Venice: The Ultimate Food Tour - Bacaro Hopping Like a Venetian

We will pass where, according to tradition, Marco Polo used to live before starting his long journey to China

We will stop for a delicious bite in a historical place, serving San Marco workers since the 1930s. This no-frills "rosticceria" has an ultramarine canteen counter downstairs and a small eat-in restaurant upstairs. There you will find arancini (rice balls), deep-fried mozzarella balls, croquettes and fish fry-ups. No one said it was going to be healthy! Let's try a Mozzarella in Carrozza!

We will cross the most famous bridge in Venice, crossing the Canal Grande. the current bridge was built in the 16th century as a replacement of the previous wooden drawbridge.

The market place in Venice is Rialto: its fish market is noisy, raw, authentic and full of true venetian life. Fish is artfully arranged on stalls covered with deep layers of crushed ice, seagulls wander among the fishmongers calling out today's catch, local people purposefully browse the stalls scattered in the two halls of the "Pescheria", as generations of venetians have been doing so in the last 800 years!

What a great place to have some fish in a local place!

We will visit a family owned cheese shop active since 1936 and you may choose to have a tasting of local cheeses such as Asiago, Montasio and Dobbiaco.

We cannot have "cicchetti" without an "ombra", in English "shadow" ! "Let’s go to drink a shadow", in Venetian language “Andémo béver un'ombra” is an invitation to go for a drink, and more exactly a small glass of wine (a shadow), which is typically drunk in one shot. The expression is a prompt of the period in which the wine was sold in shaded stands, which were located at the base of the Bell Tower of San Marco; when the sun was rotating, the stands were moved, so they could continue to stay in the shade (ombra).

It will be time to taste some watermouthering "cichetti", local snacks or side dishes, usually served in traditional "bàcari" (cicchetti bars or osterie). Typical cicchetti include tiny sandwiches, plates of olives or other vegetables, halved hard boiled eggs, small servings of a combination of one or more of seafood, meat and vegetable ingredients laid on top of a slice of bread or polenta, and very small servings of typical full-course plates. Like Spanish tapas, one can also make a meal of cicchetti by ordering multiple plates. Normally not a part of home cooking, the cicchetti’s importance lies not just in the food itself, but also in how, when and where they are eaten: with fingers and toothpicks, usually standing up, hanging around the counter where they are displayed in numerous bars, osterie and bacari that offer them virtually all day long.

"Dulcis in fundo" romans used to to say. And we will do it at the end of our tour with a gelato ice cream. We will choose a traditional ice cream shop, the one preferred by Peggy Guggenheim and, more recently, by Angelina Jolie when shooting her movies in town.