A few weeks ago Mike and I went to Venice for a long weekend. We took the train, which took 10 hours through some of the most beautiful scenery. The time passed us by as we watched movies and caught up on a few TV series. We were also lucky enough to have a cabin to ourselves so we could really stretch out.
Venice was beautiful. It is such a different place to anywhere I have ever been before. The alleyways are just that, small winding alleyways. There are no cars or roads. Everything is so old. There are no new shiny high-rises or brightly lit supermarkets. Everything is tucked away into old buildings. It would be a very unusual and different place to live. It is magical to walk through the alleys at night which are so quiet and maze-like.
Although Venice is beautiful, it is full of tourists, I think half the population at any one time is made up of tourists, which means almost everything in Venice is geared towards a tourist. So as you can imagine the food isn’t gourmet. As Venice is set on a Lagoon, seafood is one of their specialties – not so great for a vegan. This doesn’t mean it’s not tasty, it’s just noting fancy. We ate pizza most of the time we were there. Mike would eat pizza for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner so it was no struggle for him.
Two nights we ate at a pizza chain called Ae Oche. This was pretty good. The pizzas were reasonably priced and there was big selection.
This was a pizza we had at a small place on the island of Burano – all the pizzas look the same!
A different take on a pizza I had was at Il Profeta/Pizzeria Al Profeta, where I ordered a vegetarian pizza (no cheese) and it came closed up (like a Calzone). It was super yummy and by far the best pizza dish I had in Venice. I loved how the dough that was enclosed had gone stretchy and chewy giving the effect of melted mozzarella. Mike stuck with the traditional pizza and ordered another wild mushroom pizza. He thought it was the best pizza he had in Venice.
The only non pizza meal we had was at GAM GAM Kosher Restaurant, the only Kosher restaurant in Venice. This restaurant is fantastic and the starters were amazing. I’m a big fan of having lots of little dishes to try and there were plenty here. I then had a Mushroom Pasta for dinner and it was really nice. I had saved some of the chilli dip starter and mixed that through my pasta for some extra kick. It was really nice. You definitely have to book on a Saturday night as this place was packed and there was a serious line up.
If you do travel to Venice remember that some focaccia breads and other bread products are made with strutto (pork fat ) - yuck. As we were leaving Venice we also had another falafel for lunch, just before we hopped on the train. It was so good! It seems that Venice makes awesome falafels…… who knew.