The Amazing Pasta Dinner in Venice and The Saga of the Apples!

One of our optional extras on tour was a dinner in Venice. I don't think any of us were fully prepared for the pasta epic we would be served ...

The first course was a plate of meat, a plate of veg and a plate of crispy, deep fried seafood.

First Course

 Then they turned of the lights and presented us with a plate of risotto with a shell that was on fire. There was a carbonara as well, but I didn't get a picture of it. It was the nicest dish of the whole meal.

Second Course

 At this point they realised that I really shouldn't have been eating any of the food because it all had wheat and milk so they started bringing me my own plates of pasta. When they brought the plate for the rest of the table the waiter would say to me, "Not for you, not for you."

Fourth Course

They brought me a plate of (I assume) gluten free pasta as well, but I'd been eating all the food anyway because it was so tasty.
A few days earlier, in the Rhine Valley, all the gluten and lactose free people had been given an apple for dessert instead of the cake or whatever everyone else had. I can't eat apples because they're high in fructose, so I'd felt a little bad. It had become a bit of a running joke with the group that they hadn't known what to give the special diet people, so they ran into the garden and pulled some apples off the tree (that's the story someone made up, anyway).
Back in Venice, after all our plates were cleared we were speculating on what might be for dessert. I made a comment that I hoped I didn't get an apple again because I'd feel bad not being able to eat it.
About a minute later the waiter brought this out ...

Dessert (for me, anyway!)

Us Special Diet people got apple desserts a couple more times on the trip. I was very excited in Florence to get an orange! It didn't taste great, but it wasn't an apple!!