Is it possible to eat good food and drink good wine while saving in Venice? The answer is YES!
Venice, as we know, is a city that makes you walk a lot. And walking arouses a certain appetite, if not a genuine wolf-like hunger.
Since it is a predominantly tourist city, the biggest fear when eating out is leaving a restaurant “fleeced,” or saving a few euros but encountering poor service (or worse, bad food).
Why is Venice expensive?
We must consider that, being a city built on many small islands (if you want to learn more, check out our article on Murano, Burano, and Torcello), the transportation of goods (especially fresh ones) requires an additional boat journey, not to mention the porters who go up and down countless bridges with carts. And all this adds to our bill.
Saving in Venice: here are our tips
So is there a way to save in Venice? Of course! By following some small tricks, or making choices that may seem “unusual” at first. But now let’s see them.
Avoid the Main Streets
The first thing to do, first of all, is to try to move away from the main tourist routes. Forget the signs for “Rialto” or “San Marco”. Break free from the itinerary. Leaving aside that Venice is scattered with hidden gems, those who set up shop on the main streets certainly tend to charge more for the privilege of being in a high-traffic area.
Look for Residential Areas
Staying on topic, the advice is to choose the area where you eat more or less carefully, trying to prefer residential areas (such as Cannaregio, heading towards the SS. Giovanni e Paolo hospital, or Castello, the Via Garibaldi area and the surrounding alleys) or university areas (The Dorsoduro district, being a university area, is full of pizzerias and small restaurants affordable for students, and therefore much more accessible).
Go to Bacari
Another alternative is to let yourself be delighted by the delicacies found in bacari, which, by island tradition, are those spots specializing in “ombre” of wine and finger food, which here are called “cicchetti”.
Here we can find, precisely, cicchetti, which are canapés with creamed cod, or salmon, or even fresh soppressa.
Or small plates to enjoy with wine based on calamari, stewed cuttlefish, small octopus in “tocio” or even scallops, not to mention “fritoìni”, which traditionally are local places that prepare fried fish to eat on the go, paper cones containing fried calamari, fish balls, and the inevitable zucchini flowers.
List of Bacari in Venice
It is therefore possible to gently get lost in the romantic alleys, enjoying the day “cicchettando”, i.e., nibbling, so as not to miss a minute (or even a taste) of the lagoon city.
Here is a list of the 10 most characteristic bacari in the city.
Following these simple tips, we at Veneto Club hope you can fully enjoy the tour of the jewel of the northeast, saving some euros (perhaps for a nice gondola ride).
