This is a blockbuster art exhibition, a celebration of Post-Impressionism, Italian-style, or, more specifically, Tuscan-style. The exhibition, Macchiaioli a Montepulciano, covers the leading Post-Impressionists of the day, in a movement that had its roots in Tuscany. `Revolutionary’ Florentine artists, from the 1850s onwards, started experimenting with splashes of colour. The revolutionary aspect partly lies in the way these Tuscan artists used paint -Impressionistically - in splashes (`macchia’ means splash or mark). The movement was also influenced by French Post-Impressionism but was drawn to the narrative value in art, as well as to landscape painting.Eat like a local in Venice
Don't spoil your visit to Venice by eating in over-priced tourist traps – follow the locals' lead and graze on bar snacks in back-street osterie
Check this great article in the Guardian UK click here for details
My trip to one of the world's most romantic cities was inspired by the least romantic of situations: a boys' night out in Soho, London, the kind that ends up in a random curry house before falling asleep on the night bus. On this night, however, we fell, quite by chance, into Polpo (see Jay Rayner's review), a relatively new restaurant that appeared to be some kind of tapas bar, was lively and not too pricey – yes, this would do.
It was an inspired choice. It turns out we weren't eating tapas ("We don't use the T-word here," said the waiter) but cichèti, small snacks unique to the bars of Venice. Our conversation, usually dominated by football, turned to the tenderness of sliced flank steak and the sweet softness of the sensational cuttlefish cooked in its own ink.
On more than 20 visits to Venice, Polpo owner Russell Norman has trawled the back-street bàcari, the small bars where locals pop in for a glass of wine and a snack, to find inspiration for Polpo. He is the right man to talk to about where to eat in what he calls "one of the world's worst destinations for food lovers".
"Avoid all the crappy tourist places," is Norman's advice, "anywhere with the menu in six languages stuck in the window or, worse still, one with photographs of lurid pizzas.
"But there is still a side of Venice which is alive and isn't Disneyland, and it's best typified by the bàcari."
With those words ringing in my ears, and a list of his favourite bàcari in my pocket, I headed off for La Serenissima.
Cutting edge ... La Cantina. Photograph: Gavin McOwan A bar crawl, or giro di òmbre, is the best way to try Venice's bàcari, popping into each for a cichèti and accompanying òmbra (small glass of wine). And a good place to start was Ca' d'Oro – Alla Vedova (Cannaregio 3912, Ramo Ca' d'Oro), one of the best-known bàcari, on the Strada Nuova, well away from the city's touristy hub. On a Friday night it was packed with punters lingering around the bar, waiting for the hot polpette (pork rissoles) to emerge from the kitchen. These delicious balls of salty, finely minced pork (the inspiration for the meatballs at Polpo) were snapped up within seconds of hitting the old marble bar counter, washed down by unbottled Veneto red in tiny glasses. Both cost €1 a pop.
see Map of this trip - by clicking here Bacari Map of Venice
Venice Bacari
Part of the research for Russell Norman's Polpo restaurant, involved going to Venice as many times as he possibly could for ideas and inspiration. It became apparent very quickly that Venice's real culinary heart was in the wine bars and bàcari, not in the (mostly) awful restaurants. Read what happened when Gavin McOwan followed Russell's trail by looking above or clicking on this link
