After a morning in Milan, we traveled to our final destination before returning (at least for me) to Bologna: Venice! Though I don't usually think for Venice as much for it's food as for its other cultural attractions, we ate very well. Of course, as it is on the sea, Venice is known for its seafood. We found a little place for dinner that we had read about called Trattoria da Fiore (Santo Stefano 3461, Venezia) and sipped prosecco at only 2 euro/glass and ate a dinner of
cicchetti, little appetizers of Venezia, that were fantastic. Probably the best seafood I have had in Italy. You just pointed to what you wanted from a wide selection of dishes behind the bar and this nice woman dished them up to you. We started with some vegetarian things, including little fritters, a pepper frittata, roasted potatoes, eggplant with mozzarella, and probably the best artichoke hearts I have ever had (they are crazy about artichokes in Venice, at the markets they sell all these different varieties in all these different preparations).
Then, those of us not vegetarian tried some of the fantastic seafood offerings. There was
baccala (salt cod) spread on toast, mixed fried seafood, fish with tomato and pea sauce, fish fritters, whole shrimp, and an amazing seafood salad of octopus, squid, etc...
This restaurant was a truly a find and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Venice. Also, it is a place that is clearly appreciated by the locals and not packed with tourists (the woman behind the counter didn't even speak English, almost unheard of in Venice), which is difficult to find in Venice. The food, especially the seafood, was fresh and simply prepared, and that makes for some great eating.
