Arrived in Venice after a long voyage. On the first night out on the town, we ate at the Black Olive. This was a recommendation from Chuck Furuya, and it was everything I had researched and wanted to eat. Sardines a la Saor (a sweet and sour preparation that reminded me of my moms sanbaizuki marinated fish), on polenta (which is abundant and popular here), pasta bigoli in an anchovy sauce (outstanding), frito misto, which included Venice's small fishes like baby rouget, sardines, along with "schie"---tiny shrimp-----bottarga pasta (bottarga is the salted dried roe of either mullet or tuna. Here, it was mullet)------pasta seppia (a squid-like creature with an ink sac used to make a black braised dish) ----a tasting of aged parmigiano with ten, twenty and forty-year old balsamic vinegars---- local veal and lamb. Mark chose local wines -----and a lot more that I cannot recount anymore at one in the morning---all very ono, outstanding, a taste of the local scene. Venice is a place I will come back to. The husband and wife proprietors told me I could come back for a week and cook with them. Funny, their chef is from Japan and one of their servers is Chinese but can speak fluent italian and Venetian. Awesome food! What a way to start the trip.