{"id":328,"date":"2010-09-03T08:26:01","date_gmt":"2010-09-03T08:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=328"},"modified":"2010-09-03T08:26:01","modified_gmt":"2010-09-03T08:26:01","slug":"venice-big-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2010\/09\/03\/venice-big-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Venice, Big Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Having soared across rooftops and scaled towers as a caped assassin in digital Venice and Florence in Assassin’s Creed 2<\/a>, we could not resist visiting Italy to see these cities in real life. We arrived at the floating city (an island aptly shaped like a big fish) by water bus, where a bait and switch landed us at a hotel<\/a> right along the Grand Canal. After a review of Venetian history and culture at the Correr Museum<\/a>, we were mobbed by pigeons and the idiots feeding them in St. Mark’s Square<\/a>. We ate dinner at Il Ridotto<\/a>, where the pasta “calamari” featured shrimp gently cooked to tender, cuddly perfection. The next morning, our hotel speedboat took us to beautiful Murano<\/a>, where our guide Lorenzo from Estevan Rossetto showed us some amazing glass-blowing technique, followed by some even more amazing glass-selling technique. A pricey snail sculpture caught our eye, but instead we sailed to colorful Burano<\/a> to visit lace shops and enjoy a delicious al dente pasta<\/a> along the canal. Unable to get the snail out of our minds, we succumbed and returned to Murano to give Lorenzo his commission. Back in Venice, we toured Doge’s Palace<\/a> and crossed the Bridge of Sighs<\/a>, which was sadly obscured by the surrounding scaffolds. Dinner at Corte Sconta<\/a> featured a fantastic assortment of seafood appetizers and very salty pasta. On our last day, we embarked on a morning walking tour which took us across the Grand Canal via the Rialto<\/a> to the tip<\/a> of Dursoduro. Along the way, we passed the bustling fish market<\/a>, the Frari Church<\/a>, many gelato stands, the apartments of Ca’Rezzonico<\/a>, and our favorite Scuola Grande<\/a>, plastered from ceiling to floors with powerful Tintoretto paintings. Avoiding the high-priced gondolas, we took a traghetti back to St Mark’s Basilica<\/a>, where we were ready for the non-existent pickpockets as we gazed around Ezio’s prettiest assassin’s crypt puzzle. We had our last and best meal in Venice at Alle Testiere<\/a>, which proudly serves no pasta but the most perfect grilled seafood platter on the island. Complemented by a light, creamy tiramisu, it was the perfect way to end our visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having soared across rooftops and scaled towers as a caped assassin in digital Venice and Florence in Assassin’s Creed 2, we could not resist visiting Italy to see these cities in real life. We arrived at the floating city (an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}