Landlubbers for a bit
While Waiata was on show at Salone Nautico Venezia, (aka Venice Boat Show) the team at ITA Catamarans kindly put us up in Venice (at the gorgeous and centrally located Hotel Ala, highly recommend) and Verona (lovely airbnb Villa Sighi, again, perfect location and comfort) and treated us to some other unique experiences we’ll never forget. As well-experienced exhibition people, Gavin and I know how much work goes into presenting at a major show - and this boat show is especially long, nine days! We felt for them knowing the hours they’d put in and hundreds of people they’d be meeting and showing Waiata to, but being the pleasure junkies we are, we left them to it and got stuck in making the most of this incredible opportunity.
In Venice it began with a private tour of the city by art historian and heritage architect Lucia, organised by Sonia at ITA Catamarans, graze mille! Lucia’s expertise in the history and building of the city (over the ages) meant we had unique insights into the architecture and creation of Venice. She also took us to Fondazione Prada where we explored the latest exhibition, Stop Painting, by Peter Fischli. Lucia had done all the research on this relatively new exhibition (they just reopened on the 22nd of May) and thus we were able to pretty much have our own guided tour, what a gift. By the middle of the day we were ready for a break and we went to an Osterie (cafe) near St Marks Square to enjoy the special snack of Venezia, cicchetti, (pronounced cheeketti). These are small side dishes, nibbles we’d say in NZ. We had the small pieces of bread topped with seafood, and cheeses. Gav went crazy for the anchovies and sardines. And because they drink Aperol Spritzer with it, we did the same! Very nice.
We’ve walked the length and breadth of Venice now many times and have popped in to visit the boat show when we want to see Waiata and say hi to our mates at ITA. We also visited the Peggy Guggenheim museum and were totally overwhelmed with her collection and story. There were so many artworks that made us smile and goosebump, I especially liked the Jackson Pollock works, but seriously, there were many OMG! moments looking at everything. Only 50 people were allowed in at a time with the Covid restrictions so wow, what a blessing to view this in such a serene environment.
After a few days in Venice, we left for Lake Garda, the town of Malcesine to be precise. This town is, amongst other things, a wind sports hub and people come from all over the world to windsurf, kite-surf, sail, foil and literally ‘fly’ across the lake. Our purpose here (apart from taking in the breathtaking beauty and just having the most amazing time) was meeting up with Dede from Onesails. His company did the sails on Waiata and he was treating us to a day ‘flying’ on Lake Garda. His other venture is the production of a class of (racing) sailing yachts called 69F - and this is the boat they took Gavin on. Dede, Gavin and an amazing young woman Margarite suited up and set off. Knowing myself and the speeds they’d go and the agility needed to take part, (I was a bit scared to be honest) I chose instead to take the chase boat with Lorenzo. That was really fun too and we got some great footage of it all. One weird coincidence was that Lorenzo, a charming 29 year old Italian man, fluent in English, who sped us along for 2 hours in the tender chasing the others, did a high school exchange in NZ, up in Kerikeri. He knew good friends of ours in the sailing community, so that was amazing, what a small world. And about the Lake Garda sailing, Gavin will regard his experience that day with Dede and Margarite on the 69F as one of the highlights of his life, he couldn’t stop smiling for days. Thank you Dede and co!
After three nights in Malcesine, we headed off to Verona. It’s is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and charming cities in the world, but sometimes it seems like every city here is. Our airbnb was a short walk to the old town and various sites. The tourists are here but in small numbers so we felt we had the town to ourselves, especially because we are early risers and hit the streets first thing in the morning. It was surreal to visit Juliette’s house, which is a major tourist attraction and has the famous balcony referred to in Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliette. We toured Casa di Giulietta pretty much alone. Later in the day we observed queues so perhaps it was just serendipity or good timing. Nonetheless we couldn’t keep the smiles off our faces. Other places we visited, virtually alone, included the Basilica of San Zeno Maggiore, Duomo di Santa Matricolare, an outside lap of the Verona Arena, (they were building up for an opera and not open) and hanging out in Piazza delle Erbe. I even managed a manicure, hair jsze and a wee shop (the shopping district is off the charts excellent) and we got a printer and espresso machine for Waiata. ;-)
Our ITA hosts made some great restaurant recommendations for the two nights we were there. Both were excellent but we had perhaps the best meal of our time here (and we’ve had some exquisite meals already) at Trattoria Al Pompiere. The mushroom ravioli with ‘new season garlic’ was a masterpiece!
We are now back in Venice and will move back on to Waiata tomorrow, sail back to Chioggia and do a test sail on Tuesday with Dede from Onesails and the ITA team. Watch this space as I believe we will have some incredible footage to come (with drones) of this special day.
