Well, I thought we were finished with this blog about our Venice month but when I downloaded the pictures to the computer, I realized there were pictures from the last day in Venice. Oops, we didn’t blog that day. I will try to remember what we did but mostly I want to post our “food porn” pictures from that evening!
We spent the morning packing (Ugh!) and Alan went around the corner and picked up some olive foccacio for lunch. We were supposed to meet Nan at 5 and still had a couple of errands to do, so left earlier than that. Of course, it was before 4 o’clock so the stores we wanted to go to were closed for lunch. We decided to walk some of the streets of Cannaregio that we hadn’t explored and really found a lot to see. There are whole sections of that sestiere (our home sestiere) that we haven’t seen, so we have another wonderful reason to come back. We met with Nan for a glass of wine and a final goodbye and then went back to the apartment for final packing duties. We had an early (7 PM) reservation at Ostaria da Simson. We had passed it almost everyday and Shannon from SlowTrav had asked us to go there and check it out, but we never had a chance until that last night. I must say that I wish we would have gone sooner because we would have gone more than once! It is a very small place (16 seats) and is run by two young men who have a very high energy level. The place is wide open so you can watch the cooking going on and the neighborhood men coming in for a glass of wine to drink outside and the serving of everyone’s food. The meal was wonderful. The restaurant serves Venetian dishes but with a modern twist and has an extensive wine list, all available by the glass. We started with marinated salmon with sliced apples and cranberries which was so good I could have eaten two or three plates. We noticed that the other appetizers were huge so if you eat there, that course might be good to split. I then had pasta with gamberini (hope that is right, we’ve been back a week now and this is from memory) which was excellent and filled with already shelled gamberini and some in the shell. Alan had branzino which was outstanding. There was also a duck breast dish that others at the restaurant were eating and which looked great. We split a pumpkin mousse for dessert and it was amazing. After eating out once a day for a month in Venice, Ostaria da Simson was quite a find because the food and cooking were different enough to make it very interesting.
We came back home (about a three minute walk) and went to sleep, only to have to wake up at 4 AM to get the water taxi which was ordered for 5:30 AM. We left to go to the airport which only took about ten minutes and then had the “seven” minute walk to the terminal. It took us one hour and 20 minutes just to check in and then we had to go through security. Both of us were glad we had left enough time. Iberia was not the most efficient check-in we have ever gone through to say the least!
Now we have been back a week, are just about over both jet lag and our colds and are busy picking up the pieces of our “normal” life. About once an hour, one of us will say “Oh, how I wish we were back in Venice.” What a great time we had and how we are looking forward to returning.
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Marinated Salmon
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Pasta with Gamberini
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Pan-roasted Branzino


Comments

One Final Entry — 2 Comments

  1. Ciao, BJ & Alan.
    Glad you are over your colds but not over Venice 🙂
    Gotta plan for your return trip soon. This place is so addictive.
    After a few days of rain after you left, the sun has been shining.
    Maybe, we’ll see you next year?!?