Viva Italia Day 11 and 12 – Venice

11/1

On the train ride to Venice, we sat next to some people from Little Rock, AR. They were complaining the whole time about their nannies! Rich people problems…

More Coke Light!

We were a little confused about how to get a ticket for the water bus when we got off the train in Venice. But we figured it out. It really is crazy to take a boat everywhere instead of a car! After we checked into the hotel, we walked around and found a place for lunch. I had pizza with huge chunks of parm cheese and arugula. (PS – Italians call arugula rocket. I should totally call it that from now on!) Josh got his spaghetti carbanara…again!

Our hotel was amazing – seriously. You could take a boat right up to the front door. So luxurious! I didn’t take any pics of the outside, so please click the link below and check it out. Beautiful!

Duodo Palace Hotel

11/2  We had a short walking tour schedule for the next morning. We saw the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Cathedral. They were having mass, but we still got to go in. After that, we went to a fancy little local restaurant where we tried some traditional Venetian seafood dishes. We had an appetizer of salted fish – it had shrimp and sardines – the sardines were actually really good! Then Josh had salted cod with polenta. His dish was sooo yummy! Cooked perfectly and then pureed until the fish was creamy. I had rolled sea bass with tomatoes, capers, and arugula. It had a really tasty sauce on it too. For dessert, Josh and I shared a bowl of warm chocolate soup with gelato. Mmmm! After that, we walked around and explored for a long time. Josh finally bought his Italia jacket that he was looking for the entire trip. I bought some tiny black and gold Murano glass earrings. For dinner, we went back to the pizza place we had eaten at the day we arrived in Venice. (It was the most affordable place we could find.) Since it was our last night – we went all out! We got a bottle of merlot and later on, got a ½ bottle of the “vino della cassa.” (The house wine.) I had a capresse salad (mozzarella, tomatoes, and lettuce – not basil like I wanted – boo) and tortellini with ham and mushrooms. Josh had spaghetti “amatriciana” (spicy sauce). And after all of that? We also got a pizza with spicy salami. Hey – it was our last night after all!

After that, we got some gelato and watched people riding in the gondolas. Neither of us really had a desire to ride in one, so we skipped out on that. But it was fun to watch other people ride!

11/3
To get to the Venice airport, we splurged and rented a private water taxi to take us back to land where we caught a regular car taxi. We thought it would be an easy way to end the trip instead of trying to figure out the water buses and rail way. And since we didn’t ride a gondola, we figured it would be fun. I felt like a rich person when the taxi floated right up to the front door of our hotel and we stepped in. It had rich mahogany interior (Anchorman anyone?) and blue velvet cushioned seats. Very fancy! It was so much fun riding through Venice in such a fancy boat!

So to sum up our Italy vacation…

IT WAS AMAZING!

Everything went smoothly, surprisingly. Josh and I handled all of the uncertainties well – and we didn’t argue much, only a few times when we were trying to agree on where to eat. Ha! Our motto for the trip: “We’ll figure it out!” Any time we got stressed about what we needed to do (how to catch the water bus, how to get to the hotel from the rail station, directions to the meet up locations, etc.) we would just say, “We’ll figure it out!” And we did! I’m such a planner and a control freak, I was very proud of myself!

The food was amazing, the history was amazing, the wine was amazing – everything was even better than we expected. I’m so happy that we were able to take such an wonderful trip!