The Steak-Out

July 12th 2012 It’s the 12th of July, but I didn’t wake to the sound of riots or petrol bombs, I woke to a freezing room having left the air conditioning on all night. Not wanting to waste the day Rory and I went straight to an early breakfast and managed to get a table by the balcony which overlooks the Grand Canal – I don’t know what was nicer, watching the boats glide by or the all you can eat breakfast buffet.

When we were fed and watered we began our action packed sightseeing day by taking a water bus to Saint Mark’s Square. If you are ever in Venice I would highly recommend one of these – they’re not as fast or as glamorous as the water taxi’s but they’re about €40 cheaper and if you can get a seat at the front of the boat you get to see an awful lot. I even managed to see our taxi narrowly miss another boat. Nothing like a near death experience to wake you up and get you ready to see the city sights!

Our first stop was the Bridge of Sighs, which was quite nice but Venice is full of bridges and there was no way I was paying €80 to take a boat under it. We then walked past Doges Palace, which was a lovely building with a not so lovely queue that we decided to avoid and instead we headed for Saint Mark’s Bell Tower. It was €9 to get up the tower and I think it was worth it – the views of the city and Saint Mark’s Basilica are excellent and you can spend as long as you want up there. You don’t even need to walk up the stairs, you’re taken up and down by an elevator, convenient or what!

Our next stop was Saint Mark’s Basilica whose queue had shortened considerably by noon – I think everyone thought they’d beat the queues by arriving early, making the early morning a much busier time to visit. The Basilica might not be the most impressive church in the whole wide world but if you actually think about the amount of time and effort it took to create the mosaics which cover almost every inch of the building, you can understand why it’s such a big deal. It’s quite amazing really.

Here’s a tip; the Basilica is a church so wear something that covers your shoulders, if you haven’t got anything like that then they give you a shawl to wear and return. Also, you can’t bring a backpack into the Basilica – if you get to the front of the queue and you have one they make you take it to a building a street away but you can return to the front of the queue. If there is a massive line it might be worth dropping your bag first and then going to the front of the queue with your little locker key – you’re probably not allowed to do that but it saves time :)

We then set off on our next (and most important) mission – finding the best gelato in Venice. Trip Advisor recommends Boutique de Gelato and we weren’t disappointed. The servings were huge, the price was low so while it took us a few hours to find the place (after getting lost, again) it was definitely worth the wait.

It was also quite close to the Rialto Bridge and market area so we got plenty of lovely touristy pictures, see below.

Later that evening we decided to try Timone, a restaurant recommended by Trip Advisor. We arrived early so took a walk around the surrounding area. We found ourselves in the Jewish quarter, which is actually known as the Jewish Ghetto and is supposedly where the word ghetto comes from. After our walk we returned to the restaurant but as the menu was in Italian we got what the waiter recommended, a meat meal to share. After a while he returned with our dinner – a massive steak, cut up and ready to share, surrounded by chips, broccoli, aubergines, courgettes, peppers and peas.

It looked amazing and tasted just as good. It took us a while but we devoured the entire thing, which left only one thing to settle – the bill. We hadn’t seen the dish on the menu and the waiter never said the price so we thought it would be around €40 but when Rory came back he was missing an arm and a leg. Not literally but the meal had cost €67. I suppose it’s not that much for a good steak and everything that came with it, plus we’re in Venice but the moral of the story is; don’t listen to Trip Advisor when the comments say that a restaurant is “really cheap”.

P.S. I would also like to add that I do not condone riots or petrol bombs and I have never woken to the sound of either. Obviously. I’m from Ballyholme.