Venice, No Self-Service

Our favorite place to eat in Europe (in Venice, Vienna, Paris, Rome, Prague, London, Berlin, and all those other wonderful cities) is the street-side “Cafeteria.” In Venice we would buy a banana, an apple, or some cherries at the street-market near the Rialto Bridge, wash them in a nearby fountain, then have a feast along with some French Fries, a Coke, with an ice cream cone for desert, as we continued to walk the "streets" of this most beautiful city. Good things to eat are easy to find, but as this market owner found, too many shoppers just helped themselves, so he insisted on providing the service.

Neither our budget nor our temperament permits a lot of shopping, but Venice is filled with treasures that can’t be ignored. On each of our seven visits Emmy shopped for Venetian glass objects, and she was always looking for a half dozen Venetian glass bead necklaces, and several bracelets. She doesn’t have six or eight necks, wrists, etc., but she does have a lot of friends.

While walking from piazza to piazza in Venice, on certain days there are street markets that sell fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, and bread of every size and shape. These markets are mostly outside the tourist areas, and will only be found while wandering from here to there. As best we remember, the fruit market near the Rialto Bridge is open almost every day.