The Gastronomic Terp: Getting Lost in Venice is Half the Fun

Day 3 and 4 of our Italian Adventure - Venice

After wishing EB a fond arrivederci this morning, PS and I took our 1st (and easiest) train ride north to the Jewel of the Adriatic. This leg of the trip we were lucky and had one of Trenitalia's luxury fast trains and arrived in Venice after 3.5 hours.

Side note on train travel in Europe: They literally give you less than 15 minutes to board before they depart, so once they post the track it's like a mad dash to find your train car and get your luggage settled.

We got stuck for a bit behind a pair of American women who had brought oversized luggage that they could barely lift, and proceeded to block the entire aisle, until PS and a few others had to assist them. Lesson learned - don't be those type of Americans!

Upon finding our seats, we got to employ EB's tactic for dealing with Italian customer service, although this time it was a woman and her 2 kids who were sitting in our seats. I think my lack of Italian actually came in handy this time as I just showed her our seat #'s and stood there smiling until she moved.

For most of you reading this blog I realize you don't know PS, and haven't experienced how directionally challenged he is, which will help to explain how I ended up in charge of all the travel logistics. He really doesn't like to function without a GPS or nav system, which proved to be very interesting when we were traveling with EB.

So, we arrived at the train station, caught a quick train across the lagoon, and went to catch a vaporetto down the Grand Canal, almost going the wrong direction before we quickly jumped off and went to the correct dock. PS had another Oh Wow moment, as he loves being on the water, and quickly fell in love with Venice!!

View from our Vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal

The Rialto Bridge

Now PS and I are not huge museum buffs and are much more inclined to spend our vacations outdoors, so by taking the vaporetto we got to view a majority of the palaces and museums (that also cost at least 5-7 euro ($10) each time you go in) and appreciate them from the canalside perspective instead.

So we arrived at St. Mark's and within 10 minutes arrived at our hotel after navigating some random alleys and crossing a few bridges, but actually no wrong turns - I mistakenly thought I had my map reading all figured out and wouldn't be getting lost in Venice...not so much!! I shoud have realized it wasn't so easy with more than 200 canals and 400 bridges and directions that read, go 15 feet from the base of the statue as if you were walking backwards, and then take the small alley on the right as it turns left.

Since it was just after lunch we ventured out in search of some food, and prosecco, and decided to just wander towards the Rialto bridge and follow the signs. Again, relatively easy...oh Venice you had me so fooled!

1 of 2 nassone we found in all of Venice - compared to hundreds in Rome.

Thank goodness this was just outside our hotel!

After a few wrong turns we found a cute little place (recommended by Rick Steve's) with 2 Euro prosecco and some cicchetti, but then decided to change it up a bit and headed over to an Irish pub for a pint. We quickly realized the error of our ways when the pints cost 8 euro each ($12) and the prosecco was just 3 euro. Now PS and I had been commenting on the awesomeness of the trip so far, but how trips are always more fun when you make friends with other travellers (EB has noted that I have a great knack for this too)! Well, we were finishing off our pints when we got lucky and an adorable Scottish couple celebrating their 25th anniversary sat down at the table next to us. Needless to say, we proceeded to hang out with them for the next 8 hours, finishing quite a few glasses of prosecco, getting lost finding a restaurant for dinner, and then heading back to the same Irish pub for more drinks.

Side note - this bar had a live feed webcam so Lorna was trying to get in touch with her 17 year old son who they had left at home for the trip (somewhat unsuccessfully) and PS decided to try and send a message to his sister and nephews. Well, we had no idea they had actually gotten it until we received a message telling us "we were pathetic lightweights" and that we needed to be more entertaining. So for the rest of the evening we kept waving at the camera, cheersing, and looking like idiots just in case they were watching. You're welcome!

Posing like a statue...an EB tradition!

Trying to gauge directions from the point of this statue was up for interpretation.

We were on a mission to find 2 Euro prosecco!

And then we proceeded to drink an entire bottle each.

Sitting in an Irish pub, making new Scottish friends, drinking Italian prosecco - ironic?

The next morning we managed to sleep in for a bit, but woke up just in time to grab a delicious breakfast! I know I've been good about describing our dinners and snacks, but I could seriously get used to eating croissants, chese and nutella every morning. Which is ironic, since I really only eat protein and no bread in the morning in the States. Unfortunately though, we missed the Rialto Seafood Market where they bring in all the fresh catches and you can wander through the stands, so instead we found a little trattoria for lunch, tucked on a side canal where the gondoliers passed by, and actually quite a few of them were eating inside as well.

The tables were family style so you sat down at any open seat and wedged your self in. We ended up sitting with 2 older couples from LA who were travelling on a cruise, but I have to say weren't quite as fun as our friends from the night before. So in keeping with our tradition of sharing dishes, we ordered a mixed seafood plate and ravioli with bolognese sauce from our crazy waiter who talked so fast, even in English, that you could barely understand him and ultimately just ended up saying yes to his suggestions! Now PS is not actually a fan of most seafood, with the exception of a few fish, so this was pretty impressive that he was willing to share these dishes with me! Everything was so fresh and I was in heaven! So our crazy waiter enticed me into ordering an espresso (PS accuses me of pronouncing this with an X) and while we were waiting, a cute local Italian man had sat down next to us at the table. After ordering his meal and a bottle of red wine, he proceeded to offer PS a glass...isn't that supposed to work the other way around? Wasn't I supposed to be offered the glass of wine?

Frutti di Mare Misti

The rest of the day we wandered around the different neighborhoods, shopping in the little stores (finding some great Murano glass jewelry), and drinking some more prosecco along the canals, with the plan to end up at St. Mark's Basilica after all the lines had died down and the cruise ships folks had all gone back to their boats. We timed this perfectly and actually had no line to enter St. Mark's, and only a short 5 minute line to head up the Campanile. It was a pretty interesting contrast to see the byzantine and eastern influences within the church compared to the holy roman style within St. Peter's.

St. Marks and the Campanile

View from the Campanile

Looking down on St. Mark's Basilica

Afternoon gelato

While we had been warned that Venice was overly expensive and most of the restaurants along the canal had a service charge just for the price of sitting along the water, we found a great recommendation and made sure to make a reservation for later that evening. (I've forgotten to mention, PS and I normally eat late even in the States, but we took that to a whole new level in Europe sometimes not eating dinner until 9pm or 9:30pm at times). We again got lucky with a great waiter, who suggested the fresh grilled seafood plate which was actually prepped at the table. In case you hadn't guessed already but Venice is known for its seafood, so I took full advantage while we were there. PS got the chicken marsala and we shared a plate of pasta with olive oil, garlic and chili pepper. It's amazing how something so simple can taste so good!!

Romantic dinner along the canal!

Grilled seafood plate - shrimp, squid, langostine and white fish!

Chicken Marsala

After dinner we headed over to Piazza San Marco to listen to the dueling orchestras and enjoy some after dinner drinks. One thing we had noticed the night before was that Venice actually shuts down around 11pm and the city is almost a ghost town. So the piazza wasn't too crowded but we were able to relax and people watch for an hour or so.