Saturday, February 28, 2015

Italy 2015: To Leap or Not to Leap - My Birthday in Venice





















If you believe the Facebook reminder that popped up today, you might think it was my birthday. If you wait until tomorrow, you will have missed it. However, for those who know me well, you know that I have one more year until my next birthday. Maybe my affinity towards little leaping frogs (one of my favorite words in Russian - Лягушка [lyagushka]...just like how it contorts the mouth and uses several funky letters) comes from being born on Leap Day. So this year, I decided I wanted to meet that birthday in Venice. I wandered to exhaustion once again today. First out to the Lido to visit the deserted beaches and then St. Mark's Square and as many back alleyways as I could find.

 



I planned on sitting down in a cafe to some real Italian cuisine, but I couldn't muster the energy. I passed by McDonalds and their Louisiana Bacon Burger?). Hidden behind a swaky cafe on Strada Nova I saw a sign for "Pasta - Take Away". Fried Land offered "high quality fried & food" and was no bigger than my hotel room. I almost turned around right then, but the menu looked promising and this way I could have my cake (or rather my pasta) and eat it too without sitting down to a full course meal by myself. I stayed away from the fried portion of the menu and took a chance on the Pasta funghi e speck (I had no idea what speck was, but assumed it was something akin to prosciutto or ham. I was right and the pasta was amazing! Along with some limonata and tiramisu for desert I enjoyed myself (with just a slight "nyquil-like buzz" from the tiramisu.)






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