Rick Steves Venice by Rick Steves & Gene Openshaw

Author:Rick Steves & Gene Openshaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avalon Travel
Published: 2016-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

EATING TIPS

For even more advice on eating in Italy, including details on ordering, dining, and tipping in restaurants, where to find budget meals, picnicking help, and Italian cuisine and beverages (including wine), see here.

Restaurant Hours: Most restaurants close their kitchens between lunch and dinner, typically reopening around 19:00 or later. Even if a restaurant is fully booked for later that evening, it may accommodate walk-in diners who are willing to eat early and quickly.

Eating Well: While touristy restaurants are the norm in Venice, you can still make the most of your meal by dining at one of my recommended listings and following these tips. First trick: Walk away from triple-language menus. Second trick: For freshness, eat fish. Many seafood dishes are the catch-of-the-day. Third trick: Eat later. A place may feel really touristy at 19:00, but if you come back at 21:00, it can be filled with locals. Tourists eat barbarically early, which is fine with the restaurants because they fill tables that would otherwise be used only once in an evening.

Budget Eating: The keys to eating affordably in Venice are pizza, bars/cafés (see next), self-service cafeterias, and picnics. For a colorful picnic experience, gather your ingredients in the morning at a produce market (most fun at and around the big Rialto Market). See here for more picnicking tips.

Bars/Cafés: Venetians often eat a snack—cicchetti or panini—while standing at a bar. (You’ll usually pay more if you sit; see here). You can get a filling plate of typically Venetian appetizers at nearly any bar.

I like small, fun, stand-up mini meals at cicchetti bars best. Unique to Venice, cicchetti bars specialize in finger foods and appetizers that combine to make a speedy and tasty meal. Cicchetti (the Venetian version of tapas) was designed as a quick meal for working people. The selection and ambience are best on workdays—Monday through Saturday for lunch or early dinner (see “The Stand-Up Progressive Venetian Pub-Crawl Dinner,” on here). An ombra (“shadow”) is a small glass of wine often offered with cicchetti. I list a couple of stretches in Venice where you can go from bar to bar sampling cicchetti (see here).

Sandwiches are sold fast and cheaply at bars everywhere and can stave off midmorning hunger (order a panini, piadini, or tramezzini; described on here). A great “sandwich row” of cheap cafés is near St. Mark’s Square (see here). You can eat your sandwich at the bar or take it with you.

Aperitivo: One of my favorite Italian traditions is the aperitivo (predinner drink). The dominant aperitivo among Venetians is the spritz. This refreshing cocktail mixes white wine, soda, and ice with a liquor of your choice and is garnished with an olive or skewer of fruit. When you order, you’ll be asked if you’d like your spritz con Campari (bitter—traditionally the man’s choice) or con Aperol (sweeter, a supposedly feminine choice). Between 18:00 and 20:00, this happy pink drink dominates Venice’s watering holes.

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