Lunch at Al Nono
Our Mediterranean Cruise recap part 2
We had a whole day in Venice to explore. We got up and headed to the hotels complimentary breakfast. Colette enjoyed every breakfast on our trip. The hotels we stayed at in Venice and later Switzerland had wonderful breakfast options.
Breakfast at Hotel Rialto
Colette enjoyed trying a lot different things, the hot chocolate they would bring her, and eating bacon, and I found I really like Italian coffee for breakfast. They bring nice coffee and then a pitcher of warm milk. So yummy. Our cruise even had warm milk in the buffet every morning and I don’t remember this on our first Disney cruise to Mexico. We sat outside and watched people exit the vaporettos and head off to work, and enjoyed the quiet of the Rialto Bridge before all the tourists showed up.
Walking to St. Marks
As soon as we finished breakfast we headed to St. Mark’s square. I had read Rick Steve’s guide book on Venice and he said to get to St. Mark’s early. So, that was our plan. He was right, as we walked the alley ways to the square we got to see all the shops opening and it was peaceful, not full of people like you hear so much. When we got to St. Mark’s there was hardly anyone there. We looked around and took pictures, it was beautiful. Soon we headed toward the basilica.
St. Mark’s Square before the crowds
There was a line but it wasn’t bad, since the church hadn’t even opened yet. We must have looked like we knew what we were doing because a couple asked us if we spoke English and if they were in the right line. We were, and the line soon started to move. Since it’s free to tour the basilica most people seem to just do the main church but everyone moves together like sardines. It was pretty cramped. We did the treasurery tour. It’s just 2 rooms. 1 room has candlesticks, vases, incense boxes and other beautifully made items. The other room has relics, a lot. My daughter thought this was pretty weird, but still interesting. This little tour was not really necessary, and there is a fee. I would say skip it if I did it again, but it is a nice way to support the church. Next we did the tour of the altar. This part most people seemed to skip. There is a fee, but it’s nice to get a closer look, and it’s a great chance to get out of the crowd. Then back into the crowd and we headed to the museum. The museum is on the 2nd floor and you need to take some pretty steep steps. It has a lot of beautiful tapestries, mosaics and the bronze horses. The balcony has some great picture spots. After a stop at the gift shop we were off to explore the city. The basilica was the only thing we had planned that day. I didn’t want to wear us out and bore Colette with museum tours. I was glad that was all we had planned because wandering Venice is fun on its own.
We started to head towards a restaurant that I saw in the Rick Steve’s guide book, Al Nono. We were the only ones there at first, so they sat us on the patio (it’s a beautiful patio and very Italian) so you could see us as you walked by. While we were there the patio filled up nicely with a lot of other vacationing small families. The staff doesn’t speak as much English as other places we’d been to already. I was a little worried since Jeran’s gluten free but I printed out these dining cards in Italian and they really helped. They had gluten free pasta so Jeran had spaghetti and Colette and I shared a Marguerite pizza. This was also the first place Colette had Coke. We don’t usually let her have soda, but since it was vacation and Coke is usually safe when you’re out of the country, we let her try it. She loves Coke now! She tried it everywhere we went on this trip and would tell us if it tasted different. Italy, Greece, Turkey, Switzerland, they all taste a little different. Greece ended up being her favorite with ice and a lemon. I personally liked Turkish Coke better, it was sweeter.
Gondola ride before dinner
After lunch we wandered around looking at masks and glass. Colette decided she really needed a mask, we eventually found one but as we looked Colette had a desperate need for the bathroom. Finding a toilet was hard so we ended up going back to out hotel. We needed a break anyway. My feet were really tired from all the cobble streets and bridges. We rested for awhile and Colette watched Italian game shows while we tried to decide where to go for dinner. We had read another blog that told of a good gluten free pizza spot. We headed for it but could never find it. We did find a cute kitchen store. The clerk directed us to an area of town, where most tourists don’t go, to find some nice restaurants. As we were headed there another search for the toilet commenced. We finally found the public toilets and the line was so long we just went back to the McDonald’s we saw and bought a drink so we could use the toilet. The regular drink was 2 euros. We didn’t get any food but a small hamburger would have been $8.
There’s a lot of graffiti everywhere
Dinner switch
We wandered towards the restaurants we had been told about. We found Restaurant Diana. It’s right on a small canal. Most of the seating is canal side but they did have a small inside space. As we looked over the menu they gave us the house spritz it was ok but the food was really good. Jeran had sea bass, I ordered gnocchi knowing Colette would probably switch with me and Colette had pasta with clams. My gnocchi were delicious and I kept trying to get Colette to try it, she didn’t look totally happy with the clams. Once she did, we switched. The clams were so good. I was glad we swapped. When we were finished they brought us limoncello, Jeran was so excited.
Yum gelato
Then we headed back to our room. On the way we stopped for gelato, we’d already had some earlier in the day but we didn’t want to leave Italy without one more taste. We got Colette’s favorite stracciatella and headed up to the hotels roof to see Venice glow at night. It was a wonderful day of exploring and I’d love to do it all again.
The rooftop patio at our hotel
CAUTIOUSLY COURAGEOUS 