Emily in France 🇫🇷 Ciao from Venice!
Salve!
Greetings from Venice, where I've spent the most magical here-today-gone-tomorrow two-day press trip care of the Radisson Collection, which is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its luxury Palazzo Nani in the Cannaregio district (also known as the Jewish quarter), a bit off the beaten tourist track in what is one of the most touristic cities in Europe.
That's not to say we didn't do our share of touristing. We definitely did. We went to Murano and Burano to discover artisanal glassmaking and lacemaking, and I spent precisely two seconds on Piazza San Marco watching seagulls fight over a piece of pizza before fleeing both the crowds and the seagulls.
I even got a chance to row a typically Venetian boat, which I did as I do most things: With this very serious face on.
But for the most part, I wandered. I took advantage of being far from the crowds to wend my way through the small streets of Venice with no particular destination in sight.
I relaxed... or rather, I tried to give myself permission to do so.
It's a strange, strange reality to make a career in something you love so much. My work occupies so much of my brain space, which is sometimes pleasant but most often super stressful. Social media has a way of allowing you to elide the parts of your life that aren't as pretty, but a lot of the time, I'm up against deadline stress, putting things that matter to me – my relationships, my fiction writing, even my health – last.
I know I am not alone in this, but it bears reiterating, if only to make those who are also still wondering why they can't find balance feel a little less alone.
Putting up barriers to other work while I was in Venice was... a challenge. I often found myself ignoring the world around me to check my phone, frantically replying to emails, and even, once, sitting on a beautiful piazza in the sunshine furiously typing and fielding calls from Paris.
In other moments, though, I just about managed it.
I ate figs off the market stands and managed to sample four flavors of gelato in a matter of 36 hours. I purposefully strode out of my way, attempting (and succeeding) at getting lost again and again and again. (It's admittedly not hard for me.)
I stumbled upon more than a handful of treasures: a woman playing Ave Maria on water glasses on a street corner, a cheese shop where the monger was more than willing to help me identify the best local cheeses to sample. And once, I even found myself in a piazza with no company but the unseasonably warm sunshine. In that instant, I tried to tell myself that I deserve more moments of tranquility like these... and I'm going to do my best to take them.
(If you see me in person in the next few days... would you try to remind me of that?)
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Cheese of the Week
Forgive this beautifully messy specimen: I picked it up this summer in Menton, on the border between France and Italy, and it just barely survived the trip back to Nice, where it became the star of a picnic, paired with Spanish txacoli wine. Creamy and rich, this gorgonzola dolce is one of two DPO varieties of the Italian blue cheese, and it's the milder of the pair. Its funk pales in the shadow of the rich nuttiness of the milk. I firmly believe that this cheese is happiest with a ripe fig.
The bright colors of Burano kind of reminded me of this pretty pink tomme, which is covered in edible flowers. Learn more in this week's cheese video!
To discover more of my favorite cheeses, be sure to follow me on Instagram @emily_in_france and tune into the Terroir Podcast, where Caroline Conner and I delve into France's cheese, wine, and more one region at a time.
What I'm Eating
This week saw me eating so much pasta and seafood, which I'll be sharing more about on the blog, but one super simple (and super delicious) morsel I snagged on my last afternoon roaming the city was this euro-fifty three-bite sandwich pairing ultra-thin, super-tender slices of prosciutto with truffle-spiked robbiola cheese.
Discover more of my foodie finds via Instagram @emily_in_france and on the blog.
Where I'm Going
To Halle aux Grains, Coupi Bar, Khantine, The Hood, le Maquis, le Saint-Sébastien, and more with a special guest... check in via Instagram @emily_in_france to discover more starting on Saturday!
What I'm Writing
1. After the passing of renowned sushi Chef Ken Tominaga, his son is taking the reins. For InsideHook.
2. The Mexican-inspired "La Hamburguesa" requires two homemade salsas, and frankly, it's super worth it. I've got the recipe for InsideHook.
3. From the archives: I do not claim to be Italian in Europe, even though being Italian-American felt oh-so essential to my identity as a teenager. I delved into my relationship with the food of half of my ancestors for Everyday Genius.
What I'm Saying
While often translated as "back to school," la rentrée encompasses far more than pens and paper and new outfits. To unpack why la rentrée is exciting even to those French in no way connected to the school system is Anna Polonyi, a writer and teacher based in Nantes, is joining me on Navigating the French.
What I'm Reading
1. I wanted so badly to like Orange is the Only Fruit. I assumed I would love it. Maybe that’s why it fell flat for me. Don’t get me wrong: Jeanette Winterson is obviously a supremely talented writer, and the way she weaves parable and myth and fairy tale in with thinly veiled auto fiction is laudable. But it never quite grabbed me and clung to me. And while when I finished it, I found countless references to its humor, it never seemed funny to me in any way. (But I suppose I could have missed something!)
2. Did you know that seasonality is just as big a factor in cheese as it is in produce? This story from Modern Farmer delves into the reasons why.
3. And let's keep things cheesy with this guide to pairing beer and cheese for InsideHook!
A bientôt !