The gourmet's guide to Europe

the very obvious one that the Venetians stroll about in the hottest weather all night long, one of these reasons being that during the Austrian occupation some young officers, finding the Florian closed, tore down the shutters and flung them into the Grand Canal, and that to keep this injury green the Florian kept open ever afterwards. The Lavena, in the great square, is the most popular of all the tea-rooms and confectioners, and in the summer the little tables before it stretch over a great space. Ortez, in the Via Ventidue Marzo, is another popular tea-room. The Zuppa di Peoci is a soup made from the little shell-fish called a peoci ” in Venice, but appearing under other names at Spezzia and Naples ; and so fond are the Venetians of it that they flavour their rice with sauce made from it, and call it Riso coi peoci . Baccala , or salt cod, and Calamai , little cuttle-fish or octopi, looking and tasting ’ like fried strips of soft leather, with tentacles which are delicious, are dishes of the people, and not to every one’s taste ; but the Anguille di Comacchio , the great eels from Comacchio, grilled on the spit between bay leaves, or fried or stewed, are excellent, and to be thoroughly recommended. Another Venetian dish which I can strongly recommend is the Fegato alia Veneziana , calf’s liver cut into thin slices, fried with onions in butter, and flavoured with lemon juice. The Frittura Mist a of the town is excellent. Stewed larks, with a pudding of Veronese flour, are satisfying, and a sausage from the neighbouring Treviso, which also gives its name to the Radici di Treviso , is much esteemed. The Pucca baruca is one of the big yellow pumpkins baked. The wines are, of course, those of the mainland, Conegliano from Treviso and Val Policella from Verona. 250 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe During the hot weather the after-dinner hour is the time at which people go to see their friends. The Fenice, the big opera house, has never been open on any of the occasions I have been in Venice, but I believe that performances are given there during the week of the Carnival. At the Rossini opera is generally being sung, and the Venetians have a partiality for the old works of Italian composers which one can only hear nowadays in the provincial Italian cities. At the Goldoni, comedies are generally played, and the Malibran, which is the theatre beloved by the gondoliers, generally has a tremendous melodrama as its attraction. When the performances of the marionette theatres are in progress it is well worth going into the little theatre in the Ventidue Marzo, if only to watch the audience. There are small boys in great numbers who seem to spend all their time in attending these performances, and keep up a running fire of comment during the dramas and ballets and variety performances of the jerky little dolls. Bologna u Bologna la grazza ” does not belie its nickname, and it is said that the matronly ladies, all over forty, Hotel Bnm who co°k for the rotund priests of the Palazzo Mai- town, are the cordons bleus of Italy, vasia The restaurant of the Hotel Brun is