March 20, 2011
Today we were up and out of the hotel at 5 am to get to the airport. We flew to Rome, then on to Venice. We thought that our preplanned itinerary had us at the airport way too early for a short flight to Rome. Boy, were we wrong! It seems, in our humble opinion, the airline and airport are perfectly fine for arriving to Sicily, but departing was quite a different thing.
The rains that covered the length of Italy during the four days we were in a sunnier Sicily were now gone. The flight to Rome and then to Venice were smooth with spectacular views. I had a window seat on the good side of the plane!
The ruins of the ancient port of Rome. The muddy Po river.
Ahhh...Venice!
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We landed an hour late in Venice because Alitalia held our plane up in Rome to wait for a connecting flight's passengers coming from Iran. Winett Taste & Trade had a private Motoscafi (water taxi) waiting for us at the airport. We boarded for our 40 minute ride to our hotel in Venice. Esther shot professional HD video footage for use in the video we will produce for Winett T & T. If ever in Venice, treat yourself to a water taxi ride into the city. The sights were amazing.
Our hotel, the Westin Europa & Regina, on the Grand Canal sits right in the heart of Venice.
We checked into our hotel, freshened up, and then took a stroll to the world famous Harry's Bar to see if we could get in for lunch.
The Bellini, made of peach juice and prosecco, was invented at Harry's Bar.
Our lunch consisted of; Beef tartare & artichokes, Stockfish two ways, calves liver & onions, yellow & white polenta, scampi & calamari, and zabaione cake.
The Stinger, cognac & creme de menthe, was also invented at Harry's Bar. - Amaro Ramazzotti
Mr. Cipriani, owner of Harry's, and Darrell. A perfect cappuccino!
Arrigo Cipriani the son of the founder and current owner of Harry's Bar - The Interview
After lunch we took a stroll to the Piaza San Marco, the heart of Venice. There were lots of people bustling about the vendors of paper mache masks,
gondola births, and through out the square.
After a great walk through Piazza San Marco and around the near by streets, we headed back to the hotel to attend the Winett Taste & Trade welcome reception in the Bar. We met with wine producers and buyers invited to the next day's buyer to buyer forum. We tasted a number of wines presented by the producers and nibbled on wonderful appetizers.
