Verona & Venice - Moscato, Prosciutto & Hugo's.

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After realising I had a week of annual leave left I decided it must be used wisely on a trip to Italy. Plenty of shifts in December meant that Christmas markets were not on the agenda so we decided we would plan to go away at the beginning of January. I think Danny has now come to terms with the fact that i do not use my precious annual leave to stay at home and he was easily persuaded by the word Pizza to head off on our next adventure.

Verona

We hopped on the train from Venice Porta Nuova to Verona, where we had decided to spend a few nights. We spent the first day wandering around the pretty streets of Verona and despite it being January Christmas trees and lights could still be found in the main squares. We spent the rest of our evening in a lovely wine bar called Symposio, as finding a nice wine bar was my top priority (my friends call my Mowina-a so I couldn't let them down).

On our second day we visited the Verona Arena built in AD 30. It is located in Piazza Bra and is widely used today for opera performances. The Ponte Pietra is another site not to be missed, it is a Roman arch bridge that crosses the Adige River and it is the oldest bridge in Verona. The Salumeria Girona is a lovely spot for lunch, that offers traditional Italian Food and can eaten in picnic style on their terrace that overlooks the Ponte Pietra and the Piazzale Castel San Pietro. After lunch, we ventured towards the Piazzale Castel San Pietro and climbed the steps to the top for a beautiful sunny view across Verona and its surrounding hills.

Venice

We travelled by train back to Venice across the lagoon to the Santa Lucia station and from there caught a water taxi to St Marks Square. We spent the next couple of days exploring without a map, there is no better way to see Venice than to get lost within its intricate alleyways. It really is a photographers dream and there are so many opportunities to catch a reflection in the canals including in St Marks Square when the water level is high! We opted to visit some of the Venetian islands, Murano and Burano, both of which are easily accessible by boat. Burano is famous for making lace and its colorful houses. It is breathtaking at sunset with the golden canals reflecing the rainbow of colours from the fishermans cottages.

I was a little worried about eating out in Venice and wanted to avoid the well known tourist traps and I have become a bit of a Trip Advisor advocate .We ate at some amazing places, all of which i would highly recommend. For a quick, low budget dinner we stopped at Tuttinpiedi, its a small place great for takeaway fresh pasta that is cooked to order in front of you. I tried the black Cuttlefish pasta or Spaghetti al nero di seppi, which is a delicious and traditional Venetian dish (Danny found it quite amusing that I had the ink all around my chops after eating). One of the restaurants we had dinner at was so good we went back for our last night the Bacaretto Bistrot il Siciliano is an authentic Sicilian restaurant, which served possibly the best arrancini on planet earth. Danny has also discovered his new tipple of choice goodbye Aperol Spritz and say hello to the Hugo, a mixture of Prosecco, elderflower cordial and soda.

We both loved exploring Venice and walked over 80 km in the 4 days we were there!

Ciao for now!