Saturday + {Day Thirty-Three: Venice}

On Saturdays, Venice's famous Rialto fish market is open, so naturally Gooligan and I decided to go check it out. On the way there, however, Gooligan spotted a beautiful mask shop. We popped it--just for a minute--and the owner of the shop came over to talk to us. She asked us where we were from and showed us several of the masks. She was so nice, she even let us try the masks on and took our picture!

There were so many amazing masks. Gooligan fell in love with two of them and had to pick. The owner offered us a substantial discount, which was very generous, since the masks were definitely worth more than she was charging. 

We had considered going on a gondola ride on our last day in Venice, but we had been wavering about it all trip for two reasons. First, gondolas are fairly pricey (eighty euros for forty minutes), which works out to around a hundred dollars. And second, we felt a little uncomfortable, since it's such a romantic activity and we didn't feel entirely comfortable holding hands or otherwise being visible in Venice.

So we decided to skip the gondola ride and invest in a more permanent memory. I'm so glad we did, too, because the mask Gooligan ended up picking is beautiful.

Anyway, we eventually made it to the market, which was fabulous. The fishy smells and people selling their vegetables and fresh catches reminded me so much of Pike Place Market. I felt right at home.

Fish!

Vegetables!

There was a restaurant near the market selling fried fish, which would have been delicious, I'm sure, but we ended up going to a small popular local restaurant that sold cicchetti and spritz.

I had been wanting to try the spritz--a local venetian drink. I had mistakenly assumed it would be sweet, since it's orange-colored, but in reality it's actually quite bitter. Spritz is made-up of wine, soda water, and a small of some kind of bitter liquor (such as Aperol). The more you know! 

After lunch, we walked around and looked for souvenirs for Gooligan's family. Then we stopped at a café for some cappuccinos, hung out for a bit, and headed home!