Less than 50,000 Venetians live in the historic center. Their numbers are down from 150,000 two centuries ago but this core of residents holds a deep love for their home.
Iris and her grandmother are passionate to show people that there's much, much more to Venice than just St Mark's, beautiful though it is. So they write about the hidden, private side of Venice: From courtyard gardens to secret orchards, medicinal botany to vegetable patches. Most lie behind anonymus, vertiginous, red brick walls, totally unknown to passers-by or their guidebooks, and astonishingly gardens cover almost half the surface area of the city. Often the only clue you'll have to being near a secret sanctuary is a waft of heavy vanilla, jasmine or lemon balm as you pass by.
And most of the time you're probably no more than just a few feet away from an old vineyard, an ageing convent garden or, as Iris puts it, the second Venice, known only to residents.
If you're lucky she'll take you there through her writing or in person. And if we're lucky Venice, her history and her gardens will survive in the safe hands of Venetians like Iris and her grandmother Lina. - Elizabeth Salthouse on L'Italo-Americano
WELCOME TO LA SPEZERIA
La Spezeria is a spice shop in a former monastery garden, only five minutes from Piazza San Marco. It features rare herbs and plants used in historical Venetian cooking and health recipes.
Recipes from the pre-industrial age, dating back 300 to 700 years, aimed to achieve a simple goal: Food = health = beauty. In Venice, food enriched with herbs, blossoms, and spices was seen as medicine that supported well-being. Authentic Venetian cuisine is surprisingly "trendy," blending influences from different cultures, including Ayurveda, Levantine cooking, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). This combination shows how old practices can shape modern food trends, making Venetian cuisine a lively part of today’s culinary scene, emphasizing the healing qualities of ingredients.
These are the famous Venetian recipes from the pre-industrial age, beloved across Europe for centuries. The art of making tasty dishes, beauty products, and natural remedies with herbs, blossoms, and spices has been refined in Venice since the 7th century AD. This ancient knowledge proved valuable during tough times, such as two world wars and famines. It was during this period that grandmother Lina learned to cook traditional Venetian recipes and make her own rose and sage-flavored cosmetics.
Just after WW2, in late April 1945, Lina opened her first restaurant in Venice, serving childhood dishes from the northern Lagoon where her family had lived during the war, north of Torcello. People foraged for herbs in spring and included them along with wild fruit in their winter meals.
In the 1960s, Lina began gathering old recipes from monasteries in the Lagoon and Venice, including San Francesco della Vigna, San Lazzaro degli Armeni, and especially the overlooked library of the San Zaccaria monastery, found in the building her family bought in 1968.
Meet your hosts
Lina Teresa
Associazione Cavalieri di San Marco, founder of three restaurants in Venice. Co-Founder of La Venessiana
Iris Loredana
Sustainability expert, Venetian culinary historian, spices and aromatherapy. Co-Founder of La Venessiana Magazine.
La Venessiana was featured on:
I WANT TO LIVE IN YOUR VENICE! YOU DESCRIBE THE CITY IN SUCH RICH AND LOVING DETAIL. SUCH WONDERFUL INFORMATION ABOUT A VENICE WE USUALLY DON'T SEE! THANK YOU FOR LENDING ME YOUR EYES AND YOUR KNOWLEDGE. - Kathleen Ann González
