A shout-out! To baroque Venice, city of spices, lagoons and golden light. Another one! To Naples, queen of the south, home of sun, surf and brilliant blue skies since time immemorial. Venice and Naples are at the home of one of baroque music’s biggest stories, Italian opera. But what about music without words? Does the magic stop when the words go away?

When I saw Anne Hunter’s mentions of Neapolitan and Venetian dishes in her feature, I immediately wanted to find out more. After all, once a growing boy, always a growing boy—and I’m pretty much always interested in good food. So I did some searching and some reading, and plan to follow that up with some cooking (and most importantly, eating!) in the near future. I thought I’d share a bit of what I found so far with you.