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Published: October 14th 2007
Gondola Ride
You feel like a king and queen on throne in these gondolas. They have big furry and velvet seets.After a couple hour nap, the sun has set and we are now ready for dinner. It is about 8:00pm as we start out to look for somewhere to eat. We stroll along the calle's which are all now with out the many tourist and very quiet. We spend some time looking in the windows of which now we have time to peer into. The calle's are so narrow and busy during the day it makes it hard to look in some of the window displays.
We stroll along the Grand Canal and check out the Rialto Bridge at night. There are still a few tourist and locals trying to sell their song and flowers to the romantic strollers going across the bridge. We came upon a lone gondolier and starting some small talk and before we knew it we were taking a romantic ride on the Grand Canal. It is so quiet and only the sounds of the oar hitting the gondola and small waves can be heard. He takes us under and the Rialto Bridge which is really beautiful at night. We go into the narrow canal ways and the gondolier moves his big boat with pure precision
around the narrow and sharp corners of the canals. He tells us where Casanova and other worldly figures have stayed in the buildings along the canal. We have no idea if it is truth or just tourist fluff.
On our romantic canal ride we are thinking how hungry we are and see a well lit alley way restaurant which was busy with customers. Most cafes and restaurants are closed by this time so we set in our mind we wanted to find that restaurant for dinner.
After our lovely gondola ride we set out to find that restaurant. We have no idea how we are going to find it and just start out in the direction we thought it might be. Within just a few short minutes, wa la - there it was. It was meant to be.
We have a most amazing dinner, however surprising it is not traditional Italian cuisine. Bill chooses to have rack of lamb which was out of this world. I had a crusted shrimp that made your eyes roll into the back of your head with enjoyment. We also enjoyed a good bottle of wine, desert, bread with this garlic cream
cheese spread and a little unexpected treats. I would not have ordered desert if I knew these were coming with our meal. First treat was a little chocolate cup filled with a melon and pumpkin liquor and the little cup was made of incredible chocolate. Then we received a tiny little shot glass like desert of a cream and cookie. We enjoyed the food so much we made sure to take a picture of the restaurant name and street name so we can come back some day. The only complaint is the portions were not large enough; it was just so dang good!
By this time, small portion of food and a bottle of wine the buzz has kicked in and we are feeling great. So we continue on with out evening and end up in San Marco Sq. There are still people there, artist vendors and live music, however all those hundreds of pigeons are all gone. Where did they all go?
We spend some time in the square and have fun snapping some night pictures and carry on to get back to our room. On our way, we come across the bar/cafe we had lunch at.
There are a bunch of people outside with their dogs and playing Frisbee. The bar has a DJ and we decide to have a drink.
I have a beer this time, since the wine I had at lunch was not that great. I also go for a shot of this Italian Liquor called Franet Branca. This is supposed to be just a shot, however the bar tender gave me almost half a cup. Now we are feeling no pain, except ready to get some sleep. We take our time walking back to our room and having some more fun with night photography.
After crossing the Rialto Bridge again we decide to take a different calle way to our room and we end up coming to an small open campo where a bunch of 20 year olds are grouped drinking tall cans of Heineken beers. I am buzzed so I felt comfortable to go up to one of the locals and ask them what they were all doing here (it is about 2am at this time). The 2 guys are asked said the bars had just closed in this campo and everyone was hanging out finishing their drinks. We
Pizza Cafe
Venice at Night spend about 1/2 hour talking to them as they were so nice. By the time we are done talking with them, we are sharing their cans of Heineken.
After mixing it up with the young locals we head on our way and find ourselves in quiet calles and trying to find our way through the Venice maze to our room.
About 3:30am we find ourselves finally getting to our room.
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