Starting a day with a cream filled pastry has soon become my custom in Venice. In the early morning of Day 3, surprisingly J joined me! We stopped by at a bakery called Farini near our B&B for breakfast. We saw three bakers kneading dough. One of them was also tossing generous amount of butter in a large commercial standing mixer. I always like such an open kitchen to see chef/baker's activities. In the showcase, there were several options for sweet pastries. I picked one with cream and so J did. Welcome to my sweet world, J! The pastry was very good.
We decided to explore San Polo area for the day and left Farini for adventure. The first thing we found was a fish market near Rialto Bridge. Fish, fish, fish and more! All looked fresh and yummy.
We heard sirens for high water, "
acqua alta" warning in the morning. The water level of canals looked pretty high, but luckily we were able to walk around without problems all the day.
We walked through
Campo San Polo, the largest campo (square) in Venice and visited three churches:
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari,
Chiesa di San Rocco, and
San Pantalon. We felt a little bit tired after looking up at large alters, paintings and statues on the walls and ceilings in the churches, and looked for a place to rest. A bakery called Dolcevita caught our eyes. I had chocolate croissant and hot chocolate with cream. J had not only cappuccino but also cream filled doughnut! Somehow he had a taste for sweets on the day.
After the nice break, we did a museum tour from
Palazzo Mocenigo (textiles and costume),
Ca' Pesaro (modern arts), to
Fondaco di Turchi (natural history). I was very impressed with extensive collection of Japanese objects in
Ca' Pesaro.
Before going to the third museum, we felt hungry. We tried a bacaro called
Cantina Do Spade. In Venice, Bacaro is the ancient name for a bar/restaurant for a quick drink (a lot of wine!) and bits (usually traditional Venetian tapas called
cicchetti). It's a place for locals, which we would like to go and try during a trip.
Do Spode was one of our B&B hostess's recommendations. The place was very crowded but we managed to secure two chairs and a corner of the shared table. We picked five kinds of
cicchetti - baby squids, meat balls, fried mozzarella, scallops, and marinated sardines - from the counter, and a lady there served them with polenta on a plate. Everything was delicious! I wish I could try each one of all
cicchetti there!
After visiting the third museum, we walked more in San Polo area and fortunately found an excellent gelato shop in
Campo san giacomo dall'orio. I tried Walnuts and Fig and Panna Cotta. J also had Walnuts and Fig as well as chocolate. The gelato was so creamy and flavorful. We could tell theirs were the best gelato of those we had in Venice. Surprisingly they had Mochi gelato (ice cream wrapped with sweet rice cake), too. I had never thought I would see Mochi gelato in Italy.
We still had time until sunset. We kept walking and crossed the bridge near the train station, coming back to Rialto Bridge through Cannaregio area.
When we reached Rialto Bridge, it was almost time to go back to B&B to rest. However, we felt a little bit hungry. Perhaps the cicchetti lunch wasn't much. We remembered our hostess told us her favorite pizzeria, which was very close to the B&B. How could J say no to pizza, especially when he was in Italy?
The pizzeria was called Antico Forno. They made both thin and thick crusts. I chose Italiana with thin crust. J had ham and mushroom with thick crust. Mine was pretty good! I had a little of J's. The thick crust was so light like airy focaccia. Toppings were simple and fresh. We were very satisfied with the pizza and happily went back to B&B for beauty sleep. To be continued...
