European Voyage Part Cinque: Venezia

One of the perks of our Eurail pass was jumping on a train any given day for a spur-of-the-moment day trip. It was a little rainy in Florence, so my mom and I decided to hop on a train to Venice. We hadn't planned on making the trip over, but it was only a 4 hour ride and well worth it. It was a little drizzly in Venice too, but such a crazy, amazing place. The odor is indescribable. It's not terrible or fishy...it's just Venice I guess. We spent most of our day on the water buses tootling around the different islands. Man was it cold though. I was ready to get on the nice warm train by the end of the day.

I never quite got over seeing steps just leading into water.

Doge's Palace

Piazza San Marco

The one goal my mom and I had while we were in Venice was to have spritzes, a drink my sister Emily had raved and raved about having while she was in Venice with her husband. They had them at Campo Santa Margherita and said it was a really cute area. Well if we thought Siena was confusing, we had another thing coming when we got to Venice. Instead of venturing to Campo Santa Margherita, we decided to stay at Piazza San Marco for spritzes. They were sooooo good!

Here's the recipe:

• 1 1/2 ounces Aperol (rhubarb liqueur)
  
• 3 ounces Prosecco or sparkling wine, chilled
• Sparkling mineral water or club soda, chilled
• 1 orange slice
• 1 green olive

I personally like my spritz in a tumbler with crushed ice, but it's good any which way. It's really become the family favorite drink. Emily just moved back to Germany and said spritzes are all the rage. One restaurant here in Atlanta serves Aperol, but I haven't seen it anywhere else. We usually just order ours from the local liquor store, so it's easy enough to get.

There were so many dogs in Venice! They were everywhere: off leash, on leash, dressed, and not dressed.

We were only in Venice for lunch, so we just grabbed a quick snack at a bar.

They were okay, nothing to write home about, but not bad by any means. They were nice, hearty, and warm, all that mattered at that point.

We didn't want to venture too far from the train station since we were on the last train back to Florence, so we just wandered around to different shops. We came upon this really cute produce market.

I'm really glad that we got to spend some time in Venice. I would love to go back for longer, and maybe in the springtime when my fingers and toes won't freeze....

European Voyage Part Quattro: Firenze

Have I mentioned that Siena was confusing? It was such a relief to get to some familiar territory. I went to Florence with my sister Emily about 4 years ago. There's something about the city that I find really easy to navigate and just comfortable. It's definitely one of my top three places in the world. We stayed at a great hotel in the Oltrarno area, the more residential southern side of the river. It was on the 2nd floor of a cool building overlooking the Arno.

Entrance from the street to our hotel.

Door out to the courtyard

Teeniest elevator I've ever been in; just enough room for me and two suitcases, so we opted to take the stairs most days.

We spent our first day walking around, browsing shops, and snacking. I spent entirely way too much money a a gold ring with a carved turquoise flower from a shop on the Ponte Vecchio, but I love it and still wear it all the time. We recharged our batteries with a little pizza. It was good, but didn't compare to what we had in San Gimignano.

After pizza, we had a surreal run-in with a local fashion designer...I'm still not sure what to make of it other than it was fun! We had champagne in his store and chatted for awhile, and my mom got a rad leather jacket. To snap ourselves out of the oddness of what just happened (one of those you had to be there moments), we had some hot chocolate and a pastry at a nearby cafe all for the bargain price of 20 euros! Total rip-off, but the hot chocolate was like melted dark chocolate....yum!

We walked around a bit more and decided to pick up a couple of beers at the deli on our way back to the hotel. Some sitting and relaxation were in order!

For dinner, we went to an amazing restaurant that I actually went to the last time I was in Florence. Nove IX is right on the Arno and serves contemporary Italian cuisine. It was a fancy restaurant, so I was too embarrassed to whip out my camera to take pictures....we did have an amazing dinner of prawns with green apple and passion fruit, pasta with a duck ragù, spaghetti with an artichoke cream sauce, and cheese for dessert. I highly, highly recommend going there if you're in Florence!

The next day we designated as our official tourist day. We hit up the Duomo, Piazza Lorenzo for the leather market, a big food market, the Uffizi, and Palazzo Pitti.

Duomo

Entrance

One of the dome ceilings

My mom made the climb up...I figured, been there, done that, and I hate heights.

Blech, just looking at the picture makes my stomach drop.

Stairs so steep you can't even see the bottom.

Piazza Lorenzo

Food market near Piazza Lorenzo

A kilo of each please.

Yum...organs....

Walk to the Uffizi

I bought a painting from this man and his dog the last time I was in Florence. So cool to see them again!

One of the passageways at the Uffizi

Caprese salad for lunch, delicious!

Gardens at Palazzo Pitti; the rest of my pictures didn't really come out, so it was at this point that I vowed to get a new camera because the Palazzo was AMAZING. So much gold!

Cool window at the Palazzo

We grabbed a couple of beers and headed back to the hotel to catch Obama's inauguration (woo hoo!). Our feet were due a good amount of sitting down time.

I know, we should've had Peroni.

Everyone wherever we were in Europe asked about Obama and was so excited for the inauguration. Us too, believe me!

For dinner, we went to a truly terrible restaurant. Dante something? Soooo cheesy. The owner was some sleeze who tourist girls kept swooning over. Gag. I think he could tell my mom and I weren't impressed, so he gave us some lemoncello which was the best part of the meal.

The weather for next day was supposed to be kinda dismal, so we decided to make use of our awesome train passes and take a day trip to Venice (pictures soon to come). We made it back in time to enjoy one last Florentine meal, and I'm so SO glad we did. We went to Il Latini, a place I had read about in the New York Times. It was so much fun! It's a definite must-do if you go to Florence. Yet again, I didn't want to whip out my camera is this crowded restaurant, so no pictures ( a big regret!). But the decor consisted of rustic farm tables and hanging hams just to give you an idea. We sat at a shared table, and basically the waiter asked what kind of stuff we liked and just kept food coming. We ended up having pâté, crostini, antipasto, salami, cheese, three or four different kinds of pasta, an almond bar dessert, a chocolate pastry, and fennel biscotti. He kept bringing us all these different kinds of alcohol too: white wine, red wine, sparkling wine called Muscato, and an appartif. Two and half hours later, we left full and happy for only 60 euros! It turned out to be our best meal in Florence. That meal combined with a nice stroll along the river was the perfect way to end our time there.