The best pizza ever!

We recently spent a wonderful long weekend in Venice, a beautiful and awe-inspiring place. How did they build a city on water like this hundreds of years ago? And how does it stay afloat nowadays (this question certainly became more critical at one point . . .)?

I had a careful plan for eating for the weekend. You see, it was high stakes stuff. Good food is obviously always very important for me, but on holidays even more so and in Italy, the opportunities for good food have generally abounded. But Venice is notorious for disappointing, overpriced food. I needed a plan. I spent a few hours on the internet until a number of places started to stand out.

I made reservations at Al Covo and La Zucca for two of the nights, but thought we could be a bit spontaneous for the first night (it was Saturday after all), which may have been a mistake. But more about those later.

First up though, was the meal we had both been looking forward to since we were last in Italy nearly two years ago (I can't believe how fast it has gone!) - pizza by the slice.

I mean seriously - how do they do it?? We have had plenty of Italian pizzas here in London and they are just not like Italian pizzas! With hardly any topping (pepperoni for me, peppers for Kyle), tomato sauce and cheese, they have so much flavour. And the dough! Pizza places everywhere strive for this perfect balance of light and crunchy but still with an airy doughy texture - not crispy like a chip. And they're cheap! 3 euros for a massive slice, freshly heated in the pizza oven. Folded over, eaten on paper standing next to the pizza shop. These alone are worth a trip to Italy.

This one came from the amusingly named Pizza Crash, not far from St Mark's Square on the Calle d. Chiesa.