Eight tables, no English menu, total trust

Finding an honest restaurant within five hundred meters of the Rialto is Venice's hardest sport. Trattoria del Ponte is the exception that makes the search worthwhile.

Two small rooms, eight tables, a handwritten menu that exists mostly as a suggestion. The right move is to put the menu down and say 'fate voi' — you decide. What follows is whatever came off the market boats that morning: maybe moleche in spring, maybe seppie in nero over polenta, always spaghetti alle vongole that tastes like the lagoon's best mood.

The wine is a house soave that comes in an unlabeled bottle and costs less than water in San Marco. Dinner for two with wine lands around €80, which by Venice standards is practically charity.

Book by phone, in whatever Italian you can manage. The effort is the point — and the room rewards it.