure of the gentlemen, an antidote to boredom always lurking in the mesh of the rigid Spanish ceremonial.

 

Portrait of a child of Odoardo Farnese with a dwarf and a dog (Domenico and Valori Casini)

“Genre” painting is a critical tool that allows you to draw, through art, from the most varied reality of the world and these so-called ‘genre’ scenes, in the clear hierarchy of Baroque painting, has made it possible to illustrate, often also with moral or didactic intent, various comic aspects of social and court life, those themes considered otherwise low and without decoration, unworthy of a high painting, with a sacred, mythological or historical subject.

 

Grotesque Banquet (Unknown Tuscan painter, ca. 1630 – 1640, oil on canvas)

From the archive documents with a defined identity, they are, in fact, remembered for exploits (and sometimes misdeeds) that insert them as real people in the life of the court, whose biography can be outlined in savory details, and the high human and cultural depth of many can be clarified.

 

Portrait of a dwarf with iron club and dog on a leash (ca. 1620 -30, oil on canvas)

These buffoons, dwarves and jugglers, considered as living toys, wonders of nature worthy of a Wunderkammer (Cabinet of Curiosities), were also shrewd advisers with special licenses with respect to court etiquette.

 

Portrait of Dwarf Morgante (Bronzino)

The position of the buffoons, halfway between the fun and the speaking conscience of the gentleman, elevates them to protagonists of a playful and bizarre art.

 

Marble statues of dwarves along the corridor

Aside from paintings, also on display are the marble sculptures of the Nano Musician (Agostino Ubaldini) and the Nano with Bells by Andrea (Michelangelo Ferrucci) as well as the bronze statue by Giambologna depicting the Birdman (from the National Museum of the Bargello). 

Check out “Bargello Museum”

 

Buffoons, Villains and Players at the Medici Court Exhibit: Andito degli Angioni, : Pitti Palace, Piazza de’ Pitti, 1, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy. Open 8:30AM. Tel: +39 055 294883.

Migrazione Exhibit (Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy)

 

"Migrazione" Exhibit

One of the two temporary exhibits (the other was “From Kandinsky to Pollock: The Art of the Guggenheim Collections, March 19-July 24, 2016) we encountered during our tour of the Palazzo Strozzi was the “Migrazione (Migrations),” a major one-man show at the Strozzina area devoted to the work of Liu Xiaodong, one of China’s most important and original contemporary artists. Opened last April 22, 2016, the exhibit will run until June 19, 2016. 

Check out “Palazzo Strozzi” and “FromKandinsky to Pollock: The Art of the Guggenheim Collections Exhibit”

Devised and produced by the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, this major exhibition showcased a broad selection of paintings, drawings and photographs created by the artist specifically following a period of residence in Tuscany between autumn 2015 and spring 2016. The main themes of the work on display, with a special focus on the local Chinese communities, are the cities of Florence and Prato and the Sienese countryside which Liu Xiaodong observed and experienced through direct contact with the local people.

 

Born in 1963 in Liaoning province but trained in Beijing, the artist is celebrated for his very personal painterly style poised between painting of history and a reporter’s angle of the contemporary world. In Liu’s large canvases, Seemingly routine moments or daily events take on an epic monumentality, akin to stills recording places in the world marked by conflict or by social and human tension. 

While summary and extremely controlled, the style is, at the same time, emotional and heavy with texture.  His reproduction of images of everyday life (almost always done in the open air) is inhabited by men and women who populate the countryside or the cities in which the painter has chosen to spend time. Photography, used as a tool of observation and a model for his painting, plays a crucial role in his creative process. Alongside his paintings and preparatory sketches, it is, in its own right, also an objet d’art for display, testifying to his urgency to forge a link between different artistic techniques and cultural realities.

 

"Refugees 4" (2015) depicts Syrian refugees at the port of
Lesbos gathered together in a moment of rest

The artist’s special interest in the Chinese community in Prato, the largest such community in Italy and one of the most important in Europe (now in its third generation), as well as other sites around Florence which host large Chinese communities (San Donnino, Osmannoro, etc.), sparked the original idea behind Palazzo Strozzi’s project. 

The artist also took inspiration from and addressed and the classic Tuscan countryside, the hills of the Florentine and Sienese Chianti districts, deciding to produce a number of paintings depicting the “dreamlike” and “picture postcard” landscape of the Vald’Orcia and the Crete Senesi. 

The exhibition also provided an opportunity for a reflection on the migration of peoples and the ways in which they interact with their new physical, geographical and cultural environments, including in connection with recent critical events on Europe’s borders – events which Liu has witnessed, in the first person, in Bodrum in Turkey, and in Kos in Greece. 

Completing the project is the publication of a catalogue devoted to the artist and by a broad programme of activities designed to tie in with the exhibition including conferences, workshops and lectures exploring the exhibition’s themes in greater depth in Florence and other venues in Tuscany.  Alongside with pictures of paintings from the exhibition, this catalogue also includes a travel diary, handwritten by Liu in Chinese (with translation in English and Italian) plus drawings and photographs taken by the artist from the trip to Prato in September, 2015, with focus on the local Chinese communities.  Writings by the curator Arturo Galansino, Francesco Bonami and Giorgio Bernardini, and short introduction of the artist are also included.

 

"Migrazione" Exhibit: Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza degli Strozzi, 50123 Florence, Italy. Tel: +39 055 264 5155. Open daily, 10 AM – 8 PM (Thursdays, 11 PM). E-mail: info@palazzostrozzi.org. Website: www.palazzostrozzi.org. Admission: € 5,00 (full), € 4.00 (reduced conventions and youth up to 26 years) and € 3.00 (schools). Free admission on Thursday, 6 PM to 11PM.