Venice

Holidays by Destination Europe Italy Venice Eating 

Eating anywhere near San Marco is a major error - prices are shockingly high and standards at times startlingly low. Elsewhere is much better value - though not always cheap.

Bars and cafes generally serve pastries plus panini (sandwiches) and possibly crostini (open sandwiches). If it's specifically pastries you want you will do best visiting one of the many specialists. They often sell local specialities as well as the usual flaky pastries. As a rough rule of thumb, those with pistachio biscuits coloured green are less purist about their ingredients.

For cheap sit-down savoury meals and snacks you could go for the readymade pizzas and almost readymade toasted sandwiches served by many bars. For more interesting food look for stand-up bar food. In bacari - bars serving wine - snacks called cicheti are something like tapas, available if you order a glass of wine. You nibble as you go, then pay at the end. In these establishments lunch, unless they have turned fashionable, is noon to 2pm and dinner 6.30 to 9pm, not the usual later hours followed by restaurants.

If you want a sit down meal in a restaurant it will be fine to eat starters followed by a salad or desert and it's worth trying the risotto, which is a local speciality, and even the seafood.

For lower prices look for places well off the tourist track but note that there is apparently a practice of charging tourists a premium over the locals' price. Prices are a little lower at lunchtime.

There are a multiplicity of ice cream places in the city, many of them serving stuff from factory packets. However, there are also some much better ones which can be used as a carrot for tired walkers:

Castello Boutique del Gelato salizzada San Lio - not too far from San Marco.
Cannaregio Il Gelatone, rio tera Maddalena - on the main walk between the railway station and the Rialto
San Polo & Santa Croce Alaska Gelateria-Sorbetteria calle larga dei Bari - run by a rasta fan with some interesting and unusual options.
Dorsoduro Gelateria Lo Squero fondamenta Nani - as well as standard ice creams, incredibly rich fruit mousses.

A large gelato can - calorifically at any rate - substitute for a light meal.

Buy fresh fruit and veg in the Rialto market (and wash in the local drinking fountain). Other items are available in the streets nearby. However, possibly deliberately, the city is a little short on places to sit so you will almost certainly end up joining many other tourists sitting on the steps of churches or of quieter bridges to consume your purchases.