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When you are on the Lido, pop along the island to Malamocco, make your way to the lovely little square just the lagoon side of the canal basin and you’ll see the the little tratroria bar Al Ponte di Borgo. If you want to immerse yourselves in the local life, then this is the place. We loved it.

Most importantly, it’s a restaurant for local people at local prices. VERY reasonable.

The fish is superb but most of it is fried including soft-shelled crabs, moeche. The Venetian way of cooking these is to drop the live crabs into a bowl of beaten eggs and leave them overnight. They eat the eggs. You then dust the crabs lightly in flour and fry. They are absolutely delicious but…hmmmmm.

This is a little gem of a restaurant, very cosy. In summer there are plenty of tables outside in the garden and should feel very much like a party! If you have a boat, then you can park it in the basin and stroll across. This is a little corner of paradise, so tranquil and virtually no-one around apart from the locals.

In Venice for a few weeks. What a pleasure it is to walk through this beautiful city in February when there are fewer tourists and virtually none if one wanders off the tourist trail. It’s Sunday and we’ve just had lunch at Avogaria in Calle de l’Avogaria. What a little gem if you like something a little trendy. The Light Lunch menu is very reasonable, the food is delicious and the loos are among the best I’ve seen in Venice!

The other evening, we wandered off Strada Nova and discovered Alla Vedova. This is a local restaurant, hidden away down a little calle, that’s full of locals with a very good evening menu…most dishes are E10 or so. You might need to book, even on a Monday evening, as it’s very popular but it’s a real treat. Ask for the Italian menu.

I pop into my favourite cafe, Cafe Bar Palanca on La Giudecca, most mornings after my run along the fundamenta up to the chippy (Cipriani!) and back, and the other morning the acqua alta water was lapping at my feet…inside! This is an increasingly frequent occurence in Venice, alas. As always, my coffee costs me about E0.90, about 80p.

I popped over to Gino’s cafe in Dorsoduro after a hard day at the computer the other evening. I ordered a glass of red wine followed by another. I was sitting at a table so it was brought to me and therefore cost me E3.00. It would have cost me at least £5.00 in the UK. If I’d stood at the bar to drink it, the cost would have been E2.00!

I somethimes think it’s cheaper to live here than in England!

What an experience. Here is a restaurant that ostensibly provides for the religious community of Venice but is open to all and at 13 euros a head for a two course lunch including wine, not at all bad. One of our companions noted as soonas we entered that ‘it would be difficult to fall asleep in here’, so bright was the lighting. However, the food was pretty good and the service was ok…buit too quick for my liking. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and had a very good lunch.

It’s in Calle Albanesi to the east of St Mark’s Square. Try it.

Venice need not be expensive

I spend much of the year working from Venice and rarely do I pay more than 90c for my espresso. I get so fed up hearing people telling me how expensive Venice is and how awful the food is that I thought I would start this blog for anyone who might be interested. We make a point of finding those little bars and restaurants that locals favour and tourists tend to avoid. I’ll start by mentioning my favourite bar, La Palanca, just along from the Palanca vaporetto stop. The service is excellent and the food very good but don’t expect any special treatment! Also, it has one of the finest outside seating areas in the whole of Venice, on the fundamenta only inches away from the Giudecca canal. Watching the activity up and down the canal, including the enormous cruise ships that tower above the city passing by, can be mesmerising.

Venice is a magical place and I’ll never tire of being here.