Venice Day 2- Rialto, Billa

Rialto market is what every tour guide recommends, but we were pretty disappointed with the market. Most vendors either sell tourist trinkets or fish to the locals... of which we can’t buy to cook! ;(

Venice has a lot of cafes selling wraps, which they call panini and we bought a couple for breakfast. Americans call 'em wraps, but I guess when anything goes into a panini toaster, it is called 'panini.'

Venice is famous for Murano glass (which is actually a nearby island) and every single shop in Venice sells it. The designs for the most part of very pretty, eye-catching and when they put gold dust inside, absolutely gorgeous. Some glass blowers specialize in shapes, such as glass clowns, or glass vases, and these glass fish bowls with goldfish inside!

Murano glass of a mini-size ENTIRE orchestra and ballerinas!

There were some bakeries lining a major street on our way to Billa supermarket, and one sold a giant pistachio cookie, which tasted like pistachio paste with plump raisins inside and sliced almonds on top:

Another bakery sold a pistachio croissant with chocolate chips on top and inside:

We stumbled upon a little courtyard with a charming restaurant,

so we had lunch here. Dad got his standard cappuccino:

Angel and I ordered the tortellini with prosciutto, which was delicious but for 7.5 euros, I would have appreciated a larger portion!

Mom ordered the seafood spaghetti, which was good too, as there was no tomato flavor in the pasta, but tasted very much like seafood!

It was in the middle of the day, and it is still customary in Italy for an afternoon sojourn. Many take breaks from 1-3pm, as well as supermarkets! Good grief! Some gondola drivers play chess~ how funny!

For dinner, we bought a pre-cooked seafood mix of mussels, shrimp, clams.
We walked around, trying to find a Billa supermarket, which, when we finally found, we were so tired and HOT. The day was sunny, bright, and very very very hot. After buying our groceries for our dinner, we walked back to our hotel and had a nice nap :) It was really that hot and muggy! Unbearable! And this is only May! Think about what it would be like in July... when all the tourists really start to descend on this island city! It is peculiar, as every single day in Venice for the rest of our trip, we go back to the hotel in the afternoon for a quick rest time (usually 1/2 hour), then when we walk back out of the hotel, it is at least 10 degrees cooler and sometimes even sprinkling and stormy.
By then, all the gondolas are out in full force, as couples want a late afternoon serenade ~__^. This is one of the gondola entrances to his boat:
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For dinner, we bought a pre-cooked seafood mix with mussels, clams, shrimp. We also bought steak prosciutto, seafood risotto and provolone cheese. Our idea was to cook the seafood risotto in the microwave (as using the boilers would have cost 50 euros extra to use) with the provolone, then pour on all the seafood mix, pair the whole thing with prosciutto:

and our favorite of the evening:

The Bellini. The cocktail was invented in Venice, at Harry's Bar, so we could not leave Venice without trying it! The peach and sparkling is an excellent combination, and every one loved it... especially as it was only 4.79 euros for the entire bottle! We compared prices everywhere in Venice and it ranges anywhere from the 4.79 euro (the cheapest we've seen) to 12 euros. Score!