gipsy

I've read so much about Venice my brain is like over-cooked pasta...
Anyway, from what I am reading, it sounds as though we might want to get over to Campo Santa Margherita area. We need a place to get away from the crowds after spending some time at St.Marks Square. Will we find inexpensive restaurants, bakeries, shops & cafes here? Any suggestions for cheap eats open after 6pm? How far away from St.Marks Square? Can we walk or should we use the vaperotto? We'll have a pass & someone in our group might find walking long distances a problem. I really don't want to get stuck paying tourist prices for a bad meal by St.Marks, and it seems we would have more choices if we venture away.

rialtogrl

Definitely check out Campo Santa Margherita! It is about a twenty minute walk from Piazza San Marco, or you can take the vaporetto to the Ca' Rezzonico stop and walk from there. There are all kinds of bars and cafes with very reasonable prices in the campo. Ai Do Draghi, the bar near the church at the top of the campo, has one of the best and cheapest Spritzes in town. There is good pizza to be had at Pier Dickens Pub and there are a number of other good places to eat around that area.

gipsy

Thank you! Can you tell me if we take the vaporetto to Ca' Rezzonico stop, how long of a ride is it? When we get off at that stop, how far a walk is the Campo? Will we get lost?

rialtogrl

gipsy, it is probably also a twenty minute ride on the vaporetto from San Marco, and I should have said it is a twenty minute FAST walk. Maybe a bit longer if you are meandering. You should be able to find the campo from the vaporetto stop no problem, but you should definitely bring a good map to Venice.

maryk

Where ever you go in Venice you will need a map, so get one - preferably before you leave as the tourist ones they hand out are pretty useless.
I'd say it's about 5-10 mins on the vaporetto & 10 mins walk.
Make sure you take the no. 1 vaporetto as the no. 82 doesn't stop at Ca' Rezzonico.
As well as Campo S Margarita there are loads of good places to eat in and around that entire area. If you're going to be in Venice for a few days it would be worth getting hold of either Chow Venice or Michelia Scibilia's restaurant/cafe/bar guide- both are available via Amazon. They are both excellent guides to good eating in Venice, and have lots of reasonably priced options.

Girlspytravel

Actually, Maryk-I'm not so sure you need a map-I think you definitely need to look at a map before you get there-but I've never in these years actually used one to get around-I think them rather useless-you need to know where you want to visit, and then you need to know what vaporetto stop it is located near, through a guide book, but I think maps are largely useless in Venice.

As to Campo Santa Marguerita-it is a lively campo by day, with bars and restuarants, also a supermarket. But at night, I should tell you, this is where the college crowd hangs, and particularly on the weekend, the Campo is filled with young people spilling out of the bars into the campo, and generally milling around, doing their thing.

I think at night you might want to go up to Rialto, to the lovely ancient wine bars (bacari) located in and around the Rialto fish and vegetable market on Campo San Giacometto-this is the atmospheric Campo with Bancogiro (tables facing the Grand Canal) Al Merca, very popular with the locals, for cichetti novetti and a glass of "ombra" (wine), Do Spade, and the 14th century Cantino do Mori around the corner. This is more for the 30-40ish crowd, and is quite fun-much socializing goes on here.

Here is a picture of the church:

http://www.carnivalofvenice.com/luog...51&lang=en