Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we start our 🇮🇹ITALY 🇮🇹 trip series with a stop in Venice. For a visual guide to this week’s food spots, check out my Instagram at @fivethingsiate. Stay tuned for Milan in the following weeks!
Pistachio cornetto at Farini
Calle Seconda de la Fava, 5602, 30122 Venezia VE, Italy (but it’s a chain in Venice and Milan)
The first thing I ate after landing in Venice from a red eye and dragging myself/being dragged out of an extended nap was a cornetto, filled to the brim with pistachio creme. I was so tired that even though Farini, a local chain with locations in Venice and Milan, has delicious fresh pizza slices, I could really only stomach something sugary. (Husband got a plain slice though, with dough that was freshly made and tasted and bounced like focaccia.) I ordered it with a cappuccino, which was milky and delicious and perfect for dipping and pissing Italians off by drinking it at 3pm.
Cicchetti at SEPA
Calle de la Bissa, 5482, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy
Have you ever wanted a dinner of only snacks? (Every day.) Cicchetti is the Venetian answer to that, and it’s absolutely as amazing as it sounds. SEPA is a casual place— standing room only, but I don’t mind because they have an array of delicious bite-sized goodies under the glass counter and wine of all types by the 1/4, 1/2 and full bottle. On this particular night, I got zucchini (ha) stuffed with seafood, tomato stuffed with tuna, smoked salmon on fried polenta, squid on fried polenta, and a cold tiny bottle of red wine. The winner, of course, was from my husband’s plate — a sweet caramelized onion tart. Normally I’m not one to drink after a red eye flight, but the vino in Italy I swear goes down like water.
Cappuccino
Everywhere, before 11am
As a person who prefers to be punched awake in the morning, downing a whole 3 cup moka pot to myself, the Italian cappuccino will not do that for you. Italians, after all, never fuck with tradition, and a single shot of espresso— no double or triple shot Starbucks nonsense— is all you are going to get. This is a warm, milky hug (thankfully, in Europe the dairy is friendlier on my stomach) and I have to admit it’s perfectly balanced for dipping a cornetto in. Of course, don’t tell Italians that I went back to the room and made another shot with the Nespresso machine.
Fritto misto at AI BANKY Specialità locali di pesce
Via San Martino Sinistro, 330, 30142 Venezia VE, Italy
Murano and Burano islands are usually recommended as a day trip from Venice. Murano is the island for glass blowing, and Burano, for lace and colorful houses. Even though the glass factories are much more famous, we preferred Burano for the charming town and restaurants and wished we had spent a whole day there. Instead, we had just enough time for a lunch stop. AI BANKY (yes, all caps) was safeguarded by two stray cats, some of the only two I saw all trip, which is an excellent endorsement for a fried seafood (fritto misto) spot. Of course, that’s what I had to order. A medio platter went for 17 euros and piccolo 10 – I went with a medio because I too am a cat. It was a large plate but I downed 90% of it because the calamari and fish were just so damn fresh. The french fries here were also very crispy and cut thin so that they curved – a chip technique we experienced all over Italy that I wish more places adopted.
Espresso at Pasticceria Marchini Time
Campo S. Luca, 4589, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy
Pasticceria Marchini Time had the most beautiful and realistic marzipan fruit I’d ever seen in the windows, which is what drew me to stop inside and order an espresso and cookie at the counter. One of the beautiful things about bustling Italian cities is that whenever you are feeling both shy but in need of secondhand social exposure, you can always stop at a pasticceria and order an espresso and tiny sweet treat. Espresso was only 1.40 euro, and grants you permission to drink it standing at the counter, packed elbow-to-elbow with other solo espresso enjoyers. I quickly learned that I’m too short to properly stand at the counter, but even on my tippy-toes, it was a beautiful moment. My entire soul yearned for the realistic marzipan apple in the window display, which reminded me of the marzipan fruits at the Italian market we went to in New Jersey when I was a child; the smell of sawdust on that market floor but unfortunately I’m cursed with incurable shyness and used my last two euro on a chocolate cake I asked for by mistake. Although Venice is cramped and swamped with tourists, I felt a sort of peace inside my soul standing there, no sense of time, nor direction (as the canals are endless, tiny, and wandering), just existing in the duration of a single espresso shot, enjoyed as slowly as possible.
XOXO,
Soph
P.S. Is there a good place to get cicchetti in NYC?? Let me know.