Viva Italia Meals on Your Own

[mwebsite]

Do the hotels and/or guides give restaurant recommendations for meals on your own? If so, were you happy with their recommendations? I've been researching a bit on my own, but I thought maybe it wasn't necessary. If you recall the names of any restaurants you enjoyed, please post the name and location. Thanks.

 

[redzinner]

Do the hotels and/or guides give restaurant recommendations for meals on your own? If so, were you happy with their recommendations? I've been researching a bit on my own, but I thought maybe it wasn't necessary. If you recall the names of any restaurants you enjoyed, please post the name and location. Thanks.

Our guides, Vinnie and Marco, were great about giving us suggestions and directions, especially in Rome and Venice. Cannot tell you if the hotels gave any recommendations since we didn't ask them for help.

Rome
1)pre-day late lunch/dinner Pepe's Pizzeria diagonally to the left out the front door of the Bernini. Good pizza. That's all we had there. Friendly waitstaff.
2) Ristorante Il Peperone for dinner with 2 other couples. Suggested to us by guides. Good food. We ate in the glass bubble that is right on the sidewalk. They have other seating inside the restaurant. Right up the street to the right of the Bernini within walking distance, past the Westin.
3)I think the day we did the Vatican we had the afternoon to ourselves and we ate at Vitti's Cafe. Just found it in our meandering and enjoyed it.

Florence
No recommendations here since it was just the afternoon. We just were walking and stopped at Bar La Sosta De' Golosi Focacceria. We stopped there because they had tables outside and it was a beautiful day ... they all were .

I'll look to see if I kept the Venice ones we liked. The guides did give recommendations for Venice.

 

[ga9497]

No specific recommendations but I can tell you that if you are on a touristy street, say near the Trevi fountain, walk over a couple of blocks and you will find better restaurants with much better prices.

 

[MAH4546]

Take a cab to Trastevere and dine with the locals. The best restauraunts are in Trastevere, and don't go to the first one you see. Walk further through the alleys and streets. The further in, the more local the resturaunt is.

 

[eva]

We ate lunch at the Caffe La Posta in Florence. It is right across the street from the post office. We just stumbled on it as we were exploring down some side streets. It is a bit expensive. But we had the best meal of the entire trip there. We ate outside under their canopy while it rained. It was so romantic and the service was awesome. The tortellini soup and veal scaloppini were to die for. That and a great bottle of Chianti, "Sigh..." What a great day that was.

 

[rotary2808]

Our guides Heidi and Marco were really good about giving recommendations on where to eat on your own. We never had a bad experience. I wish I could remember the names of all the places we ate. I know in Venice we went to a placed called 40 Thieves. It was excellent, the gnocchi with crab was excellent.

 

[stultress]

Our guides, Heidi and Mara, always had tons of recommendations for restaurants. Our favorite place, though, was one I found in a Rick Steves' guidebook. It is in Venice, and it is called Naranzaria. He described it as non-pasta Italian cuisine. We actually had sushi, and it was the best I have ever had - very fresh. Our friends had lasagna and salmon and said it was very good. The best thing about the place is that you can sit outside, and you are right on the grand canal. We went around 6:00 p.m., and had to wait a few minutes for a table. After about 7:00, though, it really cleared out because you have to order food to sit there after that. Prior to that time there were a lot of people just drinking and enjoying the view. To get there, cross the Rialto, and as soon as you get to the end of the bridge make an immediate right. Enjoy your trip!!!

 

[mwebsite]

Thanks, everyone. It's good to know the guides have suggestions, but I've also noted the above places to try.

 

[eva]

In Venice you can walk along the Grand Canal and look at menus with prices. There are quite a few restaurants to choose from. We ate at one there that was very good. We looked at so many that I can't remember the name of the one we ate at. But be forewarned, the restaurants on the Grand Canal are a bit pricey. A number of them specialize in seafood and nearly all of them have outdoor seating along the canal.

 

[glassslipper2004]

We ate at one of the (a little bit overpriced, but everything was last summer) lovely restaurants on the Grand Canal in Venice for lunch. It was one of our best memories - and we took some beautiful pictures. I had a fantastic linguini with clam sauce - tiny little clams in pretty shells, it was great. This was in contrast to a lunch in Florence where I was trying to avoid the tourist places and save some money - we had an okay lunch, but nothing to look at. If I were to do it again I wouldn't worry so much about avoiding tourist spots and just eat wherever we wanted to and enjoy!