{ venice: our last night }
For our last night in Venice, Funnel and I wanted to have a special evening: a nice dinner and a romantic gondola ride. I was especially excited for dinner because I had been sick for several days, and this would be my first meal in awhile that wasn’t plain pasta or white rice. We headed out on the Vaporetto to an area along the Grand Canal that had some nice restaurants:
The restaurant we picked had a large canopied terrace, as well as big heaters all around, so even though it was wet and cold out, we could have a nice candelight dinner along the canal and watch all the boats go by.
Funnel and I both decided to order fish. I ordered salmon, and Funnel ordered their special: sea bass that had been caught earlier in the day. When they brought out our meals, they brought out the whole, intact fish for Funnel, and then prepared it right at the table: they cut off his head and tail and then de-boned it.
During our dinner, our waiter and some of the others started singing. It wasn’t something gimicky that they do for tourists. I could tell it was impromptu, as they were all huddled together under the awning trying to keep warm, talking and laughing. I’ve always heard Italians love to sing!
There were many options for dessert, and we asked our waiter to tell us his recommendation. Between our limited Italian and his limited English, we were able to decipher that it was gooey, caramely, and custardy, and so we went for that. It was an excellent choice.
As we were eating our dessert, the water level started rising so much so that the patio started flooding a bit! “Ah… nine o’ clock” the waiter told us. I guess they are used to the flooding at certain times!
Unfortunately, as dinner ended, the drizzle turned into a downpour, so we didn’t get to go on our gondola ride. I was dissapointed, but the evening was still absolutely lovely and romantic.