Picnicking/Drinking in Public

I believe you are explicitly forbidden to plop yourself down in Piazza San Marco in Venice to have a picnic. I think Rick mentions a park not too far away where it's OK. This I'm sure of: Back in 2019 a couple of German tourists were fined nearly 1000 euros for making coffee near the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

I don't consume wine but I can tell you my experience with evading eating restaurant food in Europe. I was in Spain in March of this year. I didn't have a problem eating stuff like fruit, crackers, or sometimes sardines, outside on benches, or on the steps of certain buildings but I would pick a spot away from the entrance. I ate a few dates sitting on a bench or low retaining wall about 50 feet from the entrance of the Prado art museum. I ate dates on a bench across from the entrance to the archaeology museum in Madrid. I ate grapes sitting on steps of the outside of the Archivo de Indias but about 25 feet from the entrance and not in the path or anybody going in or out. I ate banana on a bench in the garden of the Alcazar de los Reyos Cristianos in Cordoba...

I wouldn't spread a blanket out and make a big production out of eating. I wouldn't make eating my own food a long drawn-out affair. I wouldn't be too fancy about "picnicking". Make sure you don't make a mess or leave garbage anywhere and all the other manners you probably know about...

Picnics are fine in Paris. If you're discreet, and it kind of depends where you are, a bottle of wine is fine too.

The main problem today would be that it is rainy and cold !!

This reminds me of when I used to travel with some picnic utensils. I mismanaged my packing one time and had to leave the knife at an airport, but I should get back into that habbit.

Thanks for the responses! Definitely not looking to bust out a blanket and a full spread in the middle of a square, mostly just concerned about being hassled for having a drink in a park. I've been conditioned by this country's puritanical attitude towards that kind of thing :)

This is a topic that I would imagine would vary considerably from one place to the next. My thought would be to ask at either the hotel or the TI. You do not want to be that person in the Venice headline about "Tourists fixing coffee fined €1000"

In the US, the main issue is "open-carry" of alcohol. I've never heard of anyone getting into a problem for drinking a coffee in a park. In addition, we have on many occasions had wine in forbidden locations simply by putting the wine into a thermos before going to the park.

In Rome, loitering on the steps at Piazza di Spagna is expressly forbidden, as it is at Trvi fountain. Florence also bans picnicking on steps in the city center. I believe offenders are fined.