Venice Day 1 - San Marco & Castello

Our Day in Venice began with a clear sky and crisp air. We stopped by at a cafe called Cafe Del Doge for a quick breakfast. I had a cream-filled croissant and hot tea. J had just cappuccino. I guess he didn't want any sweets and the cafe didn't have any savory pastries at that time. Sweet baked pastries (or plain croissant) seems common as a breakfast option. I can easily live with it!

While I felt still warm with tea, we took a walk to the center of the city, Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), explored the inside of Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) and climbed up to the top of Campanile (bell tower), where endless strong winds beat us up badly. The view was stunning and it was worth being there.

We were freezing and dashed to a hot meal. Our lunch at Da Cherubino was lovely. We got a table once they opened at 11am. 

We both had Zuppa di fagioli alla veneziana, Venetian pasta and bean soup, as a starter. That was delicious and saved our lives! By the way, several little tube pastas were in the thick smooth bean soup.

I had Fettuccine con polpa di granchio (Fettuccine with crab meat). It was pretty good, too! Fettuccine was cooked nicely. Simple light tomato and olive oil sauce made sweet crab meat be a star! 

J ordered Spaghetti a la carbonara (Spaghetti with bacon, eggs and cream). He have me a bit of it. Spaghetti was nicely chewy and al dente! Much better texture than our spaghetti from last night. Rich but not too heavy. Bravo!

Although I was curious about their dessert menu, we decided to take a walk and find somewhere to rest for sweets. It didn't take a long to find one. We saw people enjoying coffee and sweets through the windows at Ristorante Al Theatre's cafe space, and quickly joined the crowd.

We enjoyed a couple of cute little pastries topped with creamy mousse while standing at the counter. In Italy, at least in Venice, standing and hanging around the counter at cafe or bar seems very common. I didn't see a place like Starbucks where people with a laptop secure a chair or sofa and stay for hours. Anyway, the sweets were tasty!  

We walked more and came back to St Mark's Square again to visit Museo Correr, one of the 11 civic museums. After strolling along a promenade called Riva degli Schiavoni for a while, we visited a naval museum, Museo Storico Navale. 

Time for dinner? We didn't have any place in mind. While we were just walking towards our B&B, we saw a place called Dal Moro's Fresh Pasta to Go. It was a take-out pasta in cup and actually has been reviewed very well on tripadvisor. J had pasta with Bolognese sauce and mine was with simple tomato sauce. As a casual, quick, inexpensive meal, the pasta cup was satisfying. I didn't have a chance to take any photo, though. My hands were full! After the pasta, we had gelato on our way back to B&B. 

It was only Day 1, but I felt like that we did more than one day activities. To be continued...