Venice Fine Dining: Antico Martini

[Jim Kelly-Evans]

We enjoyed an opera performance at the historic La Fenice theater in Venice followed by dinner at Antico Martini, located in the same square. This restaurant offers fine dining in an elegant and historic setting. Bottled wines are decanted, and menu selections were well presented including crab and mixed green salads, sea bass stuffed ravioli, eggplant parmegiano and chocolate fondant.

 

[cec1]

Looks healthy & delicious!

 

[NancySC]

John Berendt wrote a book about La Fenice & the most recent fire there...interesting read, tho not speedy. We toured the opera house a dozen years ago on a Tauck Venice, Florence, Rome rail trip & also had dinner at the same restaurant. An incredible restoration, just gorgeously beautiful !
And since you're from the PHL area, long ago I was a super in La Boheme at the Academy of Music with Renata Tibaldi & Franco Corelli...paid $5.00.

 

[ccg]

Jim - thank you for posting. I knew I could count on the Forum to help with our upcoming trip to Venice. If you have any spots that you enjoyed for lunch or dinner that we should look into, I would appreciate it. It is our first time to Italy, so we are open to anything. Also visiting Milan, Lake Como, and Parma.

Charlotte

 

[amyb]

Jim - thank you for posting. I knew I could count on the Forum to help with our upcoming trip to Venice. If you have any spots that you enjoyed for lunch or dinner that we should look into, I would appreciate it. It is our first time to Italy, so we are open to anything. Also visiting Milan, Lake Como, and Parma.

Charlotte

Such a marvelous itinerary. Bon voyage!

 

[Jim Kelly-Evans]

Jim - thank you for posting. I knew I could count on the Forum to help with our upcoming trip to Venice. If you have any spots that you enjoyed for lunch or dinner that we should look into, I would appreciate it. It is our first time to Italy, so we are open to anything. Also visiting Milan, Lake Como, and Parma.

Charlotte

There is so much to see and do in Venice. You will love it. Another favorite restaurant is Trattoria Do Forni (doforni.it) within a short walk from St. Mark's Square. Enjoy your time in Italy!

 

[beactive]

The combination of La Fenice and dinner at Antico Martini sounds like a great way to spend an evening in Venice. Appreciate the tip about Trattoria Do Forni as well, will definitely keep that in mind. I'm preparing a trip to Italy and have been planning my Venice itinerary through https://gowithguide.com/Italy/venice/guides, which has been useful for organizing things. Posts like yours are really helpful as I figure out where to eat and what to see.

 

[Jim A]

Jim - thank you for posting. I knew I could count on the Forum to help with our upcoming trip to Venice. If you have any spots that you enjoyed for lunch or dinner that we should look into, I would appreciate it. It is our first time to Italy, so we are open to anything. Also visiting Milan, Lake Como, and Parma.

Charlotte

A trip to Italy is never regretted and always exceeds expectations. I can't help much with regards to Venice since we only spent a few nights there and it was not our favorite from a food perspective, but we loved the trip we took to Murano to one of the glass factories. If you have extra time I'd check it out. We also took a private boat tour around Venice and thru the canals which was really cool and a great idea for early in your trip in particular as it kind of gives you the layout, some history and just incredible views of the Grand Canal and some smaller ones as well.

On Lake Como which town are you staying in? We always stay in Bellagio, but might be able to give some recommendations on that general area. Places we liked in Bellagio the most were Trattoria San Giacomo which is right at the top of the street with the famous view you see everywhere and Antichi Sappori which was on a side street above the Hotel Florence (by the main ferry dock). Favorite gelato was at Del Borgo on the "upper road". We only had drinks and a small bite at La Punta, but the view there is incredible as it's right on the tip with water all around, so even if you just go for a walk over there it is worth it. In Menaggio we had lunch at Pizzeria Lugano which we loved. Very old school and the first time we went we were the only tourists there. The last time it was a little more "popular" with tourists. They didn't speak very much English at all (we speak some Italian so were fine). One of my top pizzas anywhere and also loved their house wine, so cheap and pretty good. In Varenna it's nice to grab a drink at Il Molo but the food and service are not all that great there. They basically are in it for the volume. But the VIEW!!!! hence worth stopping for a cocktail or even a light lunch, but you likely will have to wait. One thing about Lake Como, like a lot of Italy, it is crazy crowded now during the day in the Summer. We will be going to Sicily (plus London) for the first time in about 6 weeks.

 

[cec1]

A trip to Italy is never regretted and always exceeds expectations. I can't help much with regards to Venice since we only spent a few nights there and it was not our favorite from a food perspective, but we loved the trip we took to Murano to one of the glass factories. If you have extra time I'd check it out. We also took a private boat tour around Venice and thru the canals which was really cool and a great idea for early in your trip in particular as it kind of gives you the layout, some history and just incredible views of the Grand Canal and some smaller ones as well.

On Lake Como which town are you staying in? We always stay in Bellagio, but might be able to give some recommendations on that general area. Places we liked in Bellagio the most were Trattoria San Giacomo which is right at the top of the street with the famous view you see everywhere and Antichi Sappori which was on a side street above the Hotel Florence (by the main ferry dock). Favorite gelato was at Del Borgo on the "upper road". We only had drinks and a small bite at La Punta, but the view there is incredible as it's right on the tip with water all around, so even if you just go for a walk over there it is worth it. In Menaggio we had lunch at Pizzeria Lugano which we loved. Very old school and the first time we went we were the only tourists there. The last time it was a little more "popular" with tourists. They didn't speak very much English at all (we speak some Italian so were fine). One of my top pizzas anywhere and also loved their house wine, so cheap and pretty good. In Varenna it's nice to grab a drink at Il Molo but the food and service are not all that great there. They basically are in it for the volume. But the VIEW!!!! hence worth stopping for a cocktail or even a light lunch, but you likely will have to wait. One thing about Lake Como, like a lot of Italy, it is crazy crowded now during the day in the Summer. We will be going to Sicily (plus London) for the first time in about 6 weeks.

Love Sicily & London!

 

[ccg]

Good morning Jim. We have our dinner reservations for Antico Martini. Unfortunately, by the time we confirmed our dates we could not tickets to the theater. I guess we will just have to wander around a romantic city at night looking for trouble . We also have lunch reservations for Al Giubagio, which our hotel recommended. The rest of the time, we are just going to see what we feel like and go from there. We do have tickets for Murano. That was absolutely on the to do list. We took in a glass blowing demonstration years ago in Colorado and I have been fascinated since. We also have tickets to all the major sites and museums, but we will just see what each day brings.

We are staying in Valmadrera near Lecco. We wanted something off the beaten path. We did find a boat day trip around the lake that also drops us off for lunch and waits for us, which is just what we wanted. Would love to see Lake Como in the Summer. Next time

Since we are going at the end of September, we are hoping the crowds will be a bit more manageable. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of rain.

Enjoy your trip to Sicily and London.

Charlotte

 

[amyb]

Good morning Jim. We have our dinner reservations for Antico Martini. Unfortunately, by the time we confirmed our dates we could not tickets to the theater. I guess we will just have to wander around a romantic city at night looking for trouble . We also have lunch reservations for Al Giubagio, which our hotel recommended. The rest of the time, we are just going to see what we feel like and go from there. We do have tickets for Murano. That was absolutely on the to do list. We took in a glass blowing demonstration years ago in Colorado and I have been fascinated since. We also have tickets to all the major sites and museums, but we will just see what each day brings.

We are staying in Valmadrera near Lecco. We wanted something off the beaten path. We did find a boat day trip around the lake that also drops us off for lunch and waits for us, which is just what we wanted. Would love to see Lake Como in the Summer. Next time

Since we are going at the end of September, we are hoping the crowds will be a bit more manageable. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of rain.

Enjoy your trip to Sicily and London.

Charlotte

We did the boat trip to BURANO and enjoyed that stop as well. One boat stop after Murano. We saw colorful painted houses along the canals, we bought lace gifts, and had a fantastic lunch there. Scenic and charming.

 

[ccg]

Thanks for recommending the extra stop in Burano. It doesn't get much of a write up in the guide books.

Can't wait to write the trip report

 

[cec1]

Thanks for recommending the extra stop in Burano. It doesn't get much of a write up in the guide books.

Can't wait to write the trip report

Definitely should see Burano!

 

[Sorenn]

Adding this to my list for the next Italy trip, whenever that may be

 

[ccg]

Hello - we have returned from our adventure, what a great 10 days!!!! Every weather app and website we used gave us completely wrong information, so we did a terrible job packing We had the most beautiful weather - sunny and low 70's. So I can't complain. We visited Milan, Lake Como, Venice and Parma. Got everything done that we wanted. How anyone gets any work done is beyond me. They sit around and drink Spritzes and espressos all day. The trains definitely run on time. which made it easy to plan. We loved every location.

Jim thank you for the recommendation for dinner in Venice. We did enjoy our anniversary dinner at Antico Martini. I can vouch that the chocolate cake that Jim had, it was delicious! We also enjoyed a lovely waterfront lunch in Venice at Al Giubagio. Bill had one of his favorite dishes, linguini with muscles, at the restaurant. It was in the Cannaregio neighborhood. The Rialto fish market was a good way to start a Saturday with the locals while they shopped. We did get over to Murano, for a visit to see the glass blowing. We would recommend going over on the early ferry. We had the place to ourselves. It was lovely. When we headed back, it was packed. We did not make it over to Murano. We had tickets to the Doge.

We traveled Lake Como from Lecco, using the locals ferry. We recommend seeing the lake this way. Very relaxing and you do get to see everything. We found Bellagio to be a tourist trap and were glad we didn't actually stay there.

We specifically went to Parma so we could take a food tour to see how parmesan cheese and prosciutto are made. The tour did not disappoint!! At one point we were standing in a room with over 600 wheels of cheese! Thank you goodness you can bring back cheese to the US! I had to buy a little bag because I could not fit it in my carryon. The center of Parma is very pedestrian friendly, with only bike traffic to worry about.

Milan is busy, felt like a mini NYC. Even though the Olympics will be there in February, there was not much advertising about the games. I also didn't see much construction or preparation. Maybe it is just too soon.

Time to plan the next adventure Everyone have a great weekend.

Charlotte

 

[amyb]

Thanks for this report from home. Now, plan the next trip, Charlotte

 

[Jim Kelly-Evans]

Great report, Charlotte! I'm glad you enjoyed Antico Martini.

 

[amyb]

Great report, Charlotte! I'm glad you enjoyed Antico Martini.

Great report, Charlotte! I'm glad you enjoyed Antico Martini.

Agree! A gem of a dining spot while in Venice.

 

[cassidain]

We had our first taste ever of Venice at the end of our September trip. It's an utterly otherworldly, surreal sort of place that just shouldn't exist per the ways we normally think of cities springing up and flourishing.

 

[cec1]

We had our first taste ever of Venice at the end of our September trip. It's an utterly otherworldly, surreal sort of place that just shouldn't exist per the ways we normally think of cities springing up and flourishing.

Perfect description! Have you ever seen Katherine Hepburn's film, "Summertime." It's an absolute "must" for anyone who likes Ms. Hepburn &/or Venice!