Hello!
We are taking our two boys (10 &14) Europe and leaving in one week! After the first part of our trip in Switzerland, we are spending the end of our visit in Venice for four nights.
We have booked an apartment in the San Polo area of Venice. We plan to take water taxis to some local islands and enjoy all of the food!
If anyone has recommendations of tips for restaurants, cafes, markets, or traveling via the water taxis, please let us know.
Thank you!
You don’t need water taxis as the regular vaporetto service heads to most of the islands. A day ticket may be cheaper depending on how much you use the services. We found it quicker and more enjoyable to walk to places.
I was disappointed with the food in Venice compared to other parts of Italy. Eating out isn’t cheap. Cantina Arnaldi had good chicchetti (tapas) and wine. Pizza Della Pizza was good, but you can’t get pizza wrong.
The fish market and floating vegetable market at Campo San Barnaba are worth a look. Space is tight, so there aren’t lots of markets as you would find in other places.
It‘s probably worth it to get the 72 hour ( It’s good for the 72 hours, NOT 3 days ) vaporetto pass.
no need to pay $$$ for water taxis - get the 72 hour vaporetto pass and you can use unlimited for 72 hours. Also, download the Rick Steves app - go to the section on Venice and download all the Venice tours - they are free -- there is even a Vaporetto Tour that takes you around the whole canal and explains things to you - you do need your phone and earbuds. You must download here in USA as it's too large an app to load in Europe - but it's a great app that takes you on walks and tours, etc - there are many for Venice. We found lots of little pasta and pizza places off the beaten paths - lots of seafood too but it wasn't the type we cared for. All this is explained in detail in the RS Venice book.
I've also been generally disappointed in the restaurant food in Venice - which is not usually my experience in Italy. However, the cicchetti in the small cafes and pubs were great! This might be a wonderful way to feed your boys: you look at the different "small bites" on platters behind the counter glass (meats, veggies, seafood, little open-faced sandwiches, etc.), and then choose what you want. It's quite easy to make a great lunch or early supper this way, for a very reasonable price. The Rick Steves Venice book describes some 4-6 cicchetti restaurants in the Rialto market area. I especially like Cantina do Mori and Ostaria Antico Dolo, which are within 5 minutes walk of each other.
We stumbled across Antico Forno pizza while in Venice and it made for a quick and delicious lunch. Enjoy your trip!
For markets, you can't do better than the famous Rialto Market, right in San Polo. When we were in Venice for a month, we went there 3 or 4 mornings a week to buy fish, fruit, and vegetables to cook in our apartment. It is great to walk around and just marvel at the beautiful displays of shellfish and crustaceans, and sometimes a really ugly whole fish whose name I cannot recall.
https://anamericaninrome.com/wp/2019/05/rialto-market-venice/
Some of the larger fish like swordfish and tuna are offered in cut portions, so you can point at the one you want if you don't speak Italian. Fruit can be purchased by the piece or by weight. Don't touch---ask for what you want. Around the edges of the area you will find small shops selling meats and cheeses.
Places to eat---yes, restaurant food is expensive in Venice. I will recommend the one place we really liked for reasonable prices, friendly service, and nice atmosphere, as well as good food: Rosa Rossa, on Calle de la Mandola in San Marco. It is described as a pizza restaurant, but they have other dishes as well (primi and secondi, as well as antipasti and desserts). It is somewhat famous as Johnny Depp's favorite place to frequent when he was in Venice in 2010, filming The Tourist.
https://restaurantguru.com/Rosa-Rossa-Venice
When you mentioned "water taxi" I think you mean the vaporetto, or "water bus" which is public transport around Venice and the other islands. Actual water taxis are private (they would take just the 4 of you wherever you want) and very expensive. The vaporetti are on regular schedules and call at various docks around Venice and the islands of Giudecca, Murano, Burano, and others. You MUST have a ticket or pass to board and in some cases to even be on the boarding dock. There are various types of tickets and passes and it does get complicated. Hopefully someone will have time to explain the system to you as I have to sign off for now . . .
We loved Trattoria Bar Pontini--I still think about that meal four years later :)
I really loved the restaurant Ai Cugnai in Venice - good food, friendly atmosphere, and great service. A very family-friendly place too. The cicchetti bars were also fantastic as others have mentioned. The restaurant Ai Artisti was wonderful, but was a little more upscale and expensive, not sure if it would be what you’re going for with two boys. The food and service there were wonderful and you could sit alongside a small canal which was beautiful. Have a wonderful trip!!
As much as I love Venice, we were disappointed in the cuisine. I would agree with Lola with the recommendation of Rosa Rossa! We did enjoy the variety of menu selections. If we were to return we would probably stay in an apartment in the San Polo area and frequent the market for fresh fruits, veg., and fish. Enjoy beautiful Venice!
We had dinner at Ristorante Principessa on Riva Dei Schiavoni in Castello overlooking the waterfront by the Savoia & Jolanda Hotel. The chicken parmesan was very good. A restaurant that we liked in Dorsoduro on the Zattere Fondamenta was Ristorante Pizzeria Alle Zattere. We had lunch there and a great Margherita pizza outside under a canopy on a floating veranda on the Guidecca Canal. There is a gelato shop nearby as well. Near St Mark's square we enjoyed Ristorante Falciani with good food and reasonable prices by Hotel Concordia and a side view of St. Mark's Basilica. For a restaurant on a side canal with views of gondolas gliding by we ate at Ristorante da Raffaele. For us the atmosphere and views were just as important for our dining experience as the food.
By islands, I assume you mean Murano, Burano and Torcello. I would visit the last two. The vaporettos that go out there are located on the north side of Cannaregio neighborhood.
Murano is much more touristy.
A couple of suggestions:
Download the app Che Bateo (which boat). It links to the vaporetto timetables. Plug in departure and arrival stops, and the app gives you times and changes (if any).
The book Secret Venice by Jonglez is great, gives a whole lot of quirky details and explanations that do not appear in many guide books.
Birraria la Corte in Campo San Polo is good for a simple meal, and is very kid friendly. Not your average pizza joint.
Besides the big open markets, there are multiple Coop Supermarkets in Venice. Just Google coop supermarket venice and a map and list will be the results. You can then look for the ones closest to your apartment.
There are fancier little niche markets and other supermarkets, but the last time (2017) I was in Venice, I did all my shopping there, mostly because the owner of the apartment I rented led me to the closest one to it. As a solo traveler, it worked for me. With your boys, it will probably work for you, too.
Your apartment will likely have reusable shopping bags. Mine did, but I couldn't resist buying one at the Coop and it's one of my favorite souvenirs. You'll be charged a small fee for typical plastic bags.
This is a brief little article about supermarkets in Venice and how to shop in them. I love staying in apartments partly because I enjoy local food shopping.
My major mistake was trying to bring home too many full 2-liter bottles at once. It wasn't the long flight of stairs up to my apartment. It was the little bridges over the canals. But you have 3 BOBs (beasts of burden) to help with that. 😉
We were in Venice with our two kids 2 years ago, and they loved it. Here is a link to my trip report with details:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/trip-report-4-days-in-venice
