Seabourn Spirit 2009 Food & Wine Cruise – The Start: It’s All About The Clothes???

The flights to London and on to Venice were fast and, in fact, early. The only problem was that none of our luggage was quite as fast. Apparently there was an issue at London Gatwick and many bags didn’t make the flight. They say they will be delivered this evening. I hope so. I don’t want to start two Food & Wine cruises on the Seabourn Spirit without any clothes!

That said, we are, once again, staying the Ca’ Sagredo Hotel in Venice. We have an incredible room which is just over-the-top. I will post photos later, but suffice it to say the king size bed is dwarfed, the furnishings are spectacular and the plaster ceiling you can stare at for hours. Oh, and did I mention, the Grand Canal is right outside our window. Did I mention anything about our luggage?

Our room actually wasn’t quite ready when we arrived at 12:00 p.m. so we took a little stroll to a restaurant we enjoyed the last time we were in Venice (for the Inaugural Cruise of the Seabourn Odyssey). We were greeted with belinis to relax us. We decided on a carafe of a local prosecco and I started with sardines which were fried and then sautéed with sweet onions. After watching so many cooking shows and reality shows going on and on about risotto (and truly never having one that made me happy) I said, “I gotta be able to have good risotto here”. So we ordered the seafood risotto.

Having a nice wait while it was prepared we watched some of the everyday Venetians go about their business. At about 1:30 p.m. school must have let out for there was a long parade of middle school age children going this way and that with their backpacks, and smiling, but never in a rush. This is Venice, of course.

Our risotto arrived before we could see it. It had that wonderful scent of the sea…from a good distance. Suffice it to say it was magnificent. I now know what they were going on about being able to taste each little pearl. And right about then I was thinking, “The world is my oyster.” I think there is something about some clothes that I am supposed to tend to, but I just can’t remember what it was.

After a sleep and shaking off the time change, it was time for drinks on the Grand Canal and then some dinner. A few of us went to a nice restaurant where we enjoyed reuniting and catching up on things. I could not resist the spaghetti with cuttlefish ink followed by a really delicious seafood soup with clams, mussels, scallops, prawns, langoustine, chunks of fish and a wonderful tomato and olive oil broth with just a little bit of spice…of course coupled with a nice local white wine.

Then back to the suite for a relatively early evening. Opened my luggage and…it all just came together: We are having a wonderful time in Venice, looking forward to our wine walk tomorrow and then our boarding the Seabourn Spirit.