Festive Food

If your taste buds have not yet been awakened to the regional specialties of the Veneto, a trip to Venice could be the beginning of something grand. The Veneto is known for its melt-in-your-mouth rice first course, risotto, and Venice brings it's natural flair for seafood, by the addition of mussels, a local variety of fish called gobies, or the fragrant black "ink" from a cuttlefish. Fish and seafood play a starring role in many traditional main courses as well, featuring Adriatic mainstays such as sole, sea bass, scampi, squid and prawns.

Fresh seafood and vegetables fill the open-air markets, such as the market at Rialto or those along the Cannaregio Canal. Wander among stalls and see the sparaselle, a slender, delicately flavored asparagus, and the castraure, delectable baby artichokes. A trip to the market is a colorful way to weave yourself into the fabric of Venetian life.

The Veneto is known for its wines. Particularly prized are the light, fruity and fragrant wines of the Valpolicella region north of Verona. (Our Casa di Giuliana is located in the heart of Valpolicella wine country, and its owners are happy to organize tasting tours!) To enjoy these and other varieties of wine in Venice, look for the baccari-simple wine bars where "fruits of the vine" can be savored together with light Venetian snacks known as cicchetti.

Some of the Venetian owners of Doorways' rental apartments offer special individualized cooking courses, which can take place right in their own Venetian kitchen! Guests learn how to prepare regional specialties and, as an appropriate finale, sit down together a tavola to enjoy dining together.

Guests at the Grimani or Loredan apartments can choose a cooking course of one, two or three days, including lunch and a guided visit to the Mercato di Rialto to learn where to buy and how to choose the freshest seafood, vegetables, herbs, and other ingredients for creating your meal together.

Guests at gracious Appartamento Nobile are offered a cooking course with dinner included right in your very own Venetian kitchen.

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Special Interest Pages

Looking for an air-conditioned property or one that has tennis courts in Venice?

To help you find the right villa, we've developed a new tool that you can access by clicking the "special interest"
button at the top of our home page.

This special interest page lists properties by an array of features: wine and olive estates, villas for weddings, staffed villas, villas great for kids, villas near golf, cooking classes available, best kitchens, great values, stay in a village, honeymoon havens, and villas near spas. Do you have a specific interest? Click here to find the villa nearest to your heart.

Shopping Venice

Venice is renowned for the quality of her artisanship: exquisite hand crafted fabrics and lace, glassware, leather, wood and metalwork and paper. Vaporetti whisk guests to the lagoon islands-Burano for lace and Murano for glass.

Some of the Venetian owners of Doorways' rental apartments offer "personal shopper" services and excursions to artisan workshops not normally open to the public.

Guests at the Grimani or Loredan apartments can elect to have a personal shopping guide show first-hand the best that Venice has to offer, or a guided visit to Murano to watch the work of glass artisans in a non-tourist environment.

Guests at the Appartamento Nobile are offered a guided visit to the workshops of their choice, for masks, glass or bronze work, lace or fabrics.

Retail stores in Venice range from elegant to hip, with the finer designer shops like Armani, Versace and Ferragamo found in the Mercerie, between Piazza San Marco and the Ponte di Rialto, and more casual fare scattered around the Campo dei Frari near the university. If you visit the Campo dei Frari be sure to stop for ice cream at the wonderful gelateria just off the square! For outlet shopping, head north a short drive to Treviso for Diesel, Reply, and other contemporary houses of fashion. More upscale outlet shopping centers around Bassano del Grappa, a few minutes to the west (and very convenient for guests of Villa Giardino). For leather crafts at better prices than you'll find in Venice, Montebello Vicentino outside Vicenza is a good bet. In the environs of Verona are Italian favorites such as Maxmara in the town of Legnago.

Casa di Giuliana, the Veneto, Italy

THE VENETO... It is unjust perhaps to dub Venice the crown jewel of the Veneto, as though the crown bore only one jewel, for the Veneto is rich with treasures! Boats can glide the Canal Grande, across the lagoon and up the Brenta River as far as Padua along the magnificent riviera. Lining the riverbanks is an astounding array of palatial villas and formal gardens dating as far back as the fifteenth century. Among these regal Ville Venete are several designed by master architect Andrea Palladio. From March through October a boat trip on the canal, stopping along the way for guided visits of the villas, will take your breath away. To learn about the Riviera Fiorita, a festival taking place each September on the Brenta Riviera, please see our "Top Ten Things…".

Other jewels to visit in the Veneto are Verona, Vicenza, Asolo, Treviso and Padua. Best known as the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, fair Verona does not disappoint in terms of romantic appeal. Rich in art and monuments, she is also a festive city, hosting Italy's largest wine fair each April and an opera festival each summer in the extraordinary open-air Arena di Verona. Our charming Casa di Giuliana is in the heart of the Valpolicella wine country, a few kilometers from Verona.

Vicenza is most notable as the city in which Palladio launched his remarkable career: many local civic buildings and villas exemplify his vital contributions to the world of architecture.

The gorgeous Villa Giardino (above) is in Maser, a short drive north of Venice and Vicenza.

Padova impresses with her important works of art, including a fresco cycle by Giotto and a series of bronze reliefs and other works by Donatello. Our welcoming apartments at Villa Selvatico are located on a beautiful estate, just north of Padua.