Quote:
Originally Posted by
Magnifiscent 
Renato, haha, you made my day hihihi...
But you have to think Venezia is a turistic place, a big living monument, a miracle against the seawater, and unique. Living and taking goods there is pricey by nature, just think about sweet water to drink, cook etc... Plus tourism is the only business running there, so it's natural that's pricey hehe... What about a can of coke at the Ceasar's Palace?
Glad you got a chuckle from our little adventure.
Oh I know prices have to be dearer given the circumstances. But there's a difference between caring whether customers come back and not caring. In most places we ate in northern Italy (including the next most touristy place - Florence) you got the feeling that they cared.
It's a fairly common criticism of Venice in the rest of the Veneto region that too many restaurant people in Venice have that "I don't care" attitude, as there are so many tourists around, it doesn't matter that these ones don't come back, there'll be someone else along to fleece tomorrow night. The fact they we managed to find places with decent food at not over the top prices, shows that some do care.
They have the same "tourist tax" in Paris, where a Coke is also 4 Euros (for a bigger can) - but the difference is we never felt cheated there about the quantity of the food they supplied.with it.
By the way, we were in your neck of the woods last year - six hours in Milan, where I bought Eau de Baux from the L'Occitane shop. Then we got lost outside of Milan, found ourselves in Laveno, and then accidentally found the best part of our entire trip - visiting the Islands in Lago Maggiore. We didn't know they were there till the guy in the hotel told us.
Cheers,
Renato
