This book is a treasure - it has everything from evocative photographs to vaporetto etiquette, to recipes with instructions like 'saute the chopped vegetables until they smell good' and cook the chicken 'until it changes colour and has browny bits here and there' - the assumption is that you are giving it your full attention and tasting and smelling and experimenting a little - all very sensuous.
I have to make something from this book and I think it will be ice cream. The best ice cream I ever tasted was in Venice (the Zattere, almost facing you as you get off the vaporetto). Like the tarteau pommes, I always thought it was too much trouble and fuss, and I don't have an ice cream maker and all that in and out of the freezer and whisking, but....for Gelato di Amaretto, or Gelato al Limone I might make the effort, and I might just make the little S shaped Bussola biscuits ('kept in lingerie drawers because of their beautful smell! - only in Venice could I believe this tale', says the author) to go with it....simple enough to make this dream come true.