Venezia Segreto

( Secret Venice)

For this British-born Venetian food writer, the best-kept secrets of her adopted home are meant to be shared. Here, she takes Vogue Living on an exclusive tour of her favourite haunts in the floating city.

Venice is the triumph of form over function,’’ says Skye McAlpine as she steps from a gondola and into the Rialto market, basket in hand. It is a scene worthy of Luchino Visconti’s 1971 movie Death in Venice: a beautiful young woman with an old-world aura going about her daily business amid absurd Rococo splendour. Yet it is also a vision that a cynic might argue could not possibly bear any resemblance to the modern reality of living in this erstwhile city turned “living museum’’. Because, in truth, who actually lives in Venice? At any given noon, cruise ships spew crowds onto the cobblestones and the canals might as well be turnstiles. Barring the periods when the Biennale or the famous film festival roll into town, is Venice now simply a city set in amber? For the food writer, Instagrammer and Venetian poster girl McAlpine, the answer is surely no. Born in England and raised in Italy, McAlpine moved to Venice aged six in less-than-dreamy circumstances after her father, Tory Party treasurer and Thatcher confidante Lord Alistair McAlpine, had become the target of an Irish Republican Army (IRA) terrorist plot. When in 1990 a bomb was discovered under Skye’s bedroom window, Lord McAlpine and his wife, Romilly, made the snap decision to relocate permanently to a palazzo they had purchased just months before. There Lord and Lady McAlpine built a home and a life with Skye that embraced their British eccentricity and the exquisite culture of their new surrounds. The pair, well known for their collections of books, couture, artefacts and objets d’art, divorced in the early 2000s and Alistair passed away in 2015, but the influence of their inspired taste is still being felt. Both had a knack for identifying the potential in places when others saw none, and can legitimately claim to having first put Puglia on the itinerary of stylish travellers, as well as Broome in Western Australia, where Alistair established the Cable Beach Club. The family spent many long stints in the then-undeveloped beach community and both Romilly and Skye still have a strong affection for Australia (Skye is married to a Sydney lad, Anthony Santospirito). Although McAlpine has certainly inherited attributes of taste and intelligence from her wellknown parents, she is her own person and has been shaped as much by the city she grew up exploring as a child. And like any proper Italian, she is obsessed by food. At the centre of McAlpine’s garden, a fragrant little world of gardenia, fig, citrus and basil, a lace-strewn dining table is graced by spreads that have become fodder for her endless stream of enviable images — pastas laden with clams, piles of tiny, fried soft shell crabs, and bouquets of zucchini flowers. Several years ago, while taking care of her baby son, Aeneas (who turns four in October), McAlpine began to document her everyday life in Venice. This coincided with the rise of Instagram and online publishing, and her beautifully styled images of Renaissance-reminiscent food tableaux and collected moments in the floating city quickly captured the imagination of many. With a book deal in the works and plans to launch a bespoke tour of Venice that explores the whole lagoon, surrounding villages, secreted churches, tips for the Biennales, and where to eat, drink and sleep, McAlpine takes Vogue Living on an exclusive trip through the winding backstreets and hidden canals of the city. Hers is a secret Venice that reveals how true Venetian life is not only enduring but also evolving, much like it has always done. ››