Venice, Italy

Bern and I, together with my parents just returned from spending a whole week in Italy. I now have a tan as black as charcoal! Ok, maybe that is slightly exaggerated, but I am prety toasted. Our first stop on this (mostly gastronomic) trip of ours was Venice. It was a short trip from London, and the flight took just over two hours. I knew Venice was going to be very interesting as soon as I realised that I have to take a water bus from the airport to the main island. That is definitely not a common experience. We could feel the city stress drift away as we anticipated the sight of Venice as the water bus/boat got closer. The lovely sunny weather was also a nice change to the pasty and cloudy London weather.

The view of Venice from the water bus

As we got closer and closer...

We checked into our hotel Mori di Oriente, which has a great location, as it is not near the touristy areas of St Mark's square, but still of easy walking distance from the main centre. We took a leisurely walk along the banks of Venices' many canals before heading for dinner. The area near the hotel was perfect for a nice stroll as there weren't too many tourists. The first photo above was one of many photos that I took of the area as the sun set.  It was also quiet with the exception of a few motorboats chugging down the canals. There were also many private gondalas and boats along the canals.

Perfect bliss....

Guido, the receptionist at the hotel was kind enough to recommend a restaurant nearby and this place was called 40 Ladroni (40 Thieves). He claims that he normally frequents the joint himself with his family. From the canal front, the restaurant looked a bit dodgy, but we thought we'd try it anyway as we have not seen anywhere else that we liked. But we were pleasantly surprised as we were brought to the back of the restaurant where there was a garden. After that, the surprises kept going. The food was fantastic! We were thinking if our first meal in Italy was sooo good, how are the rest of the meals going to compare?

On a tangent, when I got back to London, I looked up the restaurant on tripadvisor and it only had lukewarm response. Kind of 50/50, some people enjoyed it while others extremely detested the place. Although I must say that the negative reviews were mainly regarding poor service. After a week in Italy, I have to say that service is not their forte, with exception of a few (mainly hotel staff and Marco, the owner of the B&B in Rome). We found that most were very brusque, almost bordering rude. But this is typical in Italy, and if you keep this in mind, and try not to let it bother you too much, you will be fine. It is not personal.(although there was the ONE occasion that it got personal, and I will have to briefly mention it when I blog about Rome. But it will be BRIEF- I will just mention the incident quickly as I do not want to waste my time and any more breath/typed words about it). If you want fussy service, this is not the restaurant to go to. But the only thing that mattered to me was the food. So let me begin to tell you what we had...

Seafood being their specialty (they do not do pizzas- it is not a pizzeria), that was what we mainly ordered plus a couple of Costello beers.

Squid ink and cuttlefish pasta

Do not be put off by the colour, this is a really tasty dish. Our first meal at 40 Ladroni ended up being one of the best meals (if not the best) of our entire trip.

Home made fettucine with prawns and wild mushrooms. I have been thinking hard, and this has got to be the best pasta of the whole trip (even compared to the black truffle fettucine that we had in Perugia) and almost definitely the best pasta I've ever had. Simply delicious, the pasta is al dente and the mushrooms so juicy and tasty. I could eat this again and again and again.... This is torture, as I am salivating as I remind myself of this meal.

Gnocchi with crab sauce                                                                        Side dish-grilled vegies

Fried baby calamari- this was superb! Could not get enough...

A simple platter of grilled fish...

And after such a lovely meal, it had to be washed down with ...... GELATI! This we got from a canal side shop. Do not worry, you will find a gelateria in every corner of every Italian city. There are hundreds of them... and the rule would be to eat at least two scoops of gelati a day.