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For a break from sightseeing and a fun meal, explore the back lanes, and pop into a
bar serving cicchetti,
that's the uniquely Venetian hors d'oeuvres.
This is a great way to try a variety of dishes.
With a good regional wine in a rustic setting you can eat cheaply and make new
friends or enjoy old ones.
Allesandro is joining us to give our nibbles some meaning...
"So, what is cicchetti?"
"It is a small bite, you know, that you normally have
when you have a glass of wine with a friend."
"It can make a small meal."
"If you keep going for three, four bars, yes." Because you can't drive a car in Venice
it's perfectly suited to bar hopping like this. "This is cicchetto....
a little thing that you grab with the hand that's to be finger food."
"Eat with your fingers, with your wine." "With your finger, with your wine, yeah. You help yourself,
one for you, one for me, a little for you, a little for me, and they try you see, look yeah."
"Good one."
Allesandro says it's alright to just point at what you want, but your selection
will be limited to what's fresh from the market that day.
"When you come here to the bar
you have to
order what they find in the market
in the morning. Has to be fresh."
"So this is representative of what Francisco found
in the market good this morning."
"Yes, yes, to find in the market in the morning."
Eating cicchetti
is a tasty opportunity to try something new and unusual.
"This, this one they are cooked
in the oven. You grab it,
they sell it from the tail—" "By the tail."
"By the tail and you eat it, just you want, they are fantastic...
These are fantastic."
"Oh, that's an explosion of taste!"
But don't forget, according to Allesandro,
you only eat cicchetti so you can have more of the main course....wine.