Venice: Mosquitos and Restaurants

This Sunday's New York Times Online will have an article about good Venice restaurants. I get an advanced copy. I found Venetian food to be a challenge, but the places that sell the small food plates (like Spanish tapas, only Venetian specialities -- can't remember the name) are good bets. I hear the Madonna restaurant is good (this may not be the complete name -- it is near the Rialto Bridge). As for mosquitos, I think you will need to bring Deet!

i have not been yet, though i'm leaving for there soon. being made up of a bunch of island, and what with the canals and all, i've heard the mosquito problem is pretty bad. i only say this so you'll be prepared. Good luck.

for restaurant suggestions, i dont know if this will be a bit much to sort through as well, but i've been using a website called Virtual Tourist for all my restaurant recommendations. Just google Virtual Tourist Venice.

At the beginning of June, mosquitoes were a small problem in our hotel room. We shut the windows and turned on the AC and that solved the problem. Apart from that, no problems and we didn't have to use repellant.

Natural geranium oil.. that and Avon's Skin so Soft. (we live on a lagoon here in the States and it can get to be a problem in the summer time.) We were in Venice two weeks ago.. I used the oil and not a single problem, even though I heard them buzzing all over..

I have to agree with my mom, Kate from Carlsbad. I live in Italy (north of Venice)and use the geranium oil (dilluted with unscented lotion). I never get bit and I really love the smell. As usual, mom knows best. Just FYI, this is why you'll see all the geraniums in the windows here. Skeeters don't like them much. Hope I'm not too late with my post. Ciao!

Is geranium oil available at natural/health food stores? lavendin oil is good if you do get bitten

Also Tea Tree Oil is a natural antiseptic and great for bites and the like. Tea tree is a native tree here and the oil has been used for eons. I'd say you should be able to get it at health food shops.

hi - I'm also really allergic to mosquitoes - i've even had my eyes swell shut from bites. When nothing else helps, tea tree oil does. I wouldn't believe it if it hadn't saved me a billion times from painful bites. Also, Geranium oil doesn't work for me, neither does peppermint oil or burt's bees or buzz off, or any other earth-friendly environmental thing. Deet, for me, is the only way to go. I'm heading to Venice in October, please tell me how it went.

The geranium oil I brought to our daughter in Polciengo is available with other essential oils in health food stores and any natural food stores.. you can also get these on line. Pilgrims Pride has a huge selection of oils, herbs and vitamins..

I made the mistake of sleeping with the windows open one night in Venice. BIG mistake. Florence was even worse - I was bit so much that immigration looked at me funny coming back - I looked like a plague victim. Take some repellent for during the day and you will be fine. Just keep those windows closed in the evening.

Click here for our most recent post on mosquitos in Venice. Some of the posts in that thread don't address Venice, but the 1st reply (1st after the original post) and the 4th reply do specifically address mosquitos in Venice. And the 4th reply has a further link you can click to get even more info on mosquitos in Venice.

A problem is that, unlike here, the windows in hotels almost never have screens. If you have a room with AC, and if it's the time of the year when Italian law allows hotel guests to use the AC, then you can live (or I should say, sleep) with the windows closed. But if you have to sleep with the windows open, that's when people have had problems.

This is a zombie post, started in June three years ago.

Good catch Michael!