Eight of us from CA happen to be traveling to Venice on the same day, in two weeks (on a Sunday) and plan to have dinner together before going in different directions the next day. We are staying at the Hotel Rialto.
Any suggestions of where to dine near there?
Or anywhere else?

Hi MB,

When are you going? What's the budget?

OOOPs,

Belay that.

Cantinone Storico is on a canal near the Accademia Bridge, within sound of the bells of one of the churches. Lovely atmosphere. Excellent cooking. Very good presentation. Superior service.

Unfortunately, closed on Sunday. :-<

See http://tinyurl.com/nkbum for a list of restaurants.

PS,

Alla Madonna is right across the Rialto from your hotel (to your left). I think it is open every day.

http://www.ristoranteallamadonna.com/

Budget can be any amount. We are all empty nesters. : )
Thanks, Alla Mondonna looks fine, and the fact that it has tables large enough for eight is a plus.

Any others, or any with outdoor seating or views?

You may know this already but the toilets in Venice homes flush directly into the canal...when the tide goes out
in the evening the stench is overpowering.I would eat lunch by the water, never dinner--unless you aren't bothered by that type thing.

There are so many funny things in that last post I hardly know where to start, but let's start with the idea that people don't flush their toilets in the morning and that the tide is always going out in the evening, unlike the rest of the world where tides times change daily. After we finish with that, then we'll talk about the toilets flushing directly into the canal.

I've eaten both lunch and dinner on various canals and never noticed a thing. Hmmmm. Maybe nobody had flushed their toilet recently.

Jeeeshh....(referring to the toilet post... have been there many times and have never encountered such crap (if you'll pardon my pun) Anyhow.... it's not near where you indicated... but Venice is so small. Corte Sconta in Castello... if you can get a table in the courtyard for your group might be fun. (Don't know if it's warm enough yet for the courtyard to be open.) Part of the fun is finding the restaurant! (Actually, quite easy.) Madonna is fun.... but not really a Venetian experience.

I was just repeating what the gondolier
said to us during our ride through
the canals.We asked where the "plumbing
was" and he said "we were riding in it"
and that the toilets flush directly
into the canals. He is the one that
stated "it's worse at night when the
tides go out." I am no expert on toilets but he was born in Venice so who was I to argue. By the way, where
did you guys think the stuff went?

The two places I would recommend are Da Fiore and La Zucca. Both are near Campo San Giacomo Dell Orio, so they aren't particularly close to you, but then again, Venice is not that big. Da Fiore has been a star of Venetian cuisine for years. Some diners have felt it was over-rated, but we had a lovely meal with very attentive service there last summer. It was expensive but well worth the price for the Venetian seafood. La Zucca is largely vegetarian, but it has some meat (not much fish). The outdoor tables are great for people watching. The food is creative, and the prices are solidly mid-range. In a week in Venice these were our favorites (enough to do La Zucca twice). In the same are you'll find the Ae Oche pizzeria, which was also wonderful, with dozens of pizza varieties and outside tables also great for watching the flow of Venetians. If you go to Ae Oche and can get me an XL "Pazzo per Pizza" T-shirt (10 euros), I'll gladly pay you $20 plus postage...get one yourself, but be advised, they run small.

Yeah, and in New York the toilets flush directly into the subway tunnels, which really bum the mole people out........

We were in Venice in April and enjoyed a great dinner at Locanda Montin. It's a few blocks from Accademia Bridge on a small canal--San Trovaso area--Fondamenta Eremite--a bit tricky to find. They have outdoor dining in a lovely garden but it was not open in early April.

Hi schoo,

>I am no expert on toilets but he was born in Venice so who was I to argue. By the way, where
did you guys think the stuff went?<

He was pulling your leg.

Commercial establishments must have biological treatment systems, and most houses have septic tanks.

I have not yet seen raw sewage floating in the canals, and I have been to Venice many times over the last 20 years.

The PBS channel has a science program
called NOVA. At their website, it has
an article titled"Sinking City of Venice" that talks about gates that will
hopefully be put in place to hold back
the water. Excerpt from the article:
"Plans are afoot as well to improve Venice's treatment of sewage, which for
centuries has been dumped directly into
the canals." It also goes on to say that
authorities HOPE to have traditional
septic systems in place OVER THE NEXT TWO DECADES.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venice/solutions.html

xxx