June 26th: Still in Venice

We started the day with purchasing (bright yellow) boxes from the post office, so that we could mail some things home. Kristi had lots of souvenirs to ship, and Christine and I just wanted to get rid of some weight and bulk so we packed up some clothes. We then had to go to a different post office in order to get the customs forms, and being Saturday they were closing early, so it was slightly frustrating waiting in line, getting forms, filling out forms, getting back in line, and then coming down to the wire for time...but finally getting our stuff mailed (bye bye 10 extra pounds!). Hopefully it makes it home safely. (update: my box was pretty busted up, but the stuff inside was fine! However Kristi is missing a couple items, but ended up with some huge book that belongs to some German guy).

We were starving after our postal excursion, so we found a place that looked affordable and yummy. We ordered a pasta dish (tomato and bacon sauce) and two pizzas (margherita, and speck & gorgonzola). Also a bottle of wine, as that has become the norm with most meals. We then crossed the Grand Canal, and looked around in the market. Finally, we purchased water bus tickets to get over to Murano, unfortunately we got on at the wrong stop and ended up touring around the whole city for an hour first, and then having to buy another ticket because ours was used up. But we made it to Murano, late in the day so things were closing, but still had the opportunity to see in a few shops and make a few purchases. A lot of the items we’d already seen in Venice anyway. We looked to our guidebook for a dinner recommendation, and settled on Da Alberto for pasta, seafood, and steak. Mary needs her red meat. We caught the end of the USA vs. Ghana game in a bar, and had some French fries (to feel American).








Tomato and BACON sauce


Gorgonzola and speck pizza




Grand Canal


View on our city tour (leading to Murano)








Da Alberto


Meat


More squid ink

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Dinner in Venice

We went to a recommended pizzeria for dinner, da Mamo. It was excellent (we had a fresh ravioli dish, as well as two pizzas, a bottle of house red, and an amazing mascarpone cheese dessert that I will be making when I get the chance). It wasn’t busy and we made nice with the waiters, so we ended up with some free shots and a fun conversation about Indian food, which really surprised the waiter from Bangladesh (he was surprised that we knew the names of Indian dishes). When we were done with dinner, we walked right across the alley to a pub that apparently was owned by the same people (the free shots had been from one of the co-owners). Not sure what the guy said to the bartender, but he immediately jumped into a tirade of explicatives and waved around a fake gun. We then found out that he’d spent some time in New York. We got a few more free shots, then we headed home to recover.

House red


We made our oil and vinegar attractive


Homemade ravioli with saffron


We get a lot of cheese pizzas, because they usually have four different cheeses (quattro formaggi) and being Italy they are usually AMAZING cheeses




We played a game of hangman to determine what country the waiter was from (since we hadn't figured it out in all our guesses)


Mascarpone dessert


Free (and colorful) shots


Crazy bartender


Flaming Sambuca




Met a dog on the way home
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June 25th

Time to head to Venice! However, once at the train station we learned there was a “blackout”. Not entirely sure what it meant, but basically something about people not being able to buy tickets until after 6pm. But we already had a ticket (we had a Eurail pass for Italy) we just needed reservations (some trains require you to reserve a seat beforehand, for an extra cost). Normally we wait in a ticket line to get reservations, but we were told we could just get on the train and pay the conductor. So we got on a train, but it seemed everyone else also got on the train, and without reservations that made it standing room only for us. We never did have to pay anyone since no one came through asking for tickets. But we did spend the whole ride to Venice sitting in the connecting hallway for two train cars. Luckily it wasn’t a long ride.

But yay Venice! Yay city of canals! At first we really hated the stairs up and down all the bridges that we were having to lug our luggage over, but once settled in our hostel things seemed quite nice. We got in a lunch of pasta (squid ink and clam sauce!) and explored the city, including a bottle of Prosecco. I'll post about dinner next.

Packed train


Being lazy


Venice!




Squid ink pasta!


Spaghetti with clams!


Murano glass shops were everywhere


Venetian masks








Prosecco




Stay tuned for more food!

More pictures can be found in my Europe Flickr set, here Read more!

June 24th: More Florence

Turns out this was a festival day! Festa di San Giovanni, to celebrate Florence’s patron saint. So...lots of activity going on in the city (processions, parades, and people) but also lots of things closed (like the Duomo). So instead of climbing a bunch of stairs, we instead walked around on solid ground. We found more pasta for lunch, as well as some panna cotta for dessert (so now we try to order that everywhere).

We wanted to go into one of the major museums, so we bought tickets for the Ufizzi Gallery. Unfortunately, it wasn’ t until we were inside that we learned you couldn’t take pictures. It was still quite interesting, we saw a lot of great masterpieces, such as Botocelli’s Birth of Venus, but it’s always more fun when you have photographic evidence.

We’ve been trying to have the local cuisine in all the places we visit, and Florence has the bistecca alla fiorentina, which is a huge steak cooked over wood or charcoal, with salt, pepper, and olive oil. That sounded right up my alley, so we picked another guidebook recommendation for dinner, L’Osteria di Giovanni, and had the hostel’s reception desk call and make our reservation. We managed to show up in time, and were treated to quite the amazing meal.

Festival day procession from the Duomo into the Baptistry














Fried BREAD


bistecca all fiorentina




panna cotta

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