Venice is, for me, the most beautiful city ever seen.
I remember the first time I ve been there, it was winter time, a few days before the New Year´s Day, about 20 years ago. I was staying in a hotel in the old town and one of the things I had definitely decided to do, was to visit at 5am ¨la Pescheria¨, the popular fish market, located on the Canal Grande, next to the famous Rialto Bridge.
It was snowing in Venice last night. Nevertheless, I set the clock at 4.30 a.m. and, stumbling in order not to wake up my wife (who, however, understood me and told me she was starting to regret that she had married a madman), I left the hotel and looked for a hot coffee.
The word fog can not describe what was happening. I couldn´t see anything further than 1 meter. And in an extreme situation like this, I had to find Pescheria. Fortunately, I saw a large sign pointing to Rialto and followed the road. I crossed the famous bridge and I saw a miracle.
Fishing boats arrived and left the fish market. Workers were unloading boxes of fish, mollusks and shellfish, I had never seen many of them in my life. Some were still alive, the shrimps were breathing, some eels escaped out of the boxes and the Italian fishermen were grabbing them with their hands and putting them back in.
Then a smell of coffee came to my nose. COFFEE, I repeat COFFEE. Because good coffee is made ONLY in Italy.
I bought a double espresso, NO SUGAR of course, and as I turned my head I saw about a dozen workers crowding out of a canteen and some of them getting a sandwich and some others a strange steamy package.
As soon as I finished my coffee …………………………..
(excerpt from the lemma Cooking in paper of the DG book)
