In this first post of my nine week 2025 Summer Shorts series, a break from my usual commentary on ageing and longevity topics, I start here from where I left off last August – in Venice. On a restful visit this Spring, I found myself again sauntering through the city with the charming little book Drink & Think VenicebyRobin Saikiatucked in my pocket, not knowing when I would pass by one of the 26 featured locations.
Venice is like that for me, saunter and let yourself be surprised.
As a reminder, last year I described how Drink & Think Venice offers a fresh thematic approach to help you capture versions of Venice in a personal and practical way, all while you nurse a drink, taking in the surrounding neighbourhoods. To further enrich your mind about these local worlds around you, Robin writes fluidly, introducing readers to stories of persons and events, some familiar and some lesser known throughout Venetian history.
With that in mind, like the first time using the book, I enjoyed reading each chapter on location while it also became for me a conversation passport. For in each of the bars, cafés or restaurants I talked with the individuals on staff, and where possible learned of their personal stories, of their own daily life in Venice. Before each farewell, I asked for their autograph which always seemed to be of mutual delight.
This year I visited four new locations, but three times I revisited Chapter 8 – Osteria da Filo in the neighbourhood of Santa Croce where I was staying, near Campo San Giacomo dall’Orio. The warm and lively vibe here had not changed, however people’s lives do. Federico no longer worked there and has now moved on, taking a job as a postman in Venice. So I was told by Agnes, one of the other staff who remembered me from last year. Asking everyday people for autographs seems to have some effect on memory.
So in that vein I’m sure I won’t forget my visit to Chapter 24 – Bar Caffè Redentore where upon leaving I struck up a lively conversation over a Spritz or two with Ronald who is originally from Cuba and also met the more reserved, yet friendly, Mauro. Their treasured autographs in the book wrapped up the farewell by what was then almost closing time, and on I headed for Campo San Stefano and later a concert at San Vidal.
Notably in the chapter on Bar Caffè Redentore, after an introduction to the mini-Spritz – known as a sprtizino and the drink called Pallina, Robin serves up a short narrative about the nearby Chiesa Santa Maria del Giglio which I had visited earlier that afternoon. The interior of del Giglio holds much to marvel at, but it is the façade here that gets the attention, “one of the least Christian church façades in Christendom” as Robin argues.
Studying the façade for some time, it helped that I have read histories of Venetian naval power, the reach of its maritime territories, about the battles and the admirals, in this case the 17th century Admiral Antonio Barbaro who commissioned this monumental work. Tumbling from top to bottom on each register you will meet Barbaro and his brothers, surrounded by allegorical statues and amazing carved reliefs of ships and maps that will sweep you away as does Robin’s description.
Even now as I finish off writing this second view of the book, I close my eyes and recall every stop along the way, so I can’t forget a nod to the other locations where I hid for some drink and think. Thanks for the memories, Bianca at Chioschetto on the Zattere, Viviana at Ba’Gheetto in Cannaregio, and Lorenzo at Caffè Florian in the Room of the Illustrious Men. No worry of conceit on my part, I was politely ushered there without being asked of my illustriousness.
