Oak Street Ranch

Ciao Italy!

Well, the time has come to depart Italy, but not without a quick recap of last night's adventures:

First - a walk over to Harry's Bar. Its located just to the side of St. Mark's Square, right on the water. TINY. A small doorway (like getting in a phone booth), takes you inside a bar with the murmur of activity, but quiet elegance (the barbacks wear tuxedo jackets).
The bartender is the general - pointing when people walk in, so that the bar back/greeters take them to a table and take their order, while watching when people reorder, keeping a tab in his head, all while making a dozen bellini's at one time, and chatting with a few folks.
We did have the traditional bellini - made with their peach base and proseca sparkling wine. Followed by a screwdriver, made blended, then over ice; as well as a bloody mary. It was so cool there, we just couldn't leave.

But we did.

Roamed through the city some more on our way to a restaurant recommended by the hotel. Ristorante Antico Pignolo. Let me say - if you're making a top ten, must visit list for Venice restaurants, this one would be high up on it.
I wish that I was bigger or that I had fasted or something - just so I could eat more!
When we arrived, the place was quiet - getting in just before the heavy dinner hours -but as we sat there the place really filled up. Waiters in tuxes, fine dining to be sure. We started with some wine and cocktails. From there - jen had the caprese salad. I was told to inform Rob G., that this is the caprese salad that one dreams of (assuming one dreams of basil, tomato, and mozz.) I had the prociutto and melon. Delicious and simple.
Jen had the veal scallopini with vegetables. I had the lasagne. Jen's meal was melt in your mouth good. The lasgane I had - pretty much the best lasagne you've ever eaten. Every bite was delicious and it left you wanting more.
We ended with the strawberry crepes, made at the table, set alight, and served with a flourish, along with some grappa. The dishes we saw from other tables made us want to order all of their food too - but we were stuffed to the gills.

-- Ok -- back up to date:
Saturday AM - time to go!
We grabbed a water taxi from the hotel to the airport. VERY cool ride. Different route than the train station, so we got to see even more of the city.

You pull up to a dock and off you go. Here's a tip - they ask if you want a porter to take you to the airport. We did it, since we had big bags and had no idea where it was - But, you drive right past a perfectly lovely pedestrian path, about a 2 minute drive. If we had smaller bags, I would think you could walk and avoid the cost. But, as mentioned elsewhere, our bags are pretty big and heavy, so in the end, it was probably worth it.

Took care of stamping our VAT reciepts. Chilled in the airport. I might mention - very new looking, very nice airport. A few shops, places to eat, etc. Hardwood floors in the airport. Yes, that's correct. Hardwood floors. Its crazy. Venice is a very very expensive city, but you do get the perks I suppose.

Nice flight - we got the exit row, which made the flight more comfortable than the one from London to Rome.

Landed in London.
What can I say - They have CADBURY CREME EGGS IN THE AIRPORT VENDING MACHINES!!!!
(Ok, if Nell is reading this, let me say - we didn't get any, we just admired them from the outside).

Car picked us up for our drive to the hotel. We landed at Gatwick which is about an hour away from London. (We're leaving from Heathrow, so it will be closer and easier).
Checked into the hotel - Very nice. I like the downstairs "Honesty Bar" - basically a bar like you'd set up at your house (or like we did at ours), with a clipboard there. You fill in your room and what you took. Interesting. We're about a 10 minute walk from the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. We plan to hit those. We plan to hit a place nearby for some fish and chips for dinner.
I must say - its almost informatin overload to be able to read street signs and papers, etc in English again. Very nice.
Also, we have more TV options - BBC channels, MTV, etc all in english. Still not quite DirectTV, but at least not 5 channels of italian dubbed 70's tv shows, their version of Donahue, and something resembling MTV Pimp My Ride (again, in italian).
(Not to mention the endless CNN International and BBC World).

More later - Hope all are well.

Cheers

posted by Mitch @ 8:09 AM