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Venice restaurants
You can eat very badly in Venice—try any restaurant with a menu turistico in six languages and a persuasive hassler out front, and you'll find out just how badly. But you can also eat very well, if you know what to look for. As befits a maritime republic, Venetian cooking is focused on fresh seafood, and there are lots of trattorias and restaurants to choose from (our recommendations follow). Just keep in mind that a full-fledged meal will likely set you back more than it will anywhere else in Italy.
If you want to keep your tab down and still eat well, bacari—bars with rustic back-room trattorias—are a great choice. Most bacari serve menus of tapaslike snacks called cicchetti: brandade-topped toast, folpeti (baby octopus), polpette (spicy meatballs), and bovoleti (tiny snails). If you're still hungry after a few small plates (and ombre—glasses of wine), you can order more substantial fare at one of the back tables.
For a note on Venetian addresses, see our Fact Sheet.
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