Scenic Venice? You betcha. Food in Venice? Fugettabout it. As someone close to me who knows Italy well commented, "Great food in Venice? No chance." I even tried the Venetian classic, Pork Liver (this was made with suckling pork liver - sheesh) with onions. Barely edible: It's far better in our favorite place in NYC. Mrs. BD tried a seafood lasagna, and was not charmed by it. I tried one pasta - crabmeat. Just not good. OK, the fancy places can do a nice filet of fish.
The Asian tourists (lots of them there) seem to go for spaghetti, but I don't recommend that.
Yeah, we tried very high end, regular tourist, and local dinners (7 or 8 pm, of course). Our fancy old and interesting hotel had lavish breakfast spreads with all cheeses, scrambled eggs and bacon, tons of pastries, cakes, and salumi. I'm just not a breakfast person unless you mean a double espresso from the workingman's joint at 5 AM, watching all the boats come and go and maybe sneaking a cigarette.
I prefer NYC pizza (and maybe New Haven pizza) to Italian, so ignored it. We tried quick daytime breaks for cicchetti and, for me, beer or a spritz (Aperol is the main spritz). Beer was good. Interestingly, I could get not Bud Light. Just kidding - places only have one local beer so you only ask for the size you need. Do not go for a Grande - it's like a pitcher.
Cicchetti are little snacks presented on fried polenta, toast, or bread. They could be like bruschetti, and pretty uninteresting, but with stewed octopus or creamed baccala are ok. Pickled sardines, some pancetta. A little fried baccala makes me happy enough.
In my view, the best Italian food is in Siena. Wonderful and surprising, even in the little trattorias. Doubt I'll be back there again, though.
