I❤️ Markets: Venice
My guide to the "Serenissima"
Venice is really one of the jewels of Italy. You can never really discover all it has to offer.
I started going to Venice to visit a cousin I had who moved there when her husband died and dedicated herself to being an artist. She showed me her Venice and my first “bacari”, the wine bars. Small dark places full of ambience.
When I first went to Venice and was asking around to find a “Bacaro” I was told they didn’t exist anymore. I don’t take no for an answer so kept asking. I always go to a market and the Rialto was a large market back in the late 70’s. I found what i was looking for. There were so many back around the market.
This is the original Vini da Pinto, now it has expanded and also has a restaurant, right behind the Rialto Market. When I first visited Italy in the late 70’s film was expensive as was developing it. I don’t have a lot of fotos, but adore this one with the huge demijohns of wine outside.
I have returned over and over to Venice. Not as often as I would have liked as it is so crowded and I love to stroll and take my time to appreciate the city to the fullest.
I prefer to go off season and explore a neighborhood at a time.
Venice has “sestiere"-
For the guide on Venice, I broke it up into visiting the Sestiere. What I like to do is get a vaporetta pass and explore by hoping off at a stop and exploring the neighborhood. Each sestiere has a piazza, wonderful churches filled with art and tons of places to eat and drink.
Venice is also emptying out of residents as so many of the apartments have been turned into Air B/B’s pricing out the locals. It’s a real catch 22 as you really want to be able to cook when in Venice. The Rialto market is beautiful, although much smaller than it was when I first went there.
This is the covered fish market. The piazza nearby is the fruit and vegetable section of the market and there are small shops around with meat and cheeses as well as bakeries.
I had a hard time with the app, I wanted to keep adding more and more. Venice is so rich with beautiful churches filled with art, Incredible musuems, wonderful neighborhoods filled with all sorts of places to eat and drink. This is a large list of places to see and places to eat and really I didn’t touch the surface. I didn’t include the islands, that might be another guide for me to write up. Venice is really worth mulitiple visits or a long stay.
For the guide, I listed each of the sestiere and then put things to see and do and then where to eat. It’s how I like to tour larger towns. I think it’s hard to hit museums and tour and then try to get back to a restaurant in another area. You can walk around Venice and walk up and down the little bridges over all the canals or hop on and off the vaporette, which are the “buses” of Venice.
I hope you plan on spending as much time as possible in Venice and getting off the main streets.
I suggest taking a tour with a guide when you arrive to meet a local and learn how to enjoy Venice as a local does.
In the newsletter for the paid subscribers, I am also sharing a few of my friends that offer tours and special events in Venice. Later in the month I will be sharing some Venetian recipes as well. This is the last of the Market Guides to Italy for the series this year.
When you join the paid version, you also have access to the archives.
In January, I am starting my culinary memoir, Simply Divina: Becoming Italian- One recipe at a time.
I will be sharing the Secrets from My Tuscan Kitchen on setting up your pantry, introducing you to the people that mentored me and sharing their recipes. It’s been a fabulous 40 years here and I haven’t stopped learning. Each region has it’s own culinary delights. Thanks so much for joining me and supporting this project.