Start the day with coffee in a Venice bar or pastry shop. Buy supplies from the Rialto produce market and head to Venice's public gardens near San Marco for a picnic lunch. Or find an outdoor pizzeria restaurant on Venice's quiet squares in San Polo or Dorsoduro. In the evening, make your way to St Mark's Square to sip wines from the Veneto region, watched over by the ghost of Casanova at an elegant Venice cafe bar.
Drop into cafes on Strada Nova for snacks or light meals, or recharge at famously elegant cafes in San Marco. Hunt out Venice's traditional backstreet trattoria restaurants in Cannaregio or dine away from the Venice hubbub in Castello. If seafood is your passion, you'll find Venice restaurants serving speciality fish dishes in San Polo, near the Rialto Bridge fish market.
You'll save euros if you stand at the counter, rather than sit at a table, to fill up on panini or tramezzini sandwiches in a Venice bar. To find cheaper and more authentic cuisine, avoid Venice's tourist restaurants on the San Marco–train station thoroughfare.
Try Venice's cicchetti bar snacks in Cannaregio bars and act like a Venice local by ordering a Spritz, a refreshing Venice cocktail of prosecco sparkling wine, soda and Campari or Aperol bitters. Drink with a youthful crowd at bars on Venice's Campo Santa Margherita in Dorsoduro or along Fondamenta della Misericordia in Cannaregio. For more sedate night-time fare at bars in Venice, try a little people-watching on Campo Santa Maria Formosa square.
