The Westin Pune Koregaon Park Blog: La Dolce Vita

Like the previous two weekends this week Prego promises to sweep you off your feet by transforming into one of the most romantic destinations in the world - Venice. The Easter weekend will see Prego showcase the famous Carnival of Venice with the Venetian Masks as well as display the Venice Film Festival. The carnival will also take culinary journey of Veneto the region where Venice is located in Italy. One will also experience the tenors of the Venetian Opera along with the best Italian wines. Chef Valerio and his team shares in this blog some of the most enchanting trivia you must know before you indulge in the romantic city of canals, carnival and gondolas.

For reservations at the Prego Weekend Carnival - Venice call Pritam Rai +91 9673991106
Share your Venetian experience at Prego on

This photo of Venice is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Venice - Situated in northeastern Italy along the Venetian lagoon the city in the region of Veneto, is made of 117 small islands in the Adriatic Sea of Italy. Venice, mostly known as the city build by man, often has synonyms like city of canals, floating city, city of bridges, city of masks and many more. It is the most prime tourism destinations of the world and attract many international tourists.

Teatro La Fenice - Opera Theatre

Culture - Venice is most known for its architectural setting, carnival, film festivals, and opera. Venice has a rich and diverse architectural style, the most famous of which is the Gothic style. Venetian Gothic architecture is a term given to a Venetian building style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Arab influences. It has played an important role in the development of the music of Italy. It often regarded as "Republic of Music". Venice was also the home of many famous composers during the baroque period, such as Antonio Vivaldi, Ippolito Ciera, Giovanni Picchi, and Girolamo Dalla Casa, to name but a few.
Venice is famous for its ornate glass-work, known as Venetian glass. It is world-renowned for being colourful, elaborate, and skilfully made. Venice was especially famous for its beautiful girandole mirrors, which remained among, if not, the finest in Europe.

Venice International Film Festival - It is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice, Italy. It is known world-wide for the International Film Festival, the International Art Exhibition and the International Architecture Exhibition, and continues the great tradition of the Festival of Contemporary Music, the Theatre Festival, now flanked by the Festival of Contemporary Dance. The Golden Lion is the most prestigeous award to be received by any film that is screened at the festival.

This photo of Venice is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Carnival of Venice - This is an annual festival, held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival starts 40 days before Easter and ends on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday or Martedì Grasso), the day before Ash Wednesday. It is said that the Carnival of Venice was originated from a victory of the ; "Repubblica della Serenissima", Venice's previous name, against the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ulrico in the year 1162. In the honor of this victory, the people started to dance and make reunions in San Marco Square. One of the most important events is the contest for the best mask, placed at the last weekend of the Carnival. A jury of international costume and fashion designers votes for "La Maschera piu bella". Masks have always been a central feature of the Venetian carnival. Venetian masks can be made in leather or with the original glass technique. The original masks were rather simple in design,decoration, often had a symbolic, and practical function. Bauta, is the whole face, with a stubborn chin line, no mouth, and lots of "gilding". One may find masks sold as Bautas that cover only the upper part of the face from the forehead to the nose and upper cheeks, thereby concealing identity but enabling the wearer to talk and eat or drink easily. It tends to be the main type of mask worn during the Carnival.

Risotto

Cuisine - Venetian cuisine is characterized by seafood, but also includes garden products from the islands of the lagoon, rice from the mainland, game, and polenta. Venetian cuisine may be divided into three main categories, based on geography: the coastal areas, the plains, and the mountains. Coastal areas serve mainly seafood dishes, and its cuisine is common to Venice's one.

In the plains it is very popular to serve grilled meat together with grilled polenta, potatoes or vegetables. A very popular dishes is also risotto, rice cooked with many different kinds of food, from vegetables, mushrooms, pumpkin or radicchio to seafood, pork meat or chicken livers. Bigoli (a typical Venetian fresh pasta, similar to a thicker kind of spaghetti), fettuccine, ravioli and the similar tortelli (filled with meat, cheese, vegetables or pumpkin) and gnocchi (potatoes-made fresh pasta), are fresh and often hand-made pasta dishes (made of eggs and wheat flour), served together with meat sauce (ragù) often made with duck meat, sometime together with mushrooms or peas, or simply with melted butter.Cuisine from the mountain areas is mainly made of pork or game meat, with polenta, as well as mushrooms or cheeses (made by cow milk). A typical dish is casunziei, hand-made fresh pasta similar to ravioli.

Veneto Vino - Veneto is a wine region in north-eastern Italy, one of a group of three highly productive Italian regions known collectively as the Venezie and the biggest DOC producer of the three. Although the Venezie collectively produce more red wine than white, the Veneto region produces more whites under DOC and is home to the famous Soave wines. Veneto's growers are among the most modernised in Italy. While most of the 'classic' wines from this area are based on native grape varieties like Prosecco and Verduzzo, high demand for Veneto wines in the European and US markets has galvanized the region's producers into experimentation with Cabernets, Chardonnay and Pinot varieties, among others. One of Italy's leading wine schools,Conegliano, is based here and the nation's most important wine fair, Vinitaly, takes place each spring in Verona.

Landmarks & Tourism -