Your best meal or restaurant in Venice, Florence, Tuscany Hill Towns, or Rome.

We always used to make plans to eat at famous restaurants, however never get around to executing our plans. Restaurants end up being too expensive, or too fancy for our simple tastes, etc.
I'd suggest asking your hotel desk what they suggest for eating a memorable meal.
Let me warn you that Italians on a big night out eat so many courses that I have no idea where they put all that food.

When I'm in Florence, I've been known to eat at an upstairs cafeteria, Leonardos. Not bad lasagne. Venice is now full of lesser expensive pizza and Italian restaurants, and many of the owners are Middle Eastern--not Italian.

We try to eat big breakfasts at our B&B's, snack for lunch and pay for one meal per day.

Last summer in Venice I ate twice at Taverna al Remer. I'm a budget traveler, too. The first time I had pasta with black squid ink sauce. Try it! Looked scary but tasted so good!

It's in Cannaregio. The website is taverna la Remer. Like most places in Venice it is a little hard to find but worth the effort.

Sharon

All personal preferences and total surprises:

Best seafood w/pasta: restaurant on Burano, just near the vaporetto stop from Murano, spaghetti alle vongole verace (clams)

Best pasta dish: pumpkin tortellini in Sabionetta, near Mantova.

Best sfogliatelle: coffee bar at the corner of the pedestrian street leading to the train station in Palermo. Best dessert: a creme chantilly concoction in Gubbio.

Best gelato: on via Santa Cristina in Bolsena.

Best liqueur: house made bay leaf liqueur (served to men) and myrtle liqueur (served to women) in a very fancy restaurant near Baone.

Best coffee: anywhere in Napoli. Best cold coffee drink: caffe shakerato (with or without Bailey's) in Pistoia, but lots of good places to get it.

Although many of my memorable meals have been at various cooking classes in Italy, there have definitely been some standout restaurants, but more often specific dishes, which I'll mention here. I won't list the addresses so let your digital fingers do the walking:

Green & red onion, green olive and blood orange insalata at Rosso Peperoncino, Taormina, Sicily.

Calamarata alla Amalfitana at Ciro & Sons, Florence.

Cinghiale (wild boar) over tagliatelle at Ristorante Fattoria Antico, Florence.

Boiled beef sandwich with pesto at Nerbone stand inside Mercato Centrale, Florence.

Sliced bistec alla Florentine over arugula with balsamic vinegar at Ristorante Toto, Florence.

Bucatini alla Amatriciana at Da Giggetto, Rome. (rest was forgettable but this was transcendent.)

Roasted vegetables at Dar Poeta, Rome. (pizza pretty good too!)

Pan-fried scombro fish with yogurt at Angolo Masuccio, Salerno.

Margherita pizza at Pizzeria Trianon, Salerno.

A couple of places stood out on my recent trip. Both are informal places with faux-rustic décor that seems to be trendy in Italy. More salad/panini/wine places than formal primi, secondi, etc.

Rome
Fres & Co
Great panini and salads, I ordered both the first time I went there and it was too much. Generous (for Italy) pours of great wine for around 6 Euros. The severs were very nice and welcoming. Filled with locals even though it's in Centro Storico. They play a nice jazz soundtrack. An easy walk from across the river in the Castel S'Antangelo area.

Siena
Cartazucchero Libreria Caffetteria

Very appealing café/bookstore on the main road from the train station to the il Campo in Siena. Siena was really crowded when I was there in early November (Italian tourists due to All Saints Day) and it was so great to have a relaxing meal a little ways away from the crowds. Very nice ambience, staff, food.

Neither of these will break the bank, I seek value for something tasty and healthy rather than a transcendent dining experience that will cost me a pile of money. Both of these hit the mark for me. Any time a reasonably priced place in a major tourist city gets 4.5 starts in Trip Advisor, that's pretty impressive.

You might just find yourself eating at outside markets, traveling festivals, delis and grocery stores.

In Florence the Conad City grocery on Via Pietrapiana, you have to see it, a series of deli counters with local foods you might not see anywhere else! My favorite grocery store in the whole world!

Yes, coffee best in Naples, but Roma Termini train station has a Conad City grocery lower level with exquisite sfogliatelle in the pastry area in the back of the store! Plus rows of salad coolers, yummy exotic seafood trays my favorite!

You might just be surprised how easy it is to eat good in Italy!

When my mom & I visited Venice in 2014, our best meal in Venice was a picnic!
We took the vaporetto to Guidecca, disembarked at the Palanca stop, walked along narrow cobblestone streets & found an "inCoop" market. Our picnic consisted of freshly baked bread, delicious prosciutto, creamy burrata, sweet cherry tomatoes, a bag of crispy potatoes chips, some water, pear juice & grapes. We enjoyed our sandwiches sitting on the steps of a bridge as we admired the beautiful views across the canal.

The best gelato in Florence was at Gelateria Vivoli, near Santa Croce.

Have a wonderful trip!

In Venice,

We have been twice five years apart and they were great!

Try a chichetti crawl by visiting different places. Each chichetti pub has their specialties, fried, sandwiches, etc. My favorite is Osteria al Portego. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187870-d1034685-Reviews-Osteria_al_Portego-Venice_Veneto.html Their Tiramisu is amazing!

One of the best meals we had during our 3 years in Italy was in Siena at Trattoria Papei. The ribollita senese and cinghiale pasta were great.

In Venice, in the Dosodoro: http://www.enotecaartisti.com/
We ate there twice - it was spectacular. Family of four with two young teen girls. We were late in our trip and the girls were comfortable with Italian menus so we let them order for all of us (Mom and Dad ordered the wine)! Every single thing was excellent. Avoid anywhere near the Piazza San Marco for food.

Rome - had a lot of good food but the best was here: http://www.renatoeluisa.it/
Very homey and lots of locals - we were the only tourists in the place.

Anywhere you go - drink the wine that is local. Wine is VERY local in Italy - each region has it's own. The big surprise of the trip with white wine in Rome - it is absolutely delicious and the Romans are very proud of it!

The best pizza we had in Venice was at arte della pizza. It is hard to find but soooo worth it. (not a sit down restaurant, grab and go).

In Venice, My favorite chichetti is Osteria al Portego. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187870-d1034685-Reviews-Osteria_al_Portego-Venice_Veneto.html Their Tiramisu is amazing!

Sharon recommended al Remer for a meal. I went there for "happy hour." Get there early (5 p.m.?), they get really crowded. It's hard to find, very near the Rialto Bridge. For the price of a drink (about €5-6), you get unlimited cicchetti (Venetian tapas) and you won't want to eat dinner afterward. That's the only place I've tasted risotto and gone back for seconds. The Dorsoduro has low-priced options. I had a terrific pizza for lunch at Margaret DuChamp in Campo Santa Margherita (€10.50 including drink).