Venice Dinner Anyone?

You get a little bit of family history with this post. A glimpse into a family trip...

4 years ago we were fortunate enough to be able to take a trip to Italy, which began in Venice. During our stay in Venice, we rented an apartment that we called home. A typical day, in Venice (I'm going to keep saying "in Venice" because I was there and it rocked and it just sounds right!), consisted of walking along the canals...

visiting shops, fighting crowds of tourists in St. Mark's square,

battling the 100 degree weather, eating paninis...

and, at all costs, honoring the beer o'clock rule that began at the airport in Detroit before we even left. Beer o'clock happened whenever anyone in the group declared that it was beer o'clock. The only rule with beer o'clock was that once declared, we had to be sitting and drinking within 10 minutes of the declaration. Simple..in Venice.

By far the most favoured experience, in Venice, (aside from Beer o'clock) was to walk through the ancient Rialto Fish Market. This market has been in existence since 1097 and is still busting at the seams with vendors today. You could spend hours scanning the goodies...the colours, the smells, the language...it's all too much!!! It was here the dinner with the huge tomato began...in Venice.

We had limited items to use in the kitchen, so for dinner one night we made due with the goodies we collected at the fish market and what was available to us at the apartment. It ended with an amazingly perfect meal of spaghetti with a sauteed garlic, butter and shrimp. The salad was simple and consisted of a huge tomato (which fed 7 people and is shown above) topped with some fresh basil and olive oil (every kitchen in Italy is equipped with olive oil).

So this past Labour Day Monday was our 4th annual Venice Dinner. We enjoyed our spaghetti with shrimp and our huge tomato salad. I have made it a mission of mine to grow the biggest heirloom tomatoes I can to honour the one we had in Venice. I have gotten close over the years but nothing quite as big. Nonna B grew the tomatoes this year. We were a little busy with having a baby and surgeries and whatnot...nevertheless the tomatoes we had were delicious. We also had a few new faces this year....Hazel and Monroe.

All these pics below are taken by my favourite photographer Vita...

We look forward to our dinner every year, where we get to be nostalgic, talk about our trip and spend time with each other. Here's to many more Venice Dinner's with the family!!! Hopefully we will have another one of these dinners in Venice again.

We wish we had a pool while in the bustling heat of Venice.