Venice, lots of people and water everywhere!

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

We took a ferry to Venice and as we stepped into it, we realized how many people are there. So many. I was quite shocked. I knew that Venice is popular place for tourist but I did not know it is THIS popular! 

Well, we walked to the St. Mark's square and walked around there. To escape from all these people, we walked into the city where there are not so many people. 

Venice is amazing city. I don't really know how they built it but it is just amazing and you feel like you have time tripped to a different era when you walk down the narrow dark alley of Venice. And of course, there is water everywhere.  Some of the views are just like from a picture or postcard. 

I know it is very touristic thing to do but I had to have a gondola ride. It was beautiful and I really liked it. It is quite expensive but I think it was worth. I just wished that it was longer. But it must be a lot of work for the gondoliers to do this everyday. I liked that all the gondoliers talk to each other and joke around when they pass by with other gondolier. 

Of course, I ate in Venice. It was difficult to pick a restaurant because there are just so many and you don't know which one is good. At one of the restaurant, I had grilled shrimp again. This time it was different kind of shrimp. It did not taste too fresh. I liked the one I had near the other night much better. 

My sister had mixed fried seafood. This was also OK. Maybe because we were in touristic area, those restaurants are not so great. 

We also went to fish market and vegetable market. All the fish and vegetables looked fresh. I wished I had this kind of market in close to where I live. 

One thing I wanted to eat in Italy was zucchini flowers. I found them in the market but I couldn't find them in restaurant we went. Too bad. Well, this will be a good reason to go back to Italy :-)

We spent two days in Venice. We really walked a lot. I don't know how much we walked. We were all so tired from walking and heat at the end of the night. But It is amazingly fun to walk in Venice. It is just like the whole city is a one big maze! 

We went to this really cute restaurant on last night in Venice. It was in the area where was not too touristic and they had a nice outside seating in the back of the restaurant. The restaurant opened at 7pm and we were the 1st customer of the night. 

Here my sister and I had Bellini. It was so yummy and refreshing. 

Then we shared appetizers. One was Beef Carpaccio with arugula and parmigiana cheese. The other one was prosciutto with melon. Both of them were excellent! One thing I notice in Italy was that their fruits are extra sweet. 

Then I had this main course which was Venetian dish. It was pasta with anchovy and onion. The waiter warned me that it is very salty but I ordered it anyway because I wanted to try something from Venice. The waiter was not kidding, it WAS really really salty and unfortunately I couldn't finish them. Even though I love fish and I grew up eating fish, It was a bit to much anchovy taste for me. 

My husband had this Gnocchi. It was really good. 

My sister had pasta with seafood. When I look around the restaurant, most people were ordering this dish so this must be a famous dish from this restaurant. It was good and tasted like ocean. 

Venice was really nice and it just amazing how they try to keep everything the way they were. I would love to go back to Venice again sometime. Maybe when it is a little bit cooler and less people so I can sit outside cafe at St. Marks square and have a nice espresso. 

Next, we drove to Verona though some winery area and some small cities. See you tomorrow!