Italy dining?

In Venice, between the Rialto Bridge and Piazzale Roma on the same side of the Grand Canal as the fish market, is an out of the way place named Pane Vino e San Daniele on Calle Dei Boteri. Definitely a hole in the wall local place, but it has good food, good house wine, and is not expensive at all.

Another local place (although some tourist know about it) is Trattoria Da Marco Valla Fava on Calle Stagneri. It is near the Rialto Bridge on the same side of the canal as the train station. A bit pricey, so you might want to do lunch rather than dinner. Some of the best sea food ever!! Try to eat inside rather than outside. The place has been around at least 50 years so they must be doing it right. Never had to have a reservation for lunch, but for dinner it would be a good idea.

In my opinion, many canal side places are lacking quality. An exception is Trattoria Da Giorgia ai Greci. It is very close to San Marco, but well away from the crowds, and has really good food.

In Florenece we like the following:

Giglio Rosso located at 35 via Panzani. Their web site is
https://www.ristorantegigliorosso.com/en/about/

Olio & Convivium Gastronomia Restaurant. It's on the Pitti Palace side of the river on Via di Santo Spirito. Wonderful atmosphere, excellent food, and good wine. Again, a bit pricy, (but well worth it) so you might want to go there for lunch rather than dinner. The web site is https://oliorestaurant.it/.

You should be able to check out the menues, prices and such on the web sites for all of the places mentioned.

You might also ask the hotel staff where they like to eat. More often than not, they'll steer you to a good local place.

1. opens at 8 or so.
2. 1 to 2 streets off of the main street.
3. hand-writen menu.
4. nobody out hustling for diners.
5. outside seating saved for regulars.

Not always accurate, but get off any main piazza or away from tourist sights. Even if they are great restaurants, you pay for the location more than the food.

Aside from that, many of the tropes often given as advice are just wrong, or outdated. Having an English menu (or other languages) is not a bad thing. Assume anywhere you go will have tourists, many Italian speaking, and places that cater to tourists are not necessarily bad.

It helps if you know the local dishes to the area, small places serving those dishes tend to be pretty good. Overall though, ahead of time, I often search for blogs of locals or known travelers, and see what their picks are. Once there, we usually head off from main piazzas, using Google maps. to find restaurants, look at the menu, scope it out, usually if it looks good, a seasonal menu, or solid local items, and is fairly busy (after 8:00 say) then it is usually a winner.

From our latest two trips, here's a few we liked.

***Florence in San Frediano (November 2024):

Trattoria dell’Orto

Trattoria Sabatino (no reservations but the line is actually kind of fun as is the style of the place)

the deli Gastronomia il Giglio

Alla Vecchia Bettola

***Florence elsewhere (same trip):

Acquacotta

Some place in the Sant'Ambrogio market with shared tables and you could see the kitchen

***Venice (December 2023)

La Rampa in Venice for the 2nd time

Osteria La Zucca for the 2nd or 3rd time

Osteria da Pampo

La Palanca, Giudecca — worker guys ate there early when we did and then regular customers came in at 1:30pm

***Rome (same trip):

Arianna al Borghetto near Ostia Antica was fun

Trattoria Lilli near Castel Sant’Angelo

As for "how," my husband has a method and sources (like his Italian tutors), very effective for finding the kind of local, un-fancy, un-fussy, good food places we enjoy. But I can do pretty well myself just looking at photos online, either Google review photos or ones on Tripadvisor ---- photos of the interior of the restaurant, the menu, and especially the food. I want it to look like food, not like the cook's art project (although I do make an exception for desserts). The reviews have to be above a certain level, maybe 4.4 out of 5. I know that reviews are not totally reliable, but it's an easy way to reduce the number of places to look at. Then, if we are actually in the town or city, we go look at the restaurant, usually at lunchtime.

Not to hijack this thread, but Rick Steves' Pocket Venice guide recommends L'Ombra del Leone, which has a terrace overlooking the Grand Canal. Has anyone eaten there? I don't mind paying a bit more for the location, but not if the food is bad.

Where we ate inside the Sant'Ambrogio market was Trattoria da Rocco --- it's only open for lunch, 10am to 2:45pm.

Stand outside the restaurant. Does it look inviting? Does the menu look tasty? Is it open?
Look it up on Yelp.
Look it up on TripAdvisor.
Look it up on Michelin.
Read the 1 star reviews first.

I use https://www.tripadvisor.com/ and https://www.thefork.com/ (now owned by TripAdvisor). Both are used heavily by Italians.

I use also www.gamberorosso.it, but I’m not sure they have an English page. Italians use it a lot too.

Although I rely on Yelp a lot in the US, I don’t use Yelp in Italy because it is not used by Italians therefore you find restaurants only reviewed by American tourists primarily in places visited by Americans. If you are looking for restaurants suggested by Italians, Yelp is not the site to go.

Due to traffic restrictions in the historical centers (ZTL=Zona Traffico Limitato), locals don’t frequent places in the historical centers much anymore, because they prefer to go to places they can drive to. So if I ask my friends in Florence for good restaurants nowadays, they will be, in most cases, outside the historical city center. The same thing is probably true for Venice or Rome. My cousin lives in Monteverde (a district of Rome) and all of her suggestions will be in Testaccio or Monteverde, or at most Trastevere (which is nearby for them) because they don’t bother to go where they can’t drive anymore.

trbbls,

I try to avoid restaurants that have large picture menus out front, and sometimes mildly aggressive waiters trying to encourage people to sit down. That type of restaurant tends to be closer to large tourist sites and plazas and has mediocre food. If you go a block or two away from the busy spots, it's possible to find restaurants that cater more to locals. However that also means their English skills may not be as good for dealing with tourists. One method I've always found reliable is to ask the desk staff at my hotels if they can recommend any good local restaurants.

Here are a few other websites on that topic....

• https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/what-to-eat-in-italy-region-by-region
• https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/italy-for-food-lovers
• https://vagrantappetite.com/how-to-navigate-dining-in-italy/
• https://luxeadventuretraveler.com/tips-for-finding-good-restaurants-in-italy/

As some of the websites indicate, there are different "courses" for Italian meals such as Antipasti, Primi, Secondi, Contorni, Insalata, etc. I typically order only the Primi and either Contorni or Insalata, along with a glass of the house wine, and a bottle of Acqua Naturale (still water.... I don't like the frizzy version). Ordering tap water (Acqua del rubinetto) is not that common (in my experience). This video provides a brief explanation - https://www.tiktok.com/@exploring.italy/video/7422645863027133739 .

Hope this helps!