We head out at 6am for our running session, and as we pound the streets we can smell fresh bread coming out of the ovens of numerous bakeries, and the delightful scent of morning coffee. Once we’re exercised, we organise our shopping to prepare the evening’s meal. We gathered fruit and vegetables from our friend Stefano in Via Garibaldi. There is amazing fresh produce here – the first porcini mushrooms of the season, many different varieties of peaches, figs, grapes, huge ox heart tomatoes, and some beautiful globe artichokes.

Bianchi Gabriele was our second stop, an amazing deli specialising in cheese and cured meats. We picked up our pasta, rice, juices and some outstanding cheeses like burrata, pecorino, stracciatella, buffalo mozzarella, gorgonzola and Parmigiano, as well as meats like prosciutto, bresaola, salami and mortadella. We’d already got our breads, focaccia, grissini and crackers in Via Garibaldi, so it was on to the Rialto markets by water taxi to seek out the best seafood and meat we could find.

We collected gorgeous swordfish carpaccio, a fantastic 2.3kg sea bass, small cuttlefish, monkfish, prawns for fritto misto, and wonderful vongole – the flavour of the small vongole in Venice is just outstanding. With all this produce whetting our appetites, we had lunch in one of the traditional bacari (wine bars), where we ordered a selection of cicchetti; it’s such a wonderful way to eat, snacking on small bites and taking sips of magical-tasting wines. But when you’re in town, you cannot miss eating at Al Gatto Nero – it’s probably the best restaurant in Venice. Back at our villa, we organised a nice cheese plate and sat down to a glass of prosecco before dinner. Giovanni cooked a fantastic spaghetti with vongole and bottarga, adding chilli and parsley to refresh the dish. We cooked the cuttlefish in a traditional way with their own ink, and for dessert, we had tiramisu – of course!

The next day, we drove to the Pila Vecia to see our friend Gabriele Ferron. Gabriele is an iconic figure in the rice industry in Italy. The Pila Vecia is his home, and the people have made rice here for generations, apparently dating back to the 1600s. The rice is still made just like it use to be, and we see the whole process. Gabriele then cooked for us different rices in different ways, from entree to dessert. For the final evening, we head to watch the canals. Seeing them in the dark is such a mysterious, peaceful experience. There’s no doubt, Venice is a truly magical place.