Another day for adventure. Our Day 2 in Venice started with a lagoon cruise by a
vaporetto (a waterbus in Venice) to Murano island. More precisely, it was after our breakfast at the cafe of Ristorante Al Theatro. We liked the cafe yesterday, and we were back! I had a giant brioche-like pastry filled with pistachio cream. J had a kind of quiche. He must have been happy to find savory options there.
It took about 50 minutes or so from San Zaccaria, a vaporetto station near Piazza San Marco to Murano island. During then, I was standing on the deck of vaporetto in cold winds and mists and busy with taking photos. No one doubted that I was a tourist.
Murano was quiet and slow. It was a nice brief escape from the tourist-crowded main islands. We visited Bacilica dei Santi Maria e San Donatoa, a 7th century Catholic church with beautiful mosaics on the floor and large bones of a dragon behind the altar that is said to have been slain by Saint St Donatus as well as Murano glass museum. In fact, Murano is all about glass. Glassmaking is what the island has been doing over 700 years. Glass art works sellers were everywhere.
Some glass works were beautiful, which we admired; some, especially those designed for tourists' souvenirs, didn't show me a value to be a Venetian glass. After all, we didn't buy any glass. Instead, we had a wonderful lunch.
Acquastanca Osteria was a charming restaurant. Behind the counter bar that looked lively with locals was a cozy, relaxing dining area.
Their grissini were so light and crispy! The rolls were nice, too. Glasses for water were pretty! Authentic Venetian glasses made in Murano? I assumed so. By the way, serving bread for lunch seemed like a standard and for free in Venice, while a glass of water was for fee although I have never asked if a free tap water was available.
My first dish was seared scallops with puree of a kind of beans. It was very tasty. J had dried cod and polenta. That was delicious, too. I heard that salted cod was consumed widely in Italy while not salted but dried cod was a specialty in Venice. Venetian dried cod,
Baccalà Mantecato is usually mashed or whipped to serve, so the texture is feather-light, creamy and its taste is very delicate without saltiness. J's dish confirmed that.
My second was baked Taglierini with scampi. I expected a kind of hot dish that came with scampi showing off their own shells. I was wrong. The dish was much elegant. Scampi was carefully unshelled and baked with pasta. The pasta was super tender but still had a bite. The sauce was deep and complex. Everything in the bowl created a perfection. Buonissimo! J had grilled octopus with chickpea puree and greens. I tasted a bit. Wow, it was one of the best octopus I had!
When we were leaving the restaurant, I saw torte that looked yummy. If there is next time, I will definitely order a dessert.
We browsed more glass shops and didn't buy anything after all. The sky was getting cloudy. We took a vaporetto, heading to the main islands. We didn't have any specific plan for the rest of the day, so we got off at Orto station to explore Cannaregio area. The area seemed quite with much less tourists, perhaps to be a residential area. We visited Madonna dell'Orto, a 14th century Gothic church and passed by Campo dei Mori, where we saw the statues of Arabian-style silk merchant brothers, the "Moors (Mori)" and a Venetian famous painter, Tintoretto's house.
We walked a lot again and it was time for cappuccino for J and sweets for me. We stepped into a bakery we happened to find. I had a little pastry with apricot jam, which was nice.
Although it was getting dark outside, we took a vaporetto again to go to a museum. Unfortunately the museum was already closed when we got there. We took a vaporetto back to Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge). At least we were able to maximize the use of our 24 hour tickets of vaporetto!
To be continued...
