Venice To Florence

We did a lot of walking on Saturday (11/17) afternoon. We went through the Cannaregio and Ghetto areas. We walked along the Strada Nova which is one of the main thoroughfares and there were many more locals than over by the San Marco area. It was pretty cold so we ended up carrying Parilla a good part of the day.

In the evening we found the best vino e cichetti (wine and snack) bar in the Dorsoduro. It was called Cantinone gia Schiave on Fondamentta Nani. The food was good and the wine even better. There is something special about having your wine and cichetti in a standing room only atmosphere. We went for a walk because I (Wendy) was too embarrassed to go back and get a 3rd round of cichetti. When we returned the place was starting to close down, but they were still serving wine so we had another glass and talked to the owners a little while they fed Parilla mortadella. We bought a bottle of Amarone and look forward to having it with a home cooked meal in Florence.

Mid-day on Sunday (11/18) we took the train to Florence. The apartment we rented is very cozy. After walking around for an hour looking for a restaurant we decided to buy supplies to eat at home. We found this great market and café. We took home fresh pesto, finincchio salami, pasta and burrata (a cheese like mozzarella fresca but consisted of more whey making it very soft almost like a cottage cheese). It was diffreant but very good.

Monday (11/19) we went to the Mercato in Florence. It is a gigantic market that has many different stalls and everything from butchers, to cheese shops, to bakeries, to vegetables and fruits and many other things such as olive oils, balsamic vinegar, and mushrooms of all types including truffles. We bought some fruit from a very cute old Italian woman who hand picked each item and wanted to know if we were going to eat it today or tomorrow.