Posted by Marie Le Conte
https://youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/somehow-a-4000-word-guide-to-venice
Hello!
Hi! So - if you’re relatively new here, the deal is:
I went to Venice for eight days by myself in 2019, having never been to Italy before, and despite everyone telling me that was way too much time to be spending in Venice. It was my first proper holiday in…years? and for some reason I just knew it’s where I wanted to be. I collected recommendations and ended up having a truly excellent time.
Towards the end of 2021, a friend of mine moved there for a few months and she told me I was welcome to come crash on her couch for a bit, so I did exactly that. Again: it was great! We had some mutual pals there and the whole thing was fantastic.
For that reason and others, I decided to blow all my savings on two months in Venice in March and April 2022. Technically I was there to write a novel without distractions - which I did, though no publishers wanted the novel in the end - but mostly I wanted to try and get under Venice’s skin.
I sort of managed it and sort of didn’t. The shortest possible version of that story is that I ended up being very lonely and also pretty skint, and a bunch of things went mildly wrong along the way meaning that, though nothing was ever catastrophic, I kept having the sense that things should have been better than they were.
It took two years for me to return to la serenissima, as it turns out I just couldn’t stay away forever, and I stayed with some friends for a long weekend and I had a perfect time. I did the same again last week and, again: I just loved it! I’ve had a complicated relationship with the place over the years but it does, weirdly, feel like a kind of home to me now.
Anyway! At the end of the two months I published a big guide to Venice on my Medium page and it got me shouted at by some Very Online Long-Term Expats, who said that I just didn’t know what I was talking about and I was wrong and blah blah blah. I do think they were needlessly rude but they had one slight point, which was that I clearly wasn’t in the best possible place when I wrote that piece and so I took it out on Venice a bit. This updated version of it is an attempt to be a bit fairer, and also maybe overgeneralise a bit less.
Some of what follows hasn’t been updated since 2022, but I think we can assume it still holds, as nothing ever changes in Venice, not really. Some of it was lightly rewritten this week, and some of it was added wholesale. Hopefully, it will allow you to have a good time as a tourist in Venice if you’re planning to go at some point soon. It’s one of my favourite places in the entire world. I hope you like it too!
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# Food
Venice has a bit of a reputation for being the worst city in Italy food-wise, which is sort of fair and sort of isn’t. I’ve rarely eaten badly there but it is true that I’ve often relied nearly exclusively on recs from friends, and have never had that thing you can get in other bits of the country of “oh we wandered down some little side street and walked into a place at random and had the best pasta of our lives for seven euro each”.
Nice things tend to be expensive and cheap things tend to be…well, cheap. Still, below are some restaurants I’ve been to and enjoyed, none of which are hideously expensive, and most of which are around Dorsoduro, as that’s where I lived for those two months and Venice teaches you to be a bit lazy, over time. Not all of them! But most of them.
Trattoria Anzolo Raffaele
Lovely place in a very quiet bit of town — definitely on the spennier end of my spectrum but amazing food. I went back there on my last trip and admittedly my friends and I had been drinking for Some Hours by the time we rocked up but everything was delicious.
Osteria Da Codroma
Same neighbourhood as the above, tiny little place, everything is good there but the desserts are especially wonderful, and I don’t even have a sweet tooth normally.
Osteria Enoteca Ai Artisti
Also on the slightly spennier end but worth it — menu changes every day, I think? Very very small place, in a charming way.
Birraria La Corte
One of the only places in town that does good pizzas, also on a square with a nice big terrace so you can eat outside in the sun.
Pizzeria Ristorante La Profeta
Also a rare place that does good pizzas! Quite quaint and camp in a lovely way.
Osteria Ai Promessi Sposi
Quite famous I think? But very good. Menu changes all the time. I once had their homemade pasta in a white goose ragu and briefly saw god.
Paradiso Perduto
A classic! It’s very well-known but it’s great. Quite messy and very jovial, has live music on sometimes but not in a way that’s a nightmare. The terrace outside, if you can get a spot, is ideal for lunch. Last time I went I had a big plate of bigoli with some monkfish and fish roe and almonds and lemon and I mean, if we’re being honest: mamma mia. Little glass of prosecco was like two euro fifty too, a delight.
Casa Cappellari
The only time I’ve ever had “contemporary” (or “experimental” or whatever) Italian food. It was outrageously good. I ate spaghetti with beef tartare and truffle shavings and mountain butter, whatever that is. It was so good.
Aea Canevassa
Had lunch there once and it was very enjoyable — no menu, the waitress just tells you what they’re making that day and you pick one of them. Nice little terrace also.
Frary’s
If you stay here for long enough you will, believe me, get tired of Italian food. If and when that happens, I would recommend going to Frary’s, which does Persian/Greek dishes, and is very nice. Although: I was very drunk the one time I went there so it is possible I would have found anything delicious at that stage, so who knows.
Ai Mercanti
A fancy restaurant! Quite spenny but does fun things with food — had a deep fried soft egg there which was very pleasing, and my friend had asparagus ice cream, among other things.
Trattoria Da Ignazio
So just before the Biennale I tried to book a table for six on a Saturday night and was laughed at — laughed at! — by all my usual restaurants and eventually I walked into the first restaurant I could see that looked semi-decent and made a booking. Da Ignazio had space on that night and was, it turns out, entirely decent! Was it the best food I’ve had in Italy? No! Was my pasta with spider crab perfectly pleasant? Yes! In conclusion: if you’re in Venice at a very busy time of the year, I would recommend Da Ignazio.
To conclude this section! Some miscellaneous thoughts on food in Venice:
If you’re a vegetarian or a vegan then you will probably struggle a bit, I’m sorry. I mean it’s not not doable, but absolutely look at menus before you book somewhere because I have been to numerous restaurants that did not have a single vegetarian main on their menu, which I sort of respect in a way? Unaccommodating queens.
# Drinks
So my original intro to this section, in the old guide, described Venice as not necessarily a “going Out out” place and I think I was…well, not entirely wrong, but I was slightly wrong. I reckon I got tricked by the pandemic hangover being longer-tailed in Italy than it was in Britain, maybe. Who knows!
Anyway - over my last two trips I did successfully manage to stay out drinking until around 2am and direly regret it the next day, which means that Venice can be a place where you get thoroughly hammered, but it’s still not like, The Place To Be if that’s what you want to do. Mostly, it’s just that there are some bars in Venice which will close quite late so you’ll be able to stand outside and have your bevs for a while.
It’s lovely, don’t get me wrong, but my original assessment - that you’re better off having a solid aperitivo, then go to dinner, then maybe have a night cap, then head to bed - still works, I think. Venice: more of a day drinking place, if anything.
In any case - here are some bars:
Enoteca Schiavi
I mean, where else? It’s one of those places that’s included in every tourist guide but is still absolutely worth going to. I have been to Schiavi approximately one million times. On my last trip I got off the airport boat, dropped off my backpack at my friends’ place, then we walked straight to Schiavi.
They do some of the best cicchetti in town. They’re on a canal so you can drink your prosecco outside by the water. It’s cheap. You can people watch. Obviously go to Schiavi. Although: they close down once they run out of chicchetti, with no warning. Sometimes it happens at 9pm. Sometimes it happens at 3pm. There is no way to know when it will be. I have turned up there and found it closed on so many occasions I cannot count them. But…
Al Squero
…That is fine because Al Squero is an approximately one-minute walk from Schiavi, and has a similar deal. Prosecco; spritzes; cicchetti. Less good cicchetti, if I’m honest, but cicchetti nonetheless. Quite a student-heavy crowd but they’re rarely rowdy.
Osteria Da Filo
Bit more of a scumbaggy vibe, Filo. I mean this in a neutral way, by the way: sometimes it’s nice to go to scumbaggy places. Does good cocktails. Slightly rowdier crowd. Just quite chilled and unpretentious — you know, a bar.
Osteria Al Ponte
I found this place kind of at random by walking around back in 2022 and it does cheap wine and it’s where I discovered these amazing cicchetti that are courgette flowers wrapped in provolone then deep fried and they were one euro fifty each and I could have simply eaten thirty of them. Also you can take your drink outside and sit on the bridge and look at the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, which is unbelievably good.
Il Santo Bevitore
Il Santo Bevitore is, in a very real sense, a pub. If you would like a wide selection of beer and a nice terrace that is where you should go. They have many beers, which few places do here. That is all.
Vino Vero
Okay so this is one of those quite famous Venetian places that I ended up only going to precisely once so this isn’t really expert advice but: Vino Vero is a good bar in a good bit of town. Medium fancy, I’d say. Must note: does not do spritzes. They are very serious about being a Wine Bar, which, you know, fine. The clue is, quite literally, in the name.
Miscellaneous thought on drinking in Venice:
Do not have a spritz cynar even if you like spritzes, or perhaps think that the idea of an artichoke liqueur is quite chic, as I did. A friend and I tried it and it was so foul. As she put it at the time, after wincing, “it tastes like pickled soil”. Still, it’s the proper local drink so you know, you can try it as a one time thing if you really want. [EDIT: apparently my friend and I are more or less alone in intensely disliking cynar. Some people apparently even “like” it. I don’t trust them, but here we are.]
Re. cicchetti, you should definitely have some baccala mantecato. You can google it if you want to know what it is, and yes I preemptively agree that it doesn’t sound that nice, but it tastes so much better than it sounds.
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# The Islands
So my personal view is that if you’re here for three days or under, you do not need to do The Islands. Vaporetto passes are stupidly expensive and honestly there’s more than enough to do on the main island, but obviously you are free to disagree with me and do The Islands. Italy is a free country. These are my thoughts on the islands:
San Giorgio Maggiore
I mean it barely counts to be honest, takes like two minutes to get there and it’s tiny. Still, the church is very, very beautiful so it is worth it overall. There’s also a campanile you can climb to the top of to look at the city but please be aware that it is, or at least was last time I was on SGM, six euro and cash only.
Murano
Hell on earth! I’m sorry but I just think Murano is hell on earth. It’s chock full of tourists. The restaurants are basically all tourist traps. Most of the Murano glass they make these days is — it brings me no joy to say — horrifically tacky. Went to Murano twice and had a good time zero times. Simply not a fan.
Burano
So cards on the table, I’ve not been to Burano since 2019 so I can’t remember what it’s like. They make lace there, I remember that. They have colourful little houses, which I seem to recall are quite nice. It’s less hellish than Murano but still on the hellish spectrum, I would say. That is all.
Torcello
The OG Venetian island! As in, literally — it’s where the first Venetians moved when they arrived in the lagoon. Very good vibes, Torcello; has the oldest church in the area, which is very cool. Very quiet, feels quite rural. Also there’s apparently an obscenely good but very expensive restaurant on there. I can’t remember what it’s called because I assumed I’d never get to go there. You can google it, if you want to have a Fancy Boy Day in Torcello.
Lido
Quite like Lido! Very different from all the rest. Has cars though, which is foul and wrong. It’s where Venetians go when it’s sunny and warm as it has several beaches; been told it’s entirely dead in the winter. Also been told that if you go there on a sunny day in the summer and try to get back at around 6pm you should definitely get a takeaway spritz for the queue because it’ll take you a good long while to get space on a vaporetto back.
Giudecca
I have…no strong feelings either way on Giudecca? I would say don’t bother unless you’re here for over a week. There’s a bit at the back that’s quite cool as it’s got all the boats from the people who actually fish etc in the lagoon. There’s a restaurant called La Palanca which is meant to be very good. There’s apparently some cool artsy stuff that happens there sometimes. Apart from that it’s kind of more of the same, to be honest. That is all I have on Giudecca.
San Michele
The cemetery island. It does what it says on the tin. It’s an island with a cemetery on it. I went there once and I was quite excited and you know what? It is, in a very real sense, just a cemetery. Unclear what I was expecting. Do go if you like cemeteries, I guess.
Sant’Erasmo
You know, I never did go to Sant’Erasmo. It’s a bit out of the way, and it’s meant to be quite nice, as it’s basically the vegetable patch of Venice, but somehow I’m just yet to make it there, so I have nothing more to say. Should you go to Sant’Erasmo? Who knows.
One (1) miscellaneous thought on the islands:
I would not recommend trying to do the Murano/Burano/Torcello combo on a weekend. I tried that once, somewhat resentfully, when my relatives were in town and we got to Murano fine but the queue to then get to Burano was the longest I’ve seen in my whole time in Venice. That is my warning to you.
# Generic tourist stuff
Public transport
Would recommend getting the public boat from the airport to the island; it’s a bit pricier than the coach but so much nicer. On a more day-to-day basis, I would say that you really do not need a vaporetto pass that covers your entire trip. Basically all of Venice can be done by foot — it’s a small place, and to be honest, the vaporetto isn’t even that convenient most of the time. Maybe get a 24 or 48 hour pass if you want to do the islands at some point but otherwise, your feet are your best bet.
Palazzo Ducale
Extremely worth it! Unbelievably beautiful. Amazing history. Simply a huge fan of the Palazzo Ducale. Entirely worth the entry price which, believe me, is a rarity here. Also definitely buy tickets beforehand because otherwise you will *queue*.
The churches
Yes! The churches of Venice are excellent. The smaller ones tend to be free but you usually have to pay like three euro to get into the bigger ones. My tip would be to buy the Chorus Pass as it’s absolutely worth the money if you’re a big church person as well, it’ll 100% pay for itself. Also I hope you like Tintoretto paintings because ohhhh boy, you will see a lot of Tintoretto paintings. Lad really got around, church-wise.
Shopping
Oh lol, my friend. Lol and, furthermore, lmao. Rofl, even. Lovely place, Venice, but just Not The Best if you would like to go shopping. It’s all either “chains you’ll find virtually anywhere else”, shops that sell precisely seven (7) items, all of which cost a grand, or tourist traps where everything is plastic but also still somehow fifty euro.
The only thing I can offer is that there are some churches around the city that have some little charity shops, which are very good, but they seemingly open and close willy-nilly and appear and disappear like fairies, so there wouldn’t be any point in me listing the ones I’ve found. If you walk past one you should stop to have a look though, I got a three-piece suit with the tags still on for 45 euro in one of them and I still feel very smug about it.
# The…art?
A whole new section! So there are a bunch of palazzi and galleries and what have you in Venice but I only started going to them over the course of my 2024 trip, because before that I didn’t care all that much about art and also I had no money. I would stand by my old assessment overall - namely that you’ll live if you don’t really go look at any paintings when you’re here, as paintings are paintings but Venice is Venice - but as someone who now cares about art and has some money, I can’t really not mention them.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
So, quite funny story: I went there for the first time in 2022 for a private view which ended up not having any free wine and I was so incensed that I thought the whole place was rubbish. Over the years I ended up feeling guilty about my big toddler strop and I finally went back to check on the Gugg’ this week. I hated it! Hahaha! I like art so much more now and I wasn’t after anything boozy but still: Peggy and I just had a fundamentally different idea of what was worth exhibiting. Whole thing left me cold. Maybe you will like it though!
Gallerie dell’Accademia
A real barnstormer, this. Adored it! Great curating, some really gobsmacking pieces. Gets the big, bold “MLC Recommends” badge.
The other palazzi
So yes, as mentioned, I went to a whole bunch of them this time. Can I be honest, though? I found them all a bit interchangeable. If I had to pick one and only one and I had my eye on art more than architecture, then I would pick Ca Pesaro. If I really cared about interiors, I would go to the Palazzo Grimani. If I wanted one especially nice room, I would go to Palazzo Fortuny.
Do I regret having waited all that long to see them all though? Not massively! Especially as most of them aren’t cheap. The Fondazione Querini Stampalia was, I must say, however, quite jolly. Maybe that’s the one I’d picked, if I had to pick one. Maybe.
# Bonus round
Hello yes these are things I couldn’t quite fit in anywhere else.
Zattere
Weirdly a place that took me three Venice trips to finally go to, but now one of my favourite spots. Lovely great bit of pavement facing the massive canal and Giudecca, especially nice if you’ve spent the day trying to navigate the labyrinths of San Polo and San Marco. Get a gelato at Nico then go for a drink at the Chioschetto, or a fancy cocktail at the Experimental Palazzo, and watch the sun set from there.
Campo Santa Margherita
The student square! It’s lovely and full of both decent enough restaurants and little bistros, so ideal to go to if you have time to spare and no real plans. It is hell after 10pm because it’s the student square, unless you are a drunk student or, somehow, enjoy being around drunk students. Caffe Rosso is an institution.
Pier Luigi Penzo Stadium
The proud home of Venezia FC! One of the only stadiums in the world where you can watch both a game of football and the beautiful, soothing lagoon at the same time. Maybe the only one, I have no idea. Tickets are twenty euro; it’s definitely worth it. Also this is Italy so you can actually drink pints in the sun while watching said football. A delight. Allegedly the team will also soon move to the mainland, because we’re quite simply not allowed anything nice in the 2020’s, so go there while you can.
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Bye!
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