Venice and the 300-Euro Lunch

June 11, 2014

Kicking off an Italian vacation in Venice is a pretty sound decision, if you ask me.

 

When hubs and I began planning this trip, we thought Venice would be a good place to start, because

a) We’d arrive in Italy jet-lagged, and Venice is a pretty good place to chill and gather your bearings. There aren’t tons of historical sites or museums to see–the purpose of Venice is to wander aimlessly through the streets, hang out and people watch, and get all fuzzy, goopy, and romantic-y feeling.

b) If we started the vacation feeling all fuzzy, goopy and romantic-y, we’d have a solid foundation for the more grueling legs of the trip

and

c) If we started the vacation in Venice, the most expensive city in, like, the history of histories, the rest of our trip would seem cheap! A bargain even! Get the sticker shock out of the way, right?

 

We did really good in the chilling department. We did a lot of gondola watching and patio lounging.

 

We also did really good in the spending money department. We wandered into our hotel restaurant on arrival, too jet-lagged and tired to explore the city just yet. Our hotel has an awesome restaurant on the rooftop–you can see all of Venice from there, which we did. We also failed to worry about the fact that there weren’t prices listed on the menu, which was a wee bit of a mistake. Our modest lunch of a bottle of wine, two small salads and two entrees came to a whopping 300 euros. Euros, not dollars. As if dollars wouldn’t be steep enough.

But hey, I guess hubs and I just decide to get things rolling with a BANG!

Luckily, we learned our lesson early, right?

Good news is, after that little incident, we discovered the Rialto fish market.

 

 

While that area of the city sports some pretty overpriced restaurants, it also houses hidden little gems that serve up the best spaghetti vongole (spaghetti with clams) and lovely house wine with zero attitude and a modest price tag.

 

 

We did, however, get assaulted on the streets by a flower vendor who would not take “no” for a answer.

That was one thing we were unprepared for–the sheer aggressiveness of the folks shilling stuff in the streets. Holy cow, those guys were hard to get rid of. We did learn, though, and got increasingly better at fending them off. Good thing we did, too, because those shillers in Venice? The shillers in Rome are a thousand times more tenacious. Jesus.

After we survived flower shake-down, we sat in the square and watched pigeons assault bread-wielding tourists (more on that later). Why people think they can offer a piece of bread to one pigeon and not attract flocks of them is beyond me, but can I tell you how completely freakity-freaked I got watching those birds flap and squawk and perch all over people?

Shudder.

I heard someone compare Venice to an aging beauty queen who is slowly rotting but hasn’t yet realized that her luster is fading. Or something like that. I think that’s a pretty apt description, if you look really closely, but we weren’t willing to look through that kind of microscope. After all, our journey was just beginning. To us, everything looked plump with possibility–even this aging beauty queen of a city.

That 300 euro lunch bill, though?

Damn.

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

S in AK June 11, 2014 at 10:16 am

Yup, I saw the 300 Euros and nearly fell off my chair. Cough! Choke! GASP!!! I love your photographs. And you look beautiful holding the bouquet of red roses. I”m eagerly looking forward to reading more! (Also, I was once encouraged by a friend to feed the fish in Hawaii frozen peas. Naively, I thought this sounded like a charming idea. The instant I freed a couple of peas into the water, I was swarmed by hundreds of fish. They bumped and banged their heads and tails into the side of my body. I *get* being “freakity-freaked!”)

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Jamie June 11, 2014 at 11:01 am

Isn’t 300 euro like 600 dollars? How?!?!

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elizabeth June 11, 2014 at 1:34 pm

At least it wasn’t 300 pounds? I hope it was at least a delicious lunch for being so expensive. You have to love* those rooftop places with the view–not far from our place in New York there was a restaurant at the top of one of the apartment buildings that was infamous for being horrifically expensive (as in, $25 for a cup of coffee expensive).

I hear you on feeling freakity-freaked by the pigeons, as they are in essentials city rats with wings and completely fearless.

Looking forward to reading the rest! The photos so far have all be extremely gorgeous.

*hate

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elizabeth June 11, 2014 at 1:35 pm

At least it wasn’t 300 pounds? I hope it was at least a delicious lunch for being so expensive. You have to love* those rooftop places with the view–not far from our place in New York there was a restaurant at the top of one of the apartment buildings that was infamous for being horrifically expensive (as in, $25 for a cup of coffee expensive).

I hear you on feeling freakity-freaked by the pigeons, as they are in essentials city rats with wings and completely fearless.

Looking forward to reading the rest! The photos so far have all been extremely gorgeous.

*hate

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Tinne from Tantrums and Tomatoes June 11, 2014 at 11:29 pm

Well, at least you had a nice view…
About those vendors: sunglasses. Just stare straight ahead and ignore them. And if impossible: smile take the flower and walk away. When they come running after you for your money act offended “OMG, you tried to sell me flowers/carry my lugage/whatever and you want paiement for doing something nice! You are a horrible human being!” – style.

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Alison June 11, 2014 at 11:34 pm

The Venetian vendors sound exactly like the ones in Vietnam. They bug you all the way down the street, and if you asked if they’d sell their grandmother, they would say yes.

But gosh you look LOVELY with those flowers.

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Tiffany June 12, 2014 at 5:45 pm

300!!!!!!! Wow!! I don’t know if I could handle the vendors!

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Barbara June 13, 2014 at 5:31 am

That Rialto market is divine, isn’t it?
Cute photo of you!

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