Ristorante San Tovaso

We stayed at a hotel near the Accademia and the owner of the hotel recommended this restaurant. This is a small place, with white stucco walls, redwoood trim, white table clothes and cozy feel. The food is reasonably priced but not cheap. If you have been to Venice you know what I mean. Entrees were 8-15 euro and the 2 of us had 4 drinks, 2 soups, 2 entrees, couple of limoncellos and veggies for 65 euros. The specialty of the house was definitely the seafood, if you like fish in your pasta then I would recommend the Frittura Mista. It is spaghetti loaded with mussels, shrimp, squid and octopus. Highly recommend this place, in fact we liked it so much we ate there 3 times. The waiters are funny, in fact the people at the table next to us were startled when their waiter brought a tray of drinks, stumbled and dropped the whole tray on a lady. Well the drinks were empty and the glasses and bottles were secured to the tray with fishing line. It was hilarious to see her expression of shock, then relief when she caught on to the joke. Too funny! Hope you enjoy the restaurant as much as we did.

During our trip most recent trip to Venice this past February, we stayed at the Palazzo Guardi Hotel. We found the hotel on Venere.com website and stayed in one of the two junior suites overlook the San Torvaso canal.

Our room was on the 2nd floor of the building with 2 windows facing the canal and 3 facing a small alley way that led to the Academie and bridge. The room had 12 foot ceilings and fabric cover walls with a crystal chandelier in the middle of the room and 2 side lights for reading in bed.

All accommodations are equipped with air-conditioning, safe, hairdryer, mini bar, satellite TV, direct dial telephone, and Internet connection.

The junior suite had a double bed, table with 2 chairs, sleeper sofa and large bathroom with heated towel bar. The windows were new and insulated with double pane glass which really helped muffle the noise from the endless stream of tourists passing through the corridor.

The continental breakfast buffet was served in the lounge from 8 a.m. until 10 a.m. and included fresh rolls, meat, cheese, honey, warm croissants, milk, juice, tea and coffee. There was plenty of food available and never seemed to be a problem with seating.

If you are looking for great pizza in a nice family restaurant in the heart of Venice then look no further. The best pizza we found in Italy was at Due Colonne. This is a small neighborhood restaurant with 2 rooms, a small bar in front and busy kitchen. We spent the day sightseeing and found this place by accident. They were very busy and we had to wait 20 min for a table. I choose a pizza with ruccola, grana and horsemeat. This was the first time I had horse meat and it was very good. The meat was sliced thin and salt cured. It was very lean and tasty. My wife had a pizza with anchovies and gorgonzola. The atmosphere was old Italian and soft music was playing in the background. If you get a chance to visit Venice be sure to look for this place and get there early to get a table. Buon Appetite!