day 027

// bob's on his way to barcelona, looking longingly at the grass on the other side of the window



// happy hour during saturday siesta: patatas bravas, croquetas and beer at a french/german bar



// dinner at rias de galicia: teeny tiny octopi!



// fun sidewalk while walking around barcelona after dinner

day 026

// before leaving sarmeola, we browsed through in.gredienti, the food shop of the alajmo empire



// back in venice ... making japanese tourists feel right at home



// we found more cicchetti and more baby squid

day 025

// cicchetti at our favorite bar in venice before heading to sarmeola



// after a train and bus ride, hanging out at the pasticceria of calandrino



// lamp shades made out of fish skins?



// looking through the wine list at le calandre ... that table of middle-aged guys in the back. they were taking iphone pictures of their meal all night long. cute!

day 024

// after a relatively quick train ride, we find ourselves in venice



// complimentary snack while waiting for dinner. fried shrimp the size of a quarter, or smaller.



// vibrant shells from our seafood dinner

eataly ... the real thing

so, from sf, we went to new york, to taipei, to sapporo, to osaka, to frankfurt ... and then to milan and venice and a day trip to sarmeola.

we decided to include venice because aj hadn't been there since high school and it's a generally romantic city. we included milan because i wanted to go shopping in the motherland of fashion.

well, venice turned out to be only ok. our first hotel was sub-par. if you're going to stay in venice, i would highly recommend staying in a hotel out in venice mestre (first city on the mainland, not on the island). a 1EUR train ticket will get you to venice in only 10 minutes and the hotels seem much nicer (refer to my previous post for a visual comparison of the rooms).

i thought we might check out some murano glass or burano lace while we were out there, but i knew i wasn't going to buy any of it, so we skipped that part. our hunt for good snacks ended up being the highlight of venice.





milan actually ended up being more fun than venice. our hotel was awesome. gelato was excellent. super tasty breakfast self-catered from local delis. and the window-shopping could not be beat. i would have come out with so many new pairs of shoes, if only they had my size! perhaps next time we go, it will have to be before the stores get raided by models and editors in town for milan fashion week.







our side trip to sarmeola (small village in Padova/Padua) was planned entirely around the first "destination meal" of our trip. by "destination meal," i mean i wore a dress, aj wore his sport coat, and we used a credit card. it's the kind of meal reserved typically for celebrations like birthdays or anniversaries. but in our case, it's career research. and this research session left me overstuffed. i'll let aj do the recap, since that's his thing, but i will tell you, my dessert was accompanied by a small video projector.

4 days, 2 people … 20 scoops of gelato

don't feel too bad for us. we've had some fun in the past week. fun which included lots of gelati.

after a full day in milan with zero gelato (shops appear to close early, like 9:30P), we went on a mission to find some. and made sure not to pass up any promising-looking shops, just in case they'd be closed later.

first stop, gelateria marghera, only a few blocks from our hotel. we had some chocolate and strawberry. delicious. and they had other pretty frozen desserts too, but figured it'd be too much for breakfast.



then after lunch and walking around some, we came across bottega del gelato, just off corso buenos aires, south of loreto station. it looked like their specialty is gelato stuffed back into the fruit skins (you can kind of see the stuffed limes behind my right shoulder). we just went with the straight gelato: banana, strawberry and kiwi. again, delicious.



then further down corso buenos aires, there was one of grom's locations in milan. i had already hit my gelato quota for the day, but someone else went for some more. crema and nougat. ok, i stole a few licks. yummy.



the next day, we took the train to venezia/venice. we found a spot for lunch and enjoyed the sun. and then realized we had not had any venetian gelato on that fine day yet. so we walked along the main road and picked a gelato shop. stracciatella, ciocolato, and variegato nocciola. boo, big thumbs down. it tasted kind of weird and there was lots of air turned into it. that was the last poor gelato for me. no more choosing just any shop. unfortunately, a shop we wanted to visit to make up for that mishap was closed.



the next day, we took the train to sarmeola, a small town in the munipality of rubano, in the province of padova. i repeat, small town. the only attraction there was a family-owned compound consisting of a hotel, a restaurant, a bar restaurant, and a shop. at the bar restaurant, we found delicious (and the cheapest!) gelato in all the land. pistachio was my first choice. so creamy, so true in flavor.



aj followed that up with a scoop of crema (custard with a hint of vanilla). mmm, why can't all gelati be this good?



the next morning, after breakfast, we had to have one last scoop. chocolate.



later that afternoon, we found our way back to venezia. and the shop we were looking for the other day was finally open! aj got some fruit-flavored one (apple?) and i got zenzero (ginger). icy but nice clean flavors. i really liked the ginger.



aj liked it so much, he went back for a third scoop. coffee.



we walked around the rest of the evening, and capped it off with two scoops of artisanal gelati: lemon and milk. so good. oh wait, now that i'm recounting it, aj definitely went back for another cone. what was the flavor?



and the next morning, while waiting at the airport gate for our flight to barcelona, aj walks over with a scoop of pineapple sorbet. pretty decent. but mental note, sorbets should be eaten in a cup, not a cone.