And, in many of the neighborhoods you will get an urge to explore almost every street and alleyway just to see what's there.

Will I have difficulty finding lots of fresh vegetables and plain grilled chicken or fish? Since I don't eat any meat other than grilled white chicken or fish, and don't eat sweets, and try to avoid bread and sauces, eating in Europe is often a bit of a challenge. Eating in Southern California is a great joy for me.

Punki No problem at all finding lots of fresh vegetables and chicken and fish. One only has to go to the huge fishmarket at the Rialto (or the smaller and much closer one on the Strada Nova near the hotel) to see the abundance of fresh fish. Last year when we rented I made daily trips to the Rialto and our diet consisted primarily of fish and vegetables. Some of the best salads I have ever had have been in Vce. The shrimp and crab are fantastic. Vce is not known for its bread or desserts (except for the desserts in notable restaurants such as A Covo or Fiaschetteria Toscana). The Venetian diet is primarily a seafood diet. In fact, one would be well-advised to avoid beef and pasta and focus on seafood and risotto.

Count us in for both Al Covo and Fiaschetteria Toscana and even tho we're usually not much for desserts, we are prepared to make exceptions for such places.

Dorlee No, No, you will not be pulling your luggage. Just meant that the taxi driver has a couple of different options re: getting to Ai Mori. Price is fixed, so don't worry about a meter running. If conditions are right, you should be at the hotel in 15 minutes. If the tide is higher, or there is some fog it will take a few minutes longer. BTW, Leonard will love the soft Polenta; much like grits, only better ;)

And you can certainly count Mrs. Cholula and I in on ALL the upscale dining opportunities. :)
O2K, monitor and the others familiar with VCE fine-dining establishments can pick out the places. We'll gladly follow.

It is certainly possible to visit Venice and go through $100 a plate dinners at each meal -- just as it is in Paris, London, or New York.

But keep in mind that it is also possible to eat very well in any of these cities, including Venice, at a fraction of the cost.

Personally, I like going to neighborhood trattorias and pizzerias (much, much, different than their American cousins) and having a delicious meal that does not require financing.

And, no, Cholula, I am not referring to Dennito's -- just small, friendly, family-owned spots like the one where DrO2K, O2K and myself ate last November.

He probably would also like it fried when we tell him that it is really hushpuppies.

We really are not familiar with these places because the time we were here it was tourist season and all of them had been completely booked for months. This time, we do however intend to get familiar with them and are more than willing to lean on O2K and the hotel Marco for advice.

That certainly works for me. I just need to convince Mrs. Cholula. She doesn't travel a whole lot and has the impression that the more you pay for a meal, the better it is, i.e., a $100 meal tastes twice as good as a $50 meal and four times as good as a $25 meal.
The truth of the matter is that a lot of time you are paying for ambience and that's fine. I'd rather have an average meal in a beautiful place than I would a gourmet meal in a dump.
Looking forward to trying a little of everything while we're over there. Just hold the octopus, thank you very much...:eek:.

One of the best things about staying in the Sestiere of Canarregio, where Ai Mori is located, is that it is a real neighborhood, rarely visited by tourists, unless they are visiting the old Jewish Ghetto. The area is filled with delightful trattorias, such as Antica Mola which is a 2 minute walk from the hotel. This is the area where one finds good home cooking, with Mama in the kitchen and Papa behind the counter, serving up the antipasti and daughter is the single server. The food in these places is always delicious and very inexpensive. Wine is poured from a big cask and served in a carafe. No tablecloths. Also, there are many wine bars nearby where one can eat little ciccetti (like tapas). One only has to look in the local marketplace to see what will be on the menu for the day. There is also a "deli" within walking distance, and it is nice to bring some prepared cold food back to your room, and relax with a bottle of chilled Prosecco.

One thing you don't have to worry about in Venice is ambience. The city is full of it. You will have ambience up the ying-yang.

The Ai Mori (once you get past the reception area) is ambience personified.

When it comes to eating, forget about how pretty the restaurant is and concentrate on how much effort was put into the food preparation -- and you will find that the kind of place that O2K described often takes more pride in its servings than the high-priced restaurants which cater to the wealthy tourists.

Let me tell you about three places in Milan and you will get some idea of what I am talking about.

1. Along the canal, there is a restaurant that is very attractive and attracts the Yuppie crowd. A meal there runs about $60 and is "fair" in quality.

2. Next to Bianca's house, there is a family-owned spot that costs about $40 per person. The inside is well-appointed but not overly impressive. I like eating there in good weather because of its enclosed garden. The food is better than the one near the canal.

3. Not far from Bianca's house is a working-class trattoria. I have never eaten there because I have never been able to get a table. The place is always jammed. I have been told that it offers only two or three dishes (changed daily) but that all are excellent. It runs about $20 per person.

I almost always prefer small unique restaurants, both at home and abroad and have some wonderful memories of small out of the way places with wonderful food. About 95% of the time, I see very little correlation between the cost of the meal and the quality of the food. There are, of course, notable exceptions where very expensive meals are truly amazing, but then, on the other hand, I have had very inexpensive meals that were truly amazing.

Okay, some of everything except octopus for Cholula.

That means he will have to pay at least one visit to a fairly expensive restaurant that does not cater to tourists.

That is where you will find one of the favorite delicacies of the Italian upper class -- cavallo.

I don't think I will share his meal with him. I prefer manzo (beef), agnello (lamb), or carne di maiale (pork) to horsemeat, but -- hey! -- that's just me.

Hey, I ate some cavallo in Verona a couple of years ago (or was it someplace else in Italy -- doesn't matter). It wasn't bad at all. I just had a little taste of someone else's -- didn't want a whole pile of shredded horsemeat for myself. Tastes like chicken....NOT! ;)

And I personally am up for local, non-touristy eating places, whenever possible. It seems like I ate at a lot of the touristy ones in Venice two years ago. :( Also, I guess I would prefer most of the meals to be moderately-priced, with one splurge -- and by "splurge" I only mean $100-ish per person for the whole meal. (OK, it could be more, but you get the idea.) I'm not trying to impose my preferences on the entire group, obviously. If we split into subgroups for some of the dining activities, you now know which subgroup I belong in. :) And OF COURSE I realize that if we have drinks or snacks anyplace on Piazza San Marco, it's gonna 1) be touristy and 2) cost a lot. That's OK. Some exceptions have to be made. ;)

Another suggestion for this thread: there is some useful info (for example, on transport to the hotel) that has gotten "buried" in 21 pages. I was searching for some of these useful transport posts and, sadly, couldn't find them. I propose that our dear Dovster summarize some of this info on page 1, incorporating it into post #3 (which needs to be retitled too ;) ).

And as for transport to/from the hotel, here is my contribution. I'm still leaning toward the Alilaguna (correct spelling -- it's been mangled various ways on this thread) water bus because it's only 10 Euros ($12) per person. There is a complete website on this service at www.alilaguna.com, which includes a route map, a timetable, etc. The blue line (NOT the red) will take you to Fondamente Nove, and there are some instructions on getting to the hotel from there on page 19 of this thread, posts #272 and 277.

As I said earlier in this thread, two years ago I took the Alilaguna ("wings of the lagoon") water bus and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know if the water taxi is THAT much more wonderful. (Only mistake I made was getting off at San Marco instead of Zattere -- I then had to roll my luggage through the alleys and over the steps of the bridges of Venice, including the high Accademia bridge, to get to my hotel in Dorsoduro. Not sure why I made such a silly mistake, but I chalk it up to jet lag.)

OK, you can hold the horse meat too! :eek:
No octopus, no horse, no functional organs and no wild animals.
Everything else is pretty much OK.....;).