What seemed to be a rocky start to our Italian holiday
turned out to be quite the traveling treat. After a night of “packing our bags”
with some of our favorite people in the world we took a quick power nap and
ACTUALLY packed our bags at 4am. What can we say, we work best under pressure.
We arrived at SFO to find that the flight we were supposed to be on at 10:35
a.m. didn’t actually exist. Yup, that’s right, we were booked onto an imaginary
flight. I held back tears and managed to maintain composure as the kind woman
behind the counter worked hard to get us on another flight. A little sweat, a
few choked backed tears, and 45 minutes later we traded in our Chicago lay over
for one in Germany and all was well in the world again. Goodbye Chicago pizza,
hello bratwurst and beer! Yes, we actually look forward to eating at the various
airports while traveling. Don’t judge.
Determined to make the best of our freshly acquired free
time we set off to find a morning mimosa to start the trip off right. Per my aunt’s suggestion we located the
elusive Business Lounge entrance and acquired within. Marcus flashed his pearly
whites (and we explained the airlines error) and they agreed to let us into
their exclusive club… for the day at least. In anticipation of our upcoming
Italian indulgences we helped ourselves to the complimentary cappuccino and
pastries. With a view of the bay, a glass of champagne, and the CrossFit
Regionals streaming live on our laps, life
was good.
We finally boarded our plane and got cozy in the two middle
seats of a 4 person row. Nice. Despite staying up all night were unable to get
comfortable enough (go figure) to actually fall asleep so we watched another
Katherine Heigl inflight movie; She must have a deal worked out with airlines because
every time we fly we see one of her movies. I actually enjoy the inflight
movies though, it’s a time for me to catch up on the chick flicks and tear jerkers
I don’t normally watch at home.
On our layover in Frankfurt Marcus had the hyped up Bratwurst
with spicy German mustard and a hefeweizen. He said it was incredible,
remarking that the only time he had a better hot dog was when it was wrapped in
bacon. So take note Germany, start wrapping those puppies in bacon! The hef was
fabulous, but after a 10 hour flight I’m sure a luke warm Pabst Blue Ribbon
would have been the bee’s knees.
We arrived to our hotel in Venice around 3pm and quickly
refreshed before heading out again. Our
host, Maurizio, was fantastic and took ample time circling our map and giving
us tips to avoid the dreaded tourist traps. His route led us on a vaparetto
ride along the Grand Canal to the impressive Santa Maria Cathedral. From there
we followed the tip of every book, blog, and fellow traveler: we got lost is Venice. We walked along the
canals, turned down side streets, and explored the paths less traveled without
once pulling out our map. We sat on a canal and had the most amazing gelato of
my life at Gelateria Squero: one scoop Nutella and one scoop Amaretto. The
Nutella gelato really set the bar high with crunchy bits of cookie swirled with
smooth hazelnut Nutella. I’m betting it
is the best we will have, but the only way to know for sure is to keep tasting.
For the sake of data collection we’ve decided we must have gelato once to twice
a day in order to execute a proper survey. It’s a tall order but I’m willing to
commit and give it my best effort. Who knows, we may even decide to do a little
extra research and throw in a third or fourth gelato sample. We’ll see.
We both agree that one of the highlights of day 1 came shortly
after our gatrorgasmic gelato when we happened upon a group of people enjoying
wine along a small canal. This was an unordinary sight as we hadn’t seen more
than a few people at a time on the narrow back streets. We curiously approached
to find a tiny bar, Alsquero, serving drinks and tiny bites to eat. Everyone outside was speaking Italian and the
menu didn’t have a lick of English on it. PERFECT! We happily ducked in and
took one of the few seats at the bar. The gentleman behind the counter didn’t
speak English but with some polite smiles and gestures we were able to order
Prosecco and a variety of crostinis. We enjoyed our dainty delights as the sun
slowly sunk into the Venetian water. It was hard to leave but we eventually
pulled ourselves out and continued on to see what else the lovely city of
Venice had to offer. We wandered just long enough to find a place to enjoy
dinner (a pattern is quickly taking form).
At Maurizio’s recommendation we ate in the “University District”
at Misergardeno’s. We were greeted with a sparkling glass of Prosecco and a cheerful
“Buona Sera.” The restaurant was warm and inviting; eclectic copper kitchen utensils
decorated the ceiling and boisterous laughter from the large group of Italians
beside us filled the air. Not quite daring enough to try the octopus ink laced
pasta, we shared a plate of crispy calamari and homemade spinach with cheese
ravioli. The ravioli was cooked to what I imagine was perfectly al dente. I
can’t say for sure as I’m not an al dente connoisseur (yet!) but it was not at
all like the soft ravioli we are used to at home- and we loved it! Not quite
satiated by the amount of sugar consumed we “shared” (ahem, sorry babe) a
tiramisu. It was delicious, but much like the gelato I’m out to find the best so
future tastings will be required before a final grade can be given. For now
I’ll give it a tentative B…plus.
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