Italy Planner Part 3: The North

The best cicchetti in Venice, design shops in Milan, affordable hotels on Como and the coast, a Piedmont deep dive, and the hidden rifugios of the Dolomites: your questions answered!

For the third installment of our Italy Planner, we did the same as we did for South and Central Italy: consolidated and simplified some of your questions, drew on our own saved emails, Word docs and notebooks, our first issue of Yolo Journal which was devoted to Italy, and leaned heavily on friends and specialists who know this region best, from Venice and Emilia-Romagna through Lombardy, Liguria and the Alps. As always, if you have anything to add, please leave your tips in the comments! Also, we keep adding to these guides, so paid subscribers should check back in the archives when you’re planning a trip. This has been fun (if exhausting) to do—and next we’re gearing up for our France Travel Planners! Got any questions for us? Add them to the comments as well. Thank you!

VENICE/THE VENETO

We are going back to Venice after a long hiatus. Are there some amazing guides you might recommend for a deep history delve? 

Chris Wallace, one of the most well-read of our well-traveled friends (and former U.S. editor of Mr. Porter and Interview), recommends The World of Venice, by Jan Morris, and Venice Observed, by Mary McCarthy: “I love to compare these books about Venice by Jan Morris and Mary McCarthy, an English and an American writer who each lived in the city for an extended period and wrote grand their-heads-were-green-style travel books about Venice and the Venetians. Where Morris is wildly eloquent, exuberant, and juicy in her reportage, McCarthy is borderline wicked, acerbic and aphoristic. Together they make a perfect 1-2 punch of a genre we don’t-can’t-probably shouldn’t have anymore.” 

Our friend Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman, did a story for an early issue of Wm Brown that followed in the footsteps of the travel guidebook, Venice for Pleasure: “This book was certainly no Fodor's. Venice for Pleasure was first published in 1966 by English writer and art historian J.G. Links (Canaletto was his thing), and it's without question the most unique travel guide I've come across. Mr. Links makes his mission clear in an introduction that states that this ‘is a guide to the pleasures of Venice without its pains. Its simple object is to guide the reader to places he might otherwise miss, and having reached them, to tell him what he might wish to know and then leave him there to admire, to enjoy, or, perhaps, to be disappointed.’ …. Whether you choose to follow one or all of the comprehensive walks he lays out spanning most of the sestiere (or districts) of Venice, vague maps and illustrative artworks included, you are in for a rare treat, one not shared by those disembarking from their giant city-dwarfing ships for a quick run through the city's must-sees, but a highly personal, insightful look at one of the world's most stunningly beautiful cities where it seems like an aged and often persnickety Venice-dweller whispers in your ear as you wander.”

Also, I haven’t been to Venice in several years, but I’m heading back in April for the Homo Faber craft/artisan event that’s taking place across the city from April 10-May 1. The main exhibition is on San Giorgio Maggiore island, but across the city there are basically open houses for artisans that you can book. And no, it’s not all glass and masks–you can visit the historic Fallani atelier of Venetian silkscreen printing, a 100-year-old fabric factory founded by Mariano Fortuny, in Giudecca, and one of Europe’s last gold leaf beaters in action, a Venetian craft that dates back a millennium. If you find yourself in Italy during this period, I’d definitely make your way here. —Y.E.

Any food recommendations in Venice?

“My favorite way to eat in Venice is to make my way through the city eating cicchetti,” cookbook author Emiko Davies says. In fact Davies, who leads workshops in her hometown near Florence, is publishing a new book in May inspired by Venice’s cicchetti, Cinnamon and Salt, which you can preorder here! “These little bites are on offer in Venetian wine bars from morning till evening—you can partake of them for a snack, for aperitivo, or eat enough of them that you’re satisfied for lunch or even dinner. They are wonderful and it is a truly unique Venetian experience. Many of my favorites are around the Rialto market: Do Spade, Do Mori, All’Arco and Al Merca’ are all good options for very traditional cicchetti. Or, wander along the Fondamenta Misericordia in the Cannaregio neighborhood and stop at literally anywhere you see there. You can’t go wrong, but La Sete, Antica Mola, Ormesini or Vino Vero are good ones (FYI next door, the Bacaro del Gelato has good gelato if you’re rather in the mood for something sweet!).”

Chris Wallace says, “I’ve been lucky enough to visit Venice once or twice a year for the last few years, and find it extremely comforting that the great, enduring classics there remain so, places like Harry’s Bar, where Hemingway used to hang after hunts on Torcello and where to this day local Venetians celebrate holidays, birthdays and special occasions. On my most recent visit I confined myself (mostly) to the once-famous but now sadly passé bullshot (like a brodo mary, if you will, switching beef bouillon for tomato juice). Peter Beard drank them here enthusiastically and who am I to let down tradition? And that's the thing about the classic haunts in Venice—like Caffe Florian, on the Piazza San Marco—they are still great. Perfect, really. Yes, you’re paying a premium—but what you get in charm, history and drama is totally worth it. Also, the guys who work at both Harry’s and Florian are phenoms. Venice is obviously famous for cicchetti, and my favorite spot is Cantina Sciavi, but Do Spade is also great. Bacaro in Cannaregio does great little tramezzino-ish sandwiches to go with their wild-good natural wine offering. When you're ready for something more like a proper sit down, the restaurants in the Castello are rightly famous: Corte Sconta, Al Covo, CoVino, Local, Wildner Venezia …and the pizza at Aciugheta. If you're not in the mood for Italian, I love Osteria Giorgione — for a kind of Japanese spin on Venetian dishes, and maybe vice versa. If you are going farther afield, Trattoria da Romano on Burano makes the most famous bowl of risotto in the world, and Burano is gorgeous. On the Lido, Ottavio Venditto at La Tavernetta is one of the most exciting somms, and the food is too good to be true.”