No time to post from Ortisei but a few notes now. We spent 3 nights (2 full days) in Ortisei, a small town in the Val Gardena area of Alto-Adige in northeastern Italy, formerly part of Austria and sometimes called Sudtirol. Ortisei is a gateway to the Dolomite mountains, which are unique in the Alps for their composition (a form of limestone as I understand it) and topography (they are very rugged, sometimes with sheer faces etched by rain and meltwater, sometimes like rounded buttes, sometimes long and slanted and seemingly as straight-edged as if cut by a cleaver). The beauty is incomparable. The area is a ski mecca in the winter and attracts hikers and other summer sports enthusiasts in the summer, as well as vacationers seeking to escape the August heat of the lowlands.
From a limited sampling I think the food was better in Ortisei (also known as Sankt Ulrich) than was the food in Venice. However, this may have been partly due to having a better appetite in Ortisei, where the air is clean, the heat is pleasant and not stifling, there are big skies overhead, and people don't shove each other to get off the vaporetto or through an alley or past gawkers on narrow bridges as in Venice. Some examples of Venetian specialities seem to include seafood, often fried, sometimes raw or as carpaccio, liver and onions, and cichetti. The raw seafood can be good but coming from the Pacific Northwest and having eaten raw seafood in Hawaii, to me the Venetian seafood has a high bar to clear so perhaps I am not objective. We did have some great pasta at a Beccafico and, on our last night, at Osteria di Santa Marina (pic: risotto with pumpkin and scallops, very good, as was the branzino prepared in salt crust though the latter had nothing on a similar preparation sometimes available at Cafe Juanita back home). We got off to a strange start at Santa Marina with a particular server who seemed to reek attitude, but the rest of the staff and in general, the food were very good. We were seated next to a couple who run a wine export business in Siena (Tuscany) and their reportedly famous dog who has appeared in Vogue and other magazines... and they seemed very particular about food. She was of the opinion that Osteria di Santa Marina is the best-kept secret in Venice, and said it was very hard to get into -- so perhaps not so secret? Anyway, many were turned away during our dinner; we had reservations many weeks in advance.
We have had at least as good food at Tubladel in Ortisei. I didn't remember to take pics of all the dishes (too absorbed in the food and conversation) but two are attached: spicy penne pomodoro with speck (raw ham, a local speciality in Sudtirol) and pecorino cheese, which pleased L. greatly, and nettle dumplings which I enjoyed well.
In the Val Gardena / Sudtirol area, both German and Italian are spoken. The region is somewhat more autonomous than other regions of Italy. I have read that while Italian is the primary language in the larger cities such as Bolzano, further into the hills, German is the primary language. Signs are often tri-lingual, in Italian, German, and Ladin, a Latin dialect. I have been confused as to whether to try asking questions or exchanging pleasantries in my extremely limited German, my almost non-existent Italian, or English which many (but not all) understand and speak pretty well here.
I have the impression that in situations such as nicer restaurants and many stores, Italian is the primary language (that might however be because many Italians are here on vacation at this time), but in conversation among residents, German is more prevalent than one would guess from interactions as visitors. When I asked one of the staff at Tubladel which language is used more in the restaurant, his answer was telling: "We were Austria before the war." We took a taxi down to Bolzano from Ortisei today and our driver who paraglides here in the summer, really opened up when I tried ein bisschen Deutsch (sehr schlecht). His English was better than my German.
One other observation-- in Ortisei the restaurants, shops, ski rental places, hotels seem to be owned and run by long-time local residents. In Venice I don't think that's largely the case. I have read of a Venetian library being closed and the space now being a cheap tourist goods store. Those Venetian masks had a historical purpose when Venice was strongly divided by social caste, had a real live red light district, etc. but for a long time thereafter were never used and it seems only revived as part of tourism and outside influence.... There is history there, but much is simply crass. Only IMO of course...
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