Venice- August 2, 2024

Last updated on September 26th, 2024 at 11:21 am

[This is a rough draft to get started. We’ve done a lot of traveling so far, and are behind in sleep, so we’ll keep this updated as we have a chance. When this isn’t here anymore, you’ll know that we’re finished with the page!]

Photos from Venice – Day 3

Video from Venice – Day 3

Our day began with breakfast on the Hotel Rialto street level terrace. The area around the Rialto Bridge is always busy, so there is a lot to look at. After breakfast we arranged a taxi to the train station for our departure from Venice tomorrow. We returned to our room to blog, work on pictures and hand wash some clothes.

We have two food tours on our agenda today. The first is the Market Tour and Cooking Class with a Venetian Chef. The market is very close to the hotel, so we walked over. We were browsing, looking at the various fish when a young man said “Boiler Up!” to Alan, as Alan was wearing a shirt with the Purdue logo. We talked to him and his wife, Luke and Logan, and found out they were Purdue grads, living near Lebanon, IN. We then learned they were waiting to start the same cooking class we were waiting for! As we talked, Brent & Katy from Philadelphia, who were with us on the Real Hidden Venice tour the night before, came walking up, also taking this cooking class. Then, Ashley & J.J. from San Francisco joined us. We were all there, just waiting for the Venetian Chef. Filippo, our chef, soon joined us and we began our tour of the market. Filippo asked us about food preferences and we found out Katy wasn’t a big fan of seafood. We continued to tour the market with Filippo telling up about the items unfamiliar to us. He purchased prawns, grape tomatoes, garlic and thinly sliced steak for carpaccio rolls. It was obvious Filippo knew several of the market vendors and had a friendly rapport with them. As we waited for Filippo at the butcher shop, the 8 of us talked and got to know one another. After the market, we followed Filippo to his classroom. Filippo didn’t live there, it was in a building owned by his brother-in-law. There was a small living room area, a bathroom, and well-equipped kitchen with a island and counter area big enough for eight people to work, with aprons and stools for each person. Just outside the kitchen was a lovely small covered courtyard with a large table, flowers and an outdoor sink.

Our Menu – Spritz, Prosecco, carpaccio roll with arugula, prawns, homemade pasta with a tomato, onion, garlic, olive oil sauce, and tiramisu. We participated in making all the dishes.

Alan & I received permission from Filippo to record the class. We began by making the tiramisu. We whipped the egg whites by hand, then combined the whites, sugar, yolks and mascarpone. We briefly soaked the lady fingers in an expresso amaretto mixture. We each made an individual tiramisu with lady fingers, filling, grated dark chocolate, second layer of lady fingers and filling, then dusting the top with cocoa powder. We put our initials on the top and in to the frig they went to cool. Next, we cleaned and deveined the prawns, each of us doing two or three. We then took turns cutting the grape tomatoes into quarters. Filippo then mixed the pasta dough, which contained, eggs, semola or 00 flour and a few drops of water as needed. Filippo instructed and demonstrated making a well in the center of the flour, putting the eggs in the well and gradually incorporating the flour and eggs. Then, he kneaded the dough, the “baby”. After kneading, Filippo wrapped the baby in plastic wrap to rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes. He sent us out to the courtyard with glasses of Prosecco and cantaloupe wedges to visit while he cleaned up and prepared the kitchen for pasta making. We had a great time visiting with each other!

When we returned to the kitchen he had wooden pasta boards for each couple and two manual crank pasta machines set up. He cut the pasta baby in eight pieces. After flattening and rolling the dough into a small circle, we each ran our dough through the machine at the widest thickness. After folding it in at each end and turning it 90 degrees to make more of a rectangular shape, we ran the dough through the pasta machine 4 more times, reducing the area between the rollers of the machine to make a thinner and longer rectangle of dough. Filippo then demonstrated how to make various shapes of pasta – bowtie, larger and smaller tubes, wider and thinner strips, using various tools. As we worked on the pasta, he worked on the sauce, telling us about the various ingredients. As we finished our pasta, we each made our own carpaccio roll with thin slices steak, arugula, olive oil, salt, pepper and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Filippo cooked our pasta, adding both the pasta and some of the water the pasta was cooked in to the sauce. He flipped the pan several time – we all want to learn to do that! Filippo then served up our pasta, sauce, prawns, and carpaccio rolls and we returned to the courtyard to enjoy what we had made. It was delicious! Filippo was personable, funny and an encouraging teacher. Our young cooking classmates were a delight – we had wonderful conversation over delicious food. It was a delightful experience that we would highly recommend! Filippo sent each of us a .pdf of his recipes and we will definitely try them at home!

We walked back to Hotel Rialto for a quick rest as our next food tour was scheduled to start in a couple hours. Eat Like a Venetian Tour was next. Emma was our guide, an energetic, friendly young woman from Sicily. We were joined by a couple from West Palm Beach, Patrick & ? – The tour was just the 5 of us. This tour included 5 Aperitivo stops at various barcari or cicchetti bars in the Cannaregio area of Venice. At stops one and two we chose from various cicchetti – small snacks or side dishes served on slices of Italian bread. Toppings included Gorgonzola cheese, figs, sardines, various meats, and pistachios. On stop 1 the bread with crustier, stop 2 served a softer bread. Stop 3 was a deep fried mozzarella with ham or sardines. Stop 4 was more cicchetti, but more variety such as small skewers of meat, eggplant, tomatoes and mozzarella balls, etc. At each stop there was also a recommended Venetian drink, such as spritz, prosecco, peach Bellini ( Joyce’s favorite). The 5th stop was for gelato.🍨  It was a filling and enjoyable day.

After the tour, it was back to the hotel to pack up and be ready to leave for Rome on the morning. 

Viking’s Italian Language video

Eat Like a Venetian