Day 11: Venice
It's amazing to wake up and have a beautiful view of the canal right out of your window. The space is not big like the two previous outdoor terraces, however there is enough room for you to stand and enjoy a cup of tea or espresso. Venice is magical because there are no cars on the island. You either walk or take a ferry / boat. Many visitors complain about the smell of the canals. Honestly, it didn't really bother us. It just reminded us of the beach or a fish market.
The first stop on our Bourdain-Rosenthal food crawl was bar All'arco. Since we couldn't decide which cicchetti to get, we ordered one of each to get the full experience. It was a good decision because we enjoyed all the variations like salami, prosciutto, cheeses, seafood spreads and veggies. For those who don't know what cicchetti (cicchetto singular) are, they are bite size pieces of toasts topped with different ingredients. It is very similar to tapas and pinchos in Spain. The idea is you have a few of them with a drink at one place and then hop to the next for another round, and then so on. There were other locals drinking wine at 10 in the morning, so we didn't feel out of place drinking early.
Just down the street is the oldest bar in Venice called Cantina do Mori. The bar has been open since 1462 with the same copper pots hanging on the ceiling and several dozen bottles of wine lining the walls. The cicchetti here wasn't nearly as good as the last place. However it was very cool to step into a time machine and witness a historical setting that has been unchanged for hundreds of years. Good thing the next place was 20 minutes away because we really needed to walk off all the food we ate.
Cantine del Vini Già Schiavi was another feature in the Venice episode of Somebody Feed Phil. With unique topping combinations and cheap drinks, you can see why this bar gets packed for lunch and dinner. 2 euro proseccos, you don't need to convince us.
We then made 3 quick stops before returning home for a much needed nap. We tried the outrageously expensive bellini at Harry's Bar. The claimed original was worth trying, but save your 22 euros for a second round somewhere else. Located at Saint Mark's Square is Caffe Florian where we drank some excellent macchiatos and limoncello spritzers. We have read and heard from friends of how busy St. Mark's square can be in the summer. Surprisingly it wasn't too congested. The server looked very puzzled when we requested limoncello in our spritzer. In Venice, everywhere you look there is someone sipping on an aperol spritz. Perhaps the limoncello combo is more popular in areas like Cinque Terre and western Italy.
We finished our day food crawl at La Boutique del Gelato. Alessandra personally makes and serves all 16 gelato flavors. But don't ask for samples. You just have to go with your gut when picking flavors, or do what we did, have a scoop of each gelato. Alessandra thought we were kidding. Boy she didn't know the duo from A Dreamer's Holiday. All the flavors were great. You can tell it's homemade with passion, love and care. We love meeting owners and chefs that truly love what they do in life. Our video of the delicious ice cream was recognized by the man himself Phil Rosenthal on Instagram. Thank you Phil for these amazing recommendations in Venice.
Since we basically ate 4 meals for lunch, we kept it very light for dinner. Down the street from our airbnb is is Oficina Food & Wine Ormesini. We snagged an outside two top just by the small canal to eat a salad and pasta. The veggies in the mixed green salad were very refreshing. We also enjoyed the gnocchis simply tossed in crab sauce. It was a very nice night to enjoy dinner and drinks. Venice has been everything we hoped for. And we are excited to see what else it has to offer these upcoming days. Go to our Instagram feed for up to date posts on what we are eating. Ciao for now!