Venice, Italy

First of all, allow me to say that I am SO SORRY for not posting in practically a month! My life has been absolutely insane! Right after I got back from Venice (this was my last big weekend trip) I had to prepare for my two week internship at the International Festival du Cannes. And as soon as prepping for THAT was done, I went straight into it. Which was so. Much. Fun. Btw. 🙂 ❤

Future blog post to come. 😉

But Venice! I went with my friends the weekend of May 5-7 and had the absolute best time of my life.

Okay, yeah I know I’ve been having a lot of “best” times of my life lately, but this was truly another one of them. ***HINT: because fooooooooooood. 🙂 🙂 🙂

See below:

FRIDAY MAY 5: We flew into Venice just in time for lunch! Since we knew we were only going to be in Italy for a short period of time, we turned to TripAdvisor to lead us the way towards the best of the best so that we could have the most tasteful trip in the most efficient way possible.

Our first stop was the world famous take away pasta place, Dal Moro’s which was DIVINE!!!! Like no joke. They make homemade pasta in house and the process works something like this: you choose your noodle (either spaghetti or fusilli) then choose from a selection of sauces such as Pesto, Frutti di Mare, Alfredo, Pomodoro, etc. Once this is done, you either pay up, add a drink, OR TOPPINGS! Which includes mushrooms, olive oil, a variety of cheeses, and pancetta (but not for this pescatarian).

I opted for the Alla Norma with spaghetti which was a red tomato sauce with basil, eggplants, and fresh ricotta cheese. YUM!!!! ❤ And allow me to just fangirl over the importance of homemade pasta for a sec. The texture is so chewy, yet soft (in the most perfect way possible) and no matter the portion, it always sits lightly in your stomach. Meaning there’s always room for more later 😉

SIDE NOTE: Summer project includes buying a pasta roller and figuring out how to make homemade pasta myself. ❤ ❤ ❤ This will happen. It must. It’ll literally make me so happy.

Post Dal Moro’s (AKA the LOML) we hit up the top rated gelato place as per TripAdvisor’s request: La Mela Verde. Here, I had THE BEST dark chocolate gelato in my whole entire life. But forreal.

It was so rich and decadent and creamy and I ate it so fast I was practically sobbing when it was done. God. This chocaholic has some serious probs.

Post gelato, I realized I didn’t have my phone with me so I had to retrace my steps and found out that I’d left my poor mobile device at Dal Moro’s.

Hehehe YES it was that good that it distracted me of all my responsibilities.

After I found my phone (the owner placed it behind the counter for me THANK GOD) we decided to walk around aimlessly and explore the city blindly. We happened upon some ancient Cathedrals, walked through a LOT of touristy shops, pet a lot of dogs, and each bought wire bound headbands (that are SO CUTE btw).

It was a pretty chill day to say the least. Which was definitely ideal because it was vacation (and our last one before the hectic weeks of the festival) after all.

So for dinner we opted for a nice seaside view at the Michelin Star restaurant, Escercizi Colpo Di Nico (which I HIGHLY recommend). This place has Michelin Stars for a reason. I got a Venetian specialty dish of “cuttlefish cooked in its own ink” (the menu’s exact words) with grilled white cutlets of polenta, a glass of red wine, and this delicious basket of sunflower potato bread. For dessert, I had THE ABSOLUTE BEST tiramisu in my entire life while watching the sun set over the river as cheery tourists in gondolas sailed by.

After dinner, we got on a gondola ourselves (splitting it with two other tourists for a pretty good price) and got an awesome night tour of the city (also highly recommend). And post gondola? It was back to our stay at a camp ground called Camping Rialto that didn’t have free wifi or sinks or toilets or drawers in the cabins. There were literally just beds. And we had to bring our own toilet paper to the bathroom. Also if you literally had no money, you could stay in a tent for like 3 or 6 euros a night.

BUT split four ways I payed just 30 euros for 2 nights for that cabin. It was somewhat ideal.

SATURDAY MAY 6: We were up and ready to go by 10 a.m. Utilizing TripAdvisor once more, we hunted down the BEST bakery in Venice and headed out for breakfast. The place was called Pasticceria Tonolo which has been family run since 1886 and was DIVINE. I got a café Americano and my first ever cannoli which was HOLY FREAKING DELICIOUS.

It was filled with the thickest, most sweetest cream my taste buds have ever layed themselves on and covered in sliced almonds on the outside. EHRMEHRGEHRD. It was heavenly.

And since it was craaaazy sweet (which I loved don’t get me wrong) I could only do one pastry which meant I was still hungry and needed something savory to counteract it and suppress my appetite.

We headed down the road a bit until we stopped at a generic street food shop where I got yet another deeeeeliciously satisfying find of vegetarian focaccia. ❤ Ugh.

Once breakfast was complete, we sailed away to Murano (a neighboring island) for the day where we saw a glass blowing demonstration at (temporarily forgot the name of the place, but when I remember I will insert it here), bought some souvenirs, had lunch at Ristorante Dalla Mora (where I got this deeelicious smoked salmon and veggie pizza; PICTURED ABOVE), and accidentally took the wrong ferry to get back to Venice haha WHOOPS.

It happens to the best of us.

Once we did get back to Venice, we went up to the tippy top of Campanile di San Marco where we got an INCREDIBLE bird’s eye view of the city. We then shopped for some more souvenirs, I got another dark chocolate gelato, and we hit up Cafè Saraceno for dinner. WHICH WAS A TOURIST TRAP. DON’T EAT THERE.

Yes, we had yet another pretty view of the river and the gondolas and the Rialto bridge, and yes my seafood pasta was pretty good but the service was TERRIBLE. They were so rude, we were rushed, and my friends’ ravioli was deemed to be sub-par. As well as their desserts.

NOT. WORTH IT. Def stick to the more authentic over touristy places. We also didn’t check TripAdvisor for this one, we just chose randomly which was our bad. Whatever.

Post dinner we headed back to our campsite (lmfao so weird), brought our own toilet paper to the bathroom, and went to bed.

SUNDAY MAY 7: The night before it was so cold and rainy and the cabins don’t have air conditioning and heaters that barely work (yeah, you really do get what you pay for) so I slept in leggings and a sweater (my plane clothes for the next day) under my pajamas, put warm fuzzy socks on, and used my coat as a comforter because the campsite only gives you sheets.

Oh, and I also got a spare blanket but it only helped a little.

When I woke up, I simply whipped off my pajamas, put on some boots, zipped up my coat, and the four of us were off to the airport and back to France.

***

Venice WAS THE BOMB. Besides the tourist trap of a restaurant and weird ass camping ground. If I could stay there longer and eat more pasta and pizza I would. Italy literally knows food so well and that’s tbh why I love them so much. Even their airport food is delicious!

God.

The only other bad things? Abby and Elle were crazy sick, it rained cats and dogs Saturday evening and all night….aaaaaaand I accidentally threw out my wallet in a trash can at the airport.

OF WHICH I didn’t even realize I did until I was back home in France. Hahahaha WHOOOOOPS.

I think its safe to say that 5 weeks straight of non-stop weekend traveling finally got to me. Ya gurl was exhausted. But I still ran 3 miles when I got home to burn off some steam. Then I got sick the week after. It was the first time since my sinus infection at the beginning of the program, though so I’m glad I’ve kept up my health until then! But that’s another story.

It’s crazy to think that this was a month ago. That I’m posting this on June 1st, and that I leave back to the United States in just 2 days. What in the world?! Time has literally flown by since I’ve studied abroad out here and I cannot believe it. Je suis triste.

But I’m ready to go back. Four months was ideal for living in France. Especially since I am by no means fluent. The week leading up to now has consisted of lots of beach and whatever food that I want because life’s short and I don’t know when I’ll be coming back here. 🙂 I’m still running btw 😉

I’m excited to return home and see my family, start training for a half marathon again, and start some other projects I’m pretty stoked about.

Shoutout to the rents for letting me study abroad. It has literally been the best experience (and college semester) of my entire life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. ❤ I cannot recommend taking advantage of this opportunity enough. It literally changes you. For the better.

Thanks for reading, I rly hope you enjoyed that picture above (God it’s making me so hungry looking at it) and see y’all in my next post! 🙂

XOXO,

Rebijord ❤

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