Venezia
Canals, cooking class & caught off guard at the Aman Hotel
Coming off the high of our Roman holiday, we took the train from Roma Termini to Venezia Santa Lucia. Part two of our Italian tour continues on the canals of Venice.
I opted for first class Iryo tickets to show my mom the comforts of European train travel. The beautiful four hour ride crosses countrysides and farmland showcasing the quieter side of Italian life.
Our first impression of Venice was lugging our suitcase through the cobblestone streets walking from the train station to our hotel. Resentfully bickering, trudging through puddles and hauling our bags up endless bridges, we weren't exactly in love with the city of love yet. Beautiful inconveniences occur in a city built on water.
Finally we arrived in the Cannaregio neighborhood, home to the world’s first Jewish Ghetto. This quiet neighborhood is for locals or well behaved tourists like ourselves. Hotel Eurostars Residenza Cannaregio is serenely located on a tired canal.
We opened our two large windows in our canal view room to small boats idling by. On the “ground” level it felt more like our room was floating. The light breeze and quiet buzzing of boats was heaven on water.
As a food oriented person our first stop had to be lunch. Keeping on theme with Italian food we grabbed pizzas at a local spot sitting two feet from the water. Not as good as Roman pizza, Venice is known more for their seafood and risottos. But we did opt for the Venetian spritz as our tribute to trying local cuisine.
We made our way towards the main tourist areas letting ourselves turn off in any direction that piqued our interest. Every corner turns or canal crossed you find yourself fighting the urge to photograph every single one.
The city is literally built on wooden piles driven into waterlogged ground. The asinine conception of this “land” required great minds and a few miracles to create the spectacle we can still see today. Great feats, indomitable human spirit and deep pockets preserve this miraculous city.
We walked and eventually found ourselves at GROM gelato for yet another salted caramel sweet treat. And then wandered into a hole in the wall for a spritz and to try some classic venetian tapas called cicchetti. Resembling some spanish tapas, these venetian bites were all on freshly sliced bread. The first one we tried was a creamed cod pate with a sundried tomato called baccalá mantecato. Very fishy. The second one was with cured meat and another sort of fish sauce on top. It was good to try but I have to say I prefer my Spanish tapas.
We took a local recommendation from the hotel to have dinner at Oficina Ormensini. Incredible service and incredible food! We both had the seafood risotto with shrimp, mussels and baby clams. The presentation was gorgeous and prompt. We got some sides of a salad and grilled vegetables because we were severely lacking fiber after 6 days in Italy only consuming carbs, gelato, and spritz. Of course we finished our day with one more trip to a nearby gelateria for a nightcap dessert.
The next morning we awoke to our favorite part of a holiday, the hotel breakfast buffet. European breakfast buffets are very different from your American continental breakfast. Everything is superb and fresh and beautiful. You can have everything from fresh croissants and handmade jam to a plate of cheese and olives and cured meats. The espresso machines make perfect cappuccinos and the fresh fruits and yogurt bowls fill you up for the entire day.
In Rome we had planned to take Nonna’s cooking class. Exactly what it sounds like, an Italian Nonna (grandma) was going to teach us to make fresh pasta in a small village outside Rome. This was cancelled for reasons beyond Nonna’s control so we opted to take one in Venice instead.
Taverna San Trovaso is a family owned restaurant that also offers group cooking classes. We gathered with about 20 other strangers at 11am to learn to make Ravioli, Tagliatelle and Tiramisu.
We sat at tables and formed our own small group. Me and my mom found ourselves with two pleasant Austrian sisters and an eccentric American/Dominican woman living in Mexico. This international girls table became very friendly by the end of the day.
The class started with the Tiramisu preparation. We combined the eggs and mascarpone and dipped our lady finger cookies in espresso. We put it all together and topped with cocoa powder and left it alone for the next few hours for the flavors to get friendly.
Next we were on to making our fresh pasta. Starting with the ravioli, they put us to work. We combined our eggs and flour and rolled and rolled to get the dough the perfect texture. We cut it into circles and stuffed it with ricotta, spinach and parmesan. It’s quite a science and is much more enjoyable to watch Italians do it themselves.
We moved on to making the tagliatelle noodles. Luckily we had a pasta machine to run the dough through but im sure many nonna’s still do this part on their own. It takes dozens of passes to get the dough the right thickness and then you cut your slices. They had us do a quick photo shoot with our handmade pasta and then we sat at the tables for our first course- cheese ravioli in a sage and butter sauce. Very simple yet very satisfying.
We enjoyed unlimited wine refills while we waited for our next course, the tagliatelle pasta with a homemade tomato sauce. The chefs in the back did that part for us, but we did make our own pasta.
Then it was finally time for our tiramisu. The girl instructing us is from Trevino, Italy, the town where tiramisu was invented. So now I have the most authentic recipe.
We left our class, slightly drunk and very full.
The rest of the day was reserved for wandering around and gondola rides.
The best way to see Venice is with no plan, the plan is to find hidden gems in the secluded alleyways. You never know what you might find as the streets to run on a grid or in any sensible pattern like most cities. They move with the water on the unique platform from which they were built. But that’s the best part. You don’t go to Venice to be reminded of any other city. Venice has mastered the dying art of individuality. Or rather, invented it.
At this point we did some leather shopping, there are thousands of “made in italy” leather shops all over this country. We went into a children’s store where my mothers tipsily bought a backpack hoping to give it to my child one day, to her grandchild hopefully very far in the future.
Then we walked around Saint Mark’s area again and wanted to try the iconic Cafe Florian. I was absolutely flabbergasted to find a cappuccino costing 16 euros. How absurd is that?! Of course I could, but NO one should.
We left on principle.
We walked towards San Polo and found Ristorante Florida with a covered terrace overlooking the canal. We ordered normally priced cappuccinos and watched the gondolas peacefully row by and decided that would be our next adventure. We haggled with some guys in the tourist area until we decided we were being harassed and scammed and went back toward the Canaregio neighborhood where we found gondoliers less aggressive.
We opted for a peaceful 60 minute row through the quiet canals in between rain showers. He took us on a calmer route, passing by the opera house and other famous spots on the inner canals, but avoiding the routes that were too touristy. A calm afternoon spent taking hundreds of photos, we wrapped up the day having the nicest dinner of my life.
I made a dinner reservation at Arva per a tiktok recommendation. I saw a “must do in Venice” tiktok that showed this gorgeous palace for dinner and I was sold without much research.
What I didn’t realize until arrival was that the restaurant was inside the Aman Hotel. If you’re not familiar with Aman, it's considered the most luxurious hotel group in the world. If I could describe Aman in 3 words: exclusive, elite, expensive.
To put things in perspective, billionaire Jeff Bezos held his rehearsal dinner here this past June when he got married in Venice. I'm sure they were also guests of the hotel. My mother and I were just two astonished tourists, not in the billionaire category.
The hotel and restaurant are in Palazzo Papadopoli, an ancestral home now converted into an iconic Venetian establishment.
Around us it was obvious the clientele was elite, international and in a different league. The English conversations we did overhear were filled with discussions of private Swiss boarding schools, decadently expensive wines, and the favorite of the other Aman locations, in locations so exclusive they don't sound real.
The conversations were unrelatable and out of touch but oh so interesting. We tried to imagine what these people do to live such an affluent lifestyle- entrepreneurs, building business empires or those who were just born with a bloodline of royalty. Everyone in the room seemed way more accustomed to this environment than us. This girl from small town Oklahoma never thought she’d find herself in such a situation. But she's so glad she did.
Nevertheless we were met with the utmost respect and diligent dining service of our life. We were underprepared and under dressed for this occasion but the staff acted like they never noticed.
It took us a while to find the actual location. Aman, prided for their exclusivity and discretion, was hidden back behind large brick walls and a protruding iron gate, only notable by the small plaque and buzzer next to the entrance. We buzzed in and the imposing gate opened before us. We walked through the lush garden into the quietly luxurious lobby.
We entered the grand palace and were led upstairs by staff to the restaurant, we went up the candle lit marble staircase and into the dining room. They asked which room we would prefer to dine in and we chose the princess’s room. I believe it's the most stunning room I've ever been in.
The stone walls are decorated with intricate sculpted cherub angels and depictions of mythological folklore. On the ceiling, a painted fresco of what appears to be angels watching over you from the clouds of heaven.
The intricacies are carved and painted into the very structure of the building. The entire room emanates wealth and abundance as the gold fabric lined walls and gold motifs peak at you all across the room. The ultra luxurious and theatrical decoration is the epitome of what I want if I'm to be dining in a palace.
Now on to the food, they serve you with fresh bread to start and homemade butter. Simple yet incredibly delectable. Two gluten intolerant guests do splurge on these delicacies when in Europe. The bread was so incredible we commented on it and they told us the chef has to specially batch test the bread each day and tweak the ingredients depending on the humidity of the island that day. We ordered the artichoke, which was incredibly fried and accompanied with a seasonal cream sauce. We also ordered the lobster pasta which was so fresh and delicious, even after an entire week of pasta in Italy and making our own that day. Only a really good one would still satisfy. To finish they brought us a tray of sweet treats- mini cream puffs, truffle chocolates and sweet bread. A light desert to complete our perfect last meal in Venice.
I must take a moment to compliment the hospitality of our sweet server turned friend, Yulissa. We gave into our curiosity and asked her many questions about the property and she gave us all the history. We got the impression not many guests conversed with her and because of that we think she gave us extra special treatment- she took us out onto the balcony so we could see the glorious view of the grand canal. Even at night it was beautiful and bustling with boats heading to dock as the rain just started. We exited the glorious palace after such an unexpected treat of a night. We practically ran back to our hotel as it downpoured on us until we made it back to our comparatively humble abode. Curiosity got the best of us and we researched to find that rooms at Aman cost per night about what our hotel cost for an entire week.
The happy accident would give us giggles for the months to come and a pampering that was nothing short of inspiring. That night I went to bed dreaming of how I can return to Venice next time and stay at the beautiful Aman on the Grand Canal.
Our last morning we did what we’d done for the whole week- stuff ourselves at the breakfast buffet. To be frank, we were ready to leave Venice. We had grown weary of 20,000 steps a day and the ever growing groups of tourists had worn the magic down.
We finally took a gorgeous water taxi to the airport for convenience and it was worth the upcharge. They came directly to our dock at the hotel and took us across the water in 30 minutes. We got to ride in the gorgeous wooden motor boats you see all over instagram.
Venice had worn us down and inspired us all in the same breath. We left with just enough temptation to leave us wanting more.
Ciao bella, let's go back to Madrid.