This shouldn't be too difficult for Venice lovers, especially with the massive help that it is not on the Grand Canal. There is another palazzo with the same name, but that's hardly unusual in Venice. When I say "with the same name", I mean one of this palazzo's names is the same as one of the other palazzo's names. The other name of this palazzo is shared with three other palazzi
The sun was shining, what can you do but take a photo? This is another photo taken across the Canale Vena in October 2010.
I took a couple of close-ups of the name of Alexander Leopardus (Alessandro Leopardi) on the saddle-girth, as you may have seen the statue, but not noticed the name. Just try to imagine what the statue would have looked like when it was gilded. Or should I say, if it was gilded? 
Of course, the picture is more or less the same size. But here is the horse, as requested by Speedway. I don't have a photo showing Colleoni's symbol. Sorry, Anonymous.
All the heat and rain we've been having this summer is doing wonders for our garden! Every day we're out there picking something new. Kale and swiss chard are growing by leaps and bounds, tomatoes turning red, zucchini, romaine, eggplant, fresh herbs, it's a beautiful thing!
We picked all of this and more over the weekend, we had so much kale that I decided to clean, cut and blanch it for a few minutes, drained it, and after it cooled down stuck it in the freezer. The kale keeps growing all summer long and into the fall, so if you have any good kale recipes, I'm all ears!
See that cute little round zucchini? That's the first time we ever grew them, my friend Linda sent me the seeds after I admired the crop from her garden last year. I have another one almost ready to pick and then I'm going to stuff them both.
So I decided to make use of our first bounty and created a salad using romaine, zucchini, fresh basil and our sweet little cherry tomatoes all from the garden tossed together with a little leftover pasta and diced fresh mozzarella dressed in a light vinaigrette.
For the eggplant I kept them whole and in tact cutting slices and fanning them out, drizzling all over with olive oil, salt and pepper and then roasting in a 400F. oven until tender, after which I brushed each section with basil pesto and tucked slices of fresh mozzarella and juicy tomatoes inside placing them back into the oven just until the cheese melts. Oh so good!
Dinner is served!
I have 36 images of the Colleoni monument on my computer, though a few may be the same photo in a different album, but just let's say that I have taken a lot of photos of this statue. It is unarguably the finest equestrian statue in the world. Let's not have an argument about that. The more you read about the monument, the more slightly different versions you get. They all seem to agree that Colleoni left money to the Republic for an equestrian statue to be erected in Piazza San Marco, but that the Signoria ordered that it be erected in front of the Scuola di San Marco instead. Where I find disagreement is in the amount of money that was left (amounts varying from 100,000 to nearly 1 million ducats), and the date of Colleoni's death (1471, 1475, 1476, 1484). Andrea del Verrocchio made a superb model of the horse. The Signoria liked it, but decided to give the work of producing the rider to another sculptor. Verrocchio lost his temper, smashed the head off the horse and left Venice. The Signoria warned him never to set foot in Venice again, at peril of his life. Verrocchio replied by letter that he had no intention of going back to Venice. He pointed out that if the Signoria cut off his head, they could not replace it with another. He, Verocchio, could, on the other hand, easily make another head for the horse and, he added with guile, he could make it even better. The Signoria invited him back to Venice to finish the statue. They even let him sculpt the rider.
Unfortunately, Verrocchio died in 1488 before the statue was finished. Alessandro Leopardi finished the statue and created the pedestal for it, and took the credit for the statue by inscribing his name on the saddle-girth.
The statue, unveiled in 1496, was originally gilded.
Even Ruskin liked it! He wrote,“I do not believe there is a more glorious work of sculpture existing in the world.”
According to Hugh Honour (Companion Guide to Venice), Verrocchio never saw Colleoni.
There is a copy of the head of Colleoni, cast from the statue, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, if you want to see what the head looks like from close up and at eye level.
The statue was restored 2004-2005. Well, restoration was due to begin on 1 January 2004, and due to finish on 31 December 2005, but I was there in May 2006 and it was still under scaffolding and tarpaulins.
Another stitch-up of two photos. Obviously, it's the Grand Canal - but where, exactly? The palace on the left is 16th century, and the palace to the right of centre is 15th century with later additions. I retouched the photos to remove some modern intrusions.
If you search through the archives you will see that I posted the two photos that make up this 'panorama' a while ago. It is one of the two campiellos (campielli) with this name in Cannaregio. There are two more, one in San Polo and one in Dorsoduro. This campiello is situated on the bend in the Grand Canal just north of the Rialto Bridge.
I couldn't wait till tomorrow! I just downloaded a program that stitches overlapping photos together, and used it to make this panorama taken from the roof of the car park, just before the Ponte della Costituzione was opened. As Eric used to say: "You can't see the join!"
This will be the last photo of Cittadella for a while, as I'm sure some of you will be getting Venice withdrawal symptoms. Cittadella does not bear comparison with Padua, Verona, or Vicenza as an excursion from Venice, but it is a charming place. It is interesting to see such an example of an almost complete medieval city wall.
A long time ago I tried reducing down a bottle of balsamic vinegar, everything was going good, I was about 35 minutes into it, stirring constantly and watching it slowly thicken up, I turned away for a brief minute and when I came back it was at the point of no return, completely caramelized and stuck to my pan plus I was left with a horrible smell of burnt vinegar lingering in my house, that was the last time I did that! Since then I've been buying bottled balsamic glaze already reduced and ready for me to use on the spur of the moment. You'll always find a bottle or two stocked in my pantry.
Recently I was asked if I wanted to do a product review for Mandarano Balsamic Glaze & Sauce, the company produces and bottles entirely out of Modena, Italy using authentic regional grapes along with an award winning 400-year old family recipe, of course I said yes, and I'm so glad I did! The intense thick, rich, sweet yet sour flavor that comes through enhances everything you use it on, and I mean everything! I would highly recommend it!
I like to use my glaze as a finishing sauce as I did in this chicken recipe. I marinated the chicken breasts in a zip lock bag for a couple of hours using an everyday balsamic vinegar that I have, ( I would never use my glaze to marinate) along with olive oil and some crushed garlic.
Like I mentioned above balsamic glaze enhances fruit, think strawberries, pears and apples etc. If you peeked into my fridge right now you would see 3 containers of grilled stone fruits, apricots, peaches and plums. I grill them ahead of time and use them for all sorts of things, like this quick salad above. Simply toss some greens with your favorite vinaigrette, add crumbled goat cheese, ( check out the one below) toasted walnuts and top it with a grilled peach drizzled with balsamic glaze, so simple but it tastes like a million dollars!
OK, my other new obsession, ( thanks to my friend Mary-Alice) is honey goat cheese, have you tried it? Oh my, it's out of this world! Where have I been? She got it from Costco and I've since bought it there and I recently discovered Trader Joes has it, a different brand but it tastes exactly the same. If you don't shop at any of those stores check out your local cheesemonger I'm sure they know all about it, but FYI, my Whole Foods didn't carry it either.
This view from the city wall over some of the market stalls allows you to see right across the city to the wall on the other side. The wall is about a mile in circumference, but, when I went, only about half was open to the public. On the frieze of the Duomo it says: DOMUS DEI ET PORTA COELI.
Time for another excursion. We are about 60 km from Venice as the crow flies, just over an hour by train. The sun-dial is accurate, except that the clocks had gone forward. This is not the most picturesque shot I took that day, but I thought it was interesting. I hope you think so too. I'll show you some more photos of this town over the next couple of days.
Thanks to the wonder that is the English language, the title can be read in two ways. It shouldn't take you long to find it, even if you cannot read the plaque over the door. What a shame that the sculpture to the left of the door has been allowed to erode to this extent. I think it was a Madonna and Child.
I'd like to show you something a little out of the ordinary. We are back in Venice, quite near to San Samuele. This is either the home of a narcissist or a shop that sells mirrors.
Last week's vote seemed to be in favour of an occasional diversion outside Venice, so here's a photo taken in July 2009. This bridge is a faithful copy of the original, which was destroyed in the Second World War.
I've seen the bridge and the bridge is long
Most of your books will probably say that a 'bridge of boats' is built across the Giudecca Canal for the Festa del Redentore. As you can perhaps see from the photo, the bridge is built on pontoons, not boats. This misunderstanding may have arisen from using a rather too literal translation from the Italian for a pontoon-bridge, 'ponte di barche'. The Italians have a word for pontoon - 'pontone' - but choose not to use it when talking about a pontoon-bridge. 
This is the perfect side dish to all your grilling, individual little bundles of cooked Paccheri pasta stuffed with roasted vegetables, cheese and sun dried tomatoes. Tastes best when served at room temperature with a fresh herb, lemon, olive oil and parmesan dressing drizzled all over the top, great to bring to a party or picnic!
Paccheri pasta are large hollow tubes shaped similar to rigatoni only bigger and wider.
I roasted planks of zucchini and eggplant and then tucked in some asiago cheese and a sun dried tomato for mine.
Just cook the pasta according to the package, let it cool, then stuff them with whatever inspires you!
I had some leftover cooked pasta so I decided to stuff the remaining ones using a zip lock bag filled with spinach, ricotta, lots of grated cheese and an egg. Fill them and stand them straight up, side by side until you fill the pan, adding sauce on top and in between.
Olive oil and brush with sauce the bottom and sides of your mini spring form pan, I have a 4" pan. I'm sure you could use a larger one if you wanted to, but I think the smaller ones are cuter and they come out looking like a little flower!
And here's something for dessert that will surely have your guests talking! Vodka infused whipped cream! It comes in many different flavors, we had the chocolate and vanilla. It works just like traditional whipped cream, but only for grown ups!
Extremely good with strawberries or grilled fruits of any kind, top off your cup of coffee with it, or squirt some on a piece of pie. Use your imagination and enjoy!
This flagpole pedestal commemorates the “Beffa di Buccari” (beffa = practical joke, mockery). On February 10, 1918, a small group of 30 men, including Gabrielle d’Annunzio, slipped by night into the harbour of Buccari and fired six torpedoes at Austrian ships at anchor. The results of the raid depend on which source you believe. I have found that either three ships were torpedoed, or one was sunk or none was sunk. This was either because five torpedoes were stopped by anti-torpedo nets, or because they were faulty. The Italians left messages in bottles, boasting that “the seamen of Italy laugh at every sort of obstacle and are always ready to risk the unriskable.” Although the success of the venture was doubtful, it was a morale booster for the Italians.
The pedestal stands in front of a church which will be the centre of events this weekend.
That first photo taken in Chioggia that I posted was my favourite, and perhaps my best, so I've made a rod for my own back in trying to "follow that!" 
There's no point in asking what we are looking at - it's the Fish Market, Pescheria (Italian) or Pescaria (Venetian), built in 1907 by Domenico Rupolo and Cesare Laurenti. But you might like to try to name the four campanili that are easily visible. There's another one that is discernible, just left of the tall one on the right.
Thanks for the response to Chioggia; I'll slip some more photos in now and again. But here's a beautiful Venetian bridge to look at. It has quite a beautiful name, too.
I haven't run out of photos of Venice, but I wonder how you feel about a photo taken in Chioggia? If you've never been there, perhaps this will make you feel like paying a visit. Please say if you'd rather I stick to Venice, though if Pierre can get away with posting photos taken in America ...
Deliver the letter,
This capitello, or shrine, is at the end of a street in Dorsoduro. It's showing some signs of neglect, which adds to its charm. There are about 500 capitelli in Venice.
We have family visiting us from Florida right now but I wanted to quick show you this fabulous dinner they made for us the other night, a scrumptious Seafood Boil!
Here's all the ingredients, I did nothing but steam the artichokes ahead of time, they took over my whole kitchen and it was great!
Basically you get the biggest pot you could find, add water to it and spice up the water with whole heads of garlic, salt, peppercorns, Old Bay, white wine, lemons, red pepper flakes and onions, being very generous with the amounts! Add your longer cooked vegetables first and then the seafood last, as each component cooks it creates a more intense flavor to the brothy water.
The end result is that every single thing you pick up and eat will be heavily flavored with all those wonderful ingredients, so good! We also had some drawn butter, extra lemons and a remoulade sauce for dipping which took it well over the top!
We ate this in my screened in sun room with all the windows open on a beautiful breezy day, we took our time, talked, and savored every bite! Thank you Jennie and John!
