9 hours in Venice

Just thought I would update you on my whistle stop tour of Venice last Friday.
Last week it was my wife's birthday and the weekend was our wedding anniversary so I planned a surprise trip to Venice for the day for her.
We set off from home at 0400 and flew out of stanstead at 0630 we had a fabulous 9 hours in Venice, the weather was gorgeous, 22 degrees C, bright blue sky it was fabulous.

We had decided that we would have a day of "indulgence" we did not want to travel all that way to only eat lettuce. We made a conscious decision that we would not go mad but would eat what we fancied and get right back on track the following day.

I started the day with a healthy banana and cereal bar washed down with a skinny cappuccino in the departure lounge
later in the morning I had an apple, the we went for lunch, one of the main things we wanted to do, we had researched a lovely restaurant online, one that locals use (my wife's mum is Italian so we wanted some nice food not that prepared for tourists!)
Since pasta and its various sauces is something we cook at home regularly I decided to go for something different. I chose seafood risotto followed by Chateaubriand. Both of these food were gorgeous the meat course came out with lightly battered courgettes and aubergine and I loved every bite.
I declined the desert menu choosing instead to go for a cheese course, a lovely board of high fat Italian cheeses, a lovely mix of hard and soft cheeses made a delightful end to the meal. I never drank alcohol, I had decided to drink nice pellagrino water instead
We stopped at various coffee bars for a nice espresso (I am a bit of a "nice" coffee lover) there is something about the atmosphere whether its stood at a coffee bar ( similar to standing at the bar of a pub) or sat by a canal watching the world go by with the sun shining, either way the culture was lovely.
later in the afternoon we had some lovely Italian Gelatto (ice cream) as only the Italians can make it!! 15 flavours to choose from how could I possibly decide on what to choose for my 4 small scoops... divine!!
In the evening I had a ham salad roll from a deli near to Rialto bridge followed by the most luxurious piece of soft nutty nougat from a lovely choclatier shop.

Once we had landed we headed home after an hours delay at passport control.We were both feeling peckish (by this time it was 0130hours) we committed the ultimate sin and went to the kebab shop, yes it was just as good as I remembered... I love a nice Doner
On Saturday we got straight back onto our healthy eating regime and have not wavered since. I am just hoping that the day does not have too much of an adverse affect on the scales this Thursday