Favorite Quote from this Trip: "Everyone at some point in their life needs to exit through a secret door in a piece of furniture."
(more on that later)
So this past weekend Feb. 18-20 I was in Venice with my family.
The first night (Friday), my brother flew into Italy and met me at the train station in Florence. We then took the train down into Venice together where we would spend our first night together with our parents. We arrived at our hotel which was on the water. It was GORGEOUS.
Inside the hotel was amazing as well! Our room was two beds put together with a canopy over it and a "magic mirror" through which you could watch tv. Sorry, no pictures of the room. Kind of funny though, the rooms weren't labeled by numbers, but by themes and ours was named Carnevale- how fitting :P. It's around 5 pm so we decide to roam around the area a bit before finding a place for dinner (earliest time for dinner in Italy is 7 or 730). We end up heading into the residential part of Venice for dinner on the recommendation of the manager of the hotel. Got terribly lost even with the use of my brother's Maps application on his iPhone, but saw some pretty awesome views and a rising gigantic rising full moon :).
After asking some local kids, we finally found the restaurant and it was very cute. We decided to get the Venetian price fixed menu which had 3 courses on it: Antipasti, Prima, Secondi and a side. We both got mixed Venetian fish for the Antipasti, and I tried octopus! Not too bad :P. Then we had an AMAZING pasta with spicy cherry tomatoes and i think shrimp. My secondi was Argentinean steak with cherry tomatoes with a side of grilled mixed vegetables. Oh, and we got free champagne at the beginning and split a bottle of white wine. Being full was an understatement.
After dinner we wandered around a bit and came across a few bars. We ended up going into this really hip cool looking bar and getting drinks. My brother for a Bellini which was champagne mixed with peach, and I got a Rossini which is strawberries mixed with champagne. I think his was better, but they both were very good. After that we were beyond tired and found our way back to the hotel.
Next day, our parents were not arriving until around 2 pm, so we woke up early and decided to go exploring. We went to the Rialto market which was a tourist market and a food/fish market. Dan got a blood orange from there and was quite pleased with himself. We then headed over to Piazza San Marco which is basically the center area of Venice (kind of like the Duomo for Firenze). It was such a nice day, so we walked around a bit and shared a tiny canoli. Then we decided it was lunch time. We went to this small little sandwich shop that was tucked in a small alleyway. It ended up being french I think and the sandwiches were small but apparently that's typical Venetian. I got one with salmon (like lox I think) and another one with zucchini and brie cheese. Then we both split one with gorgonzola cheese. They were amazing.
Then we decided to go back to San Marco and walk around some more. We went to tis famous coffee/tea place where these 2 famous poets used to sit and have lunch/tea/coffee. VERY expensive, but very cute.
They gave us each a cup of water to cleanse the pallet and a thing full of hot water. Then the things on top of our cups were the filters into which we poured the hot water and let it all drain into our cups. Dan thought it was great, I thought it was decent- not worth the price (15 euro for the two of them if I remember correctly) but I guess the history and the atmosphere made it worthwhile. After that, we went back out to the square and I ended up trying on some masks and deciding that I really wanted one. I tried on this one:
I LOVED it, but it was too expensive (25 euros). I ended up getting one with a similar shape and feathers but with a butterfly instead of a rose and white and blue colors. Immediately after we met up with our parents (who were exhausted since they just flew in that day) and decided to head into the museum on the top of the Basilica di Saint Marco. After, we wandered around for a bit and at 6 o'clock went back to the square to see the beginning of Carnevale! Everyone gathered around this fountain, some guy spoke and people sung, and then wine went shooting out of the fountain.
It was awesome :). After, we went to go have dinner. We went out to this place that apparently is known for having a line out the door for dinner. We got there before the line (thank g-d) and I had crab meat in its shell for an appetizer and fried calamari and shrimp for my main. They were okay, nothing too special. Mom and dad shared a mixed fish dish that had a fish that looked like a grasshopper and a small octopus. No idea how they were able to eat all that (grosssss).
Next day, we had a tour of the Doge's Palace. This was a lot of fun. We had a secret tour of it where we got to go onto the 3rd and 4th floors of the palace, which are usually closed off to the general public. We saw the government offices, prison cells, torture chamber, and where Casanova was imprisoned. He has the funniest story, but it's way too long for me to type out. Hilarious though. Apparently the last name of his guard translated into english means kiss the girl, which is ironically HILARIOUS. And then, to refer back to the beginning of the post; in order to exit from this private area we left down a staircase and through a door which from the outside looks like empty cabinet. Wish I could have been able to take a picture, but it was awesome :D. After, we went into the church part of the Basilica di Saint Marco and the bell tower outside. Great view from the top :) Then we wandered around a bit; Dan went to go see some museums and Mom, Dad, and I went looking for Murano glass. My mom ended up getting this gorgeous glass necklace and my dad got this blue and green bowl and a glass egg with dark blue designs in the middle.
For dinner, the place we wanted to go to was full, so we ended up going to this local place instead. We got free champagne at the beginning again (yummy!) and these 2 pasta dishes which we all split. It was a pasta dish with shrimp and some dark sauce and another one with biscotti crumbles, cheese and amaretto? I personally liked the first one better. After that we went home and went to bed since we were catching an early train back to Florence (I had class I needed to get to).
Venezia è stata buona e molto bella! Me piace molto :)
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