Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Best
Eating
The visual blitz that is Venice tends to leave visitors bug-eyed, weak-kneed and
grasping for the nearest
panino
(sandwich). But there's more to La Serenissima
than simple carb-loading. For centuries Venice has gone beyond the call of dietary
duty, lavishing guests with inventive feasts. Today visitors enjoy impressive
cicheti
(Venetian tapas), creative trade-route cuisine and a lagoon's worth of seafood.
Cicheti
The city knows how to put on a royal spread, as France's King Henry III once
found out when faced with 1200 dishes and 200 bonbons. Today such feasts are
available in miniature, from 6pm to 8:30pm, when bars mount lavish spreads of
cicheti
. Prices range from €1 for tasty meatballs to €6 for panchette-wrapped la-
goon prawns and white asparagus, typically devoured standing up or atop bar
stools.
Authentic Venetian Fare
Save room and time for a proper sit-down Venetian feast, with lagoon seafood,
island-grown ingredients and Veneto wine. Here's one foolproof way to distin-
guish a Venetian eatery from an imposter: lasagne, spaghetti Bolognese and pizza
are not Venetian specialities, and when all three appear on a menu, avoid that
tourist trap. On the other hand, authentic Venetian dishes may taste vaguely Turk-
ish or Greek rather than strictly Italian, reflecting Venice's preferred trading part-
ners for over a millennium.
