Venezia

 

A Side Canal in Venice and the View from the Rialto Bridge

  

St. Marks Square                              Gondolas

It's way too easy to get lost and end up eating terrible food in Venice. All those little alleys and hidden secret roads, it's quite confusing unless you know where you're going and even then - there were plenty of signs point in multiple directions for the same place. If you've seen the signs for the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza San Marco, then you know how hard it is to get there following signs.

I get the feeling that the best restaurants are the ones off the beaten track - AWAY from the touristy areas. However, when you're a lost tourist and you can't quite find your way to a particular restaurant, you end up settling for something nearby because your stomach refuses to let you go anywhere without some kind of sustanance. And that's a recipe for disaster...

Somewhere in either: Mestre-Carpenedo or Favaro Veneto...

We wandered into a tourist trap.

Seafood risotto and not-very-fresh Seafood Spaghetti

It was ok, at that point we were starving and lost. It's really hard to tell with Italian restaurants - some are packed with people (who could be all tourists making it very difficult to tell if the food is good or not) and some are empty but the tables could be taken by locals (meaning the food is good but the timing of when you're eating is off)

Somewhere over the Ponte degli Scalzi in Chirignago-Zelarino

This came recommended to us from the front desk people at our hostel. They said that it had decent food for cheap prices - we agreed on the cheap prices (relative to the rest of Venice) and the food was OK.

Fettuccine Carbonara and Meat Lasagna

Boccachini salad - not very impressive cheese

Tiramisu - good - but not the best I've ever had

Somewhere between Rialto Bridge and Piazza San Marco

The door had a Zagat rated sticker (usually a good sign because at that point we were flustered, hungry and willing to pay whatever exorbitant prices to ensure ourselves a good meal), so we grabbed a table in our casual & sweaty clothes (Venice is REALLY HOT in August) and proceeded to try and find some kind of great Venetian speciality.

 

Spaghetti in squid ink! Surprisingly quite good, a tad salty, but we were pleasantly surprised considering how ugly it looks. (Our expectations did drop that low...we were really hoping Rome would be Italian Food Heaven). The only downside? Make sure you have two people to order this dish since it comes in two servings.

Somewhere in some corner of Strada Nova

This is an easy to spot pizza place as it's always busy (even at 7am in the morning they still serve pizza)

We walked by it a couple times before deciding to try it and BOY are we glad we did!

Good pizza (always fresh) and reasonable prices for Venice.

Fungi e prosciutto pizza - Yes it's almost the size of my face.

Margherita pizza - simple, clean, not too greasy (and available at 8am) - YUM!

Calzone - lots of bread (that's all I remember)