Dan and I always enjoy going into grocery stores when we’re on vacation.  You always see things you wouldn’t see in your own store.  Grocery shopping in Venice certainly didn’t disappoint me.  There aren’t a lot of grocery stores in Venice.  As I’ve mentioned before, there are a lot of neighborhood specialty markets…bakeries, fresh fruit & vegetable markets, cheese stores, wine shops.  We’ve covered a lot of Venice and have only seen two grocery stores.  Today, as we approached “our” store, we were able to see the truck unloading.  A canal location is essential to eliminate unnecessary transportation.  Early on a Friday morning the store was very busy.  Immediately inside the entrance are the shopping carts.  To use a cart, you must leave a 1e deposit.  You can take your own cart if you like.  You  get your euro back when you return the cart.  Since arriving, we have been very impressed by the fresh items that are available both in neighborhood markets and in the grocery store.  Fresh meats, cheese, pasta, breads, fruits and vegetables.  Fresh is the mainstay of Italian diets.  Meat is downplayed.  I ordered lasagna with meat sauce at a restaurant and I wasn’t too sure there really was any meat in it.  You can eat well (healthy) and inexpensively here.  Things like chicken and beef are the more expensive items.  Eggs are sold on the shelf in packages of 4 or 6. Even though they’re not refrigerated in the store, we put them in the refrigerator in our apartment.  We have had delicious cheese–asiago, pecorino, parmigiano reggiano–all yummy and reasonable priced.  There is lots of fresh pasta as well as polenta and risotto.  This noon we bought some salami to pair with our cheese and bruschetta from the bakery.  Deliciouso!

Evenings call for Italian wine before dinner.  The first bottle we bought was good, and we’ve continued to buy it ever since.  I would have liked to have taken more pictures in the grocery, but was asked to stop!  Hope you enjoy seeing photos of good food!  By the way, last night we had fresh salmon again along with cooked, fresh spinach and bakery bread.  It was as good or better than any restaurant meal.  We bought a plastic grocery bag of fresh spinach for 2e.  Two reasonable priced salmon “steaks” were 4e.  By the way, if you need a grocery bag, you buy it.  We’re relaxing this morning and trying to get things a little more organized before we leave.  This is a major recycle day, so we need to get things sorted and set out this morning.  It’s also time to see what fits in the suitcase and how heavy it will be.  We need to cart it over 3 or 4 bridges in order to get to the bus that will take us to the airport on Tuesday morning.  We are also hearing rain on Tuesday!  Hopefully it holds off till we’re under cover!  Have a great day!