Hello and welcome! We are Iris and Lina, the creators of La Venessiana – Venice Slow Food and Lifestyle Blog. Our goal with this site is to tips and recipes for you to discover the culinary heritage while you are in Venice and in your own kitchen.. The real strength of Venice has always been her food, for this she has been renowned in Europe for more than 1,300 years. You will find some traces of this forgotten culinary heritage in home-made food and in a handful of restaurants in town. For this reason, you can find real Venetian food rather in home-made dishes and family recipes, which we share with you in our e-books and upcoming online culinary classes.
So on the Blog, we share food guides, gift guides and itineraries around Venice, away to the areas where you can really enjoy your stay. It’s those areas where you lose yourself in the labyrinth of winding narrow street and them stumble upon unexpected paradise gardens. We also take you to places that are not open to the public, into private gardens. This is for to at least get a glimpse of what life in Venice is really like.
We started our blog because both grandmother and I had one interest in common. Exploring historical recipes from original sources. Venice had shaped European culinary culture long before French cuisine became famous. Unfortunately in our times, these original recipes, which at the same time represent nourishment for body and soul, lie hidden in the historical books in libraries and the Venetian State Archive. This is why back in 1991, grandmother began meticulously sorting through ancient recipes in the library of the former guesthouse of San Zaccaria. This was possible for her because her family had bought the guesthouse back in 1968. Since then, she collected so many astounding (and delicious!) findings that we thought of starting a blog where we could share them with the world, and an Atelier to share this different approach to food and health via cooking classes. This is why our atelier includes a herb garden and a cooking school.
So in the meantime, there are a few things in our blog and our Atelier which we invite you to explore. Would you like to join us on this journey, exploring the healing and delicious food of the past? We are creating a culinary library and would be so happy if you joined!
You can join by signing up to our monthly Venice email magazine. The library opens doors on 15 March.
A bit about us. Lina, a Venetian hotelier and founder of three restaurants, is 96 years old and spent all her life in Venice. Until a few years ago, she regularly visited the Levantine countries to search for Venetian traces, the origins of recipes and Venetian identity. Lina and her husband bought the guesthouse of the former monastery San Zaccaria in 1968. Since then, the family has curated the sprawling garden on the premises of the former monastery, located five minutes from Piazza San Marco. Iris (Lina’s granddaughter) wrote her thesis on urbanization and ecology of the Lagoon of Venice. She works as expert in corporate sustainability and health at work in an international banking group. In her spare time, Iris develops plant-based recipes and the cooking classes for La Spezeria Atelier based on the ancient Venetian way of using herbs, blossoms and spices for delicious food, natural remedies and beauty products.
I’m so pleased to have recently discovered your site. Venice is a favourite place of mine, I’ve been a few times and we have recently booked to spend the entire month of October there. I’m very excited about this! thank you for all the information on your site which will be most useful for us and I look forward to your updates. best wishes jj
Dear Jackie, so nice to meet you here! October is a good time to visit Venice, it’s usually quite warm, just right to go for long walks. We are updating the blog 1-2 times a week, and if there’s a topic you would like to read more about, please get in touch! best wishes, Iris