Venice
Spud returned to Italy in late 2000 once again in search of great Italian food. Having sampled the wares of Pisa and Florence back in 1997, this time, he ventured to Venice in search of the perfect pizza.
Upon
driving into the town from the Marco Polo aeroport, Spud was shocked to
find that city was a disaster area: almost 2/3 of Venice was flooded!
Virtually every street was underwater! The tuber found that
even amidst the severe carnage, the locals seemed to be rather unfazed
by it all. In fact, many were resourceful and had employed the use of
long narrow boats to blaze their trail down the submerged roadways.
Spud anxiously thumbed through his trusty guidebook looking for the ideal spot to sample a hot Italian pizza pie. His eyes bulged and he began to salivate when he came across Pizza San Marco. Reading more, the tuber realized that this was a popular place as locals had gathered there in droves since it was built way back in the 12th century under the dogado of Sebastiano Ziani. 'Now that must be one heckuva restaurant!' Spud thought to himself, as he roared across town; pepperonis dancing in his head.
When Spud arrived at the address in the book, he looked around, but there was no restaurant in sight. Had it closed after being in business for almost a millennia? Desperate to find it, the tuber asked for help from one of the locals and pointed to the listing in his Guidebook. Much to Spud's chagrin, the local pointed out that the book had a typo; it wasn't a restaurant after all. It was Piazza San Marco, or 'St. Mark's Plaza' when translated. This was the site where Napoleon's republic fell in 1797. To Spud, it was a big square with lots of history...but not one pizza joint.
Disgusted and hungry, Spud returned to the aeroport and ate at a McDonald's in the terminal.