Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Venice

Sorry for the long delay in posts. We have been unable to use a computer for an extended period of time and the keyboards in France are just too weird to type on. We owe you two posts. Here goes the first.

We arrived in Venice on the 14th; about 10 days ago. We checked into our BUDGET hotel late that night. The lobby smelled worse than a public restroom, but the rooms weren't that bad. It was the next morning that we realized how thin the walls are, when it the noise of people from outside the room seemed as if they were right next to our beds.

After being well rested from a good night of sleep we went out on a walk through the canals. Man oh man Venice is gorgeous. It is even more beautiful than I had imagined. Small streets and alleys, little bridges, rowed houses... and it is not easy to navigate.

Being in the romance capital of Europe if not the world, we decided to take a gondola ride. To our surprise, the nice gondola man quoted us 80 Euro (120 USD) for a 25 to 30 min ride and upwards from there, OY! Being the Jews we are, we haggled the man down a bit in price and made a deal. The ride was all we had dreamed of and totally worth the hefty fee.

After that we did a lot of the normal touristy stuff like San Marco Square and the Basilica, Doge's Palace... It's all pretty similar to the stuff you see everywhere else, but it was nice. We went into this renowned Carnivale mask makers store. It was so awesome, but we don't have any photos of the masks as we were too embarrassed to ask if we could take pictures.

Later that night we got dinner at Rick Steves recommended Osteria de Nono Risorto. It was delish. Jenny got a mixed salad and I (Ethan and yes this is my first entry) got a 2 course meal. As the starter I got a pasta with red sauce and shellfish and a as an entree, squid cooked in its ink over polenta. I was still a little hungry so I ordered tiramisu for dessert.

The Venetian life style is awesome. When all the tourists go home (at about 6pm), the locals come out from hiding. You can find them in any bar with a drink in their hand. There is a typical Italian apertivo called a Spritz. Its made of Aperol or Campari and soda water. You can order it either dry or sweet. Its really yummy.

In the Venetian style, we started our nights early, and in the Venetian style we were usually out by 22:30 (10:30).

It is now 1:30 in the afternoon in Amsterdam and we are taking some of our precious time to keep you entertained. Paris to come as soon as we get back to the internet.

1 comment:

Kayli said...

Squid cooked in its own ink??? And all Jenny got was a mixed salad? Well, it sounds like Venice was really fun, I'm glad the Gondola ride was better that you expected. I got your message, Jenny, call Friday or this weekend if you can! I can't wait for some pictures!