Greece/ Italy- Seafood markets

I apologize for an OT question, Dean, but could you mention a seafood market you liked in Greece or Italy? I will be reaching Greece in early March and will be spending a few days in Athens before heading to Naxos. But i will travel for good food!
I will reach Italy in late March and may spend a month there and any moderately priced cafe recommendations, especially seafood related, would be greatly appreciated. I try to keep my meal price for a splurge meal at or below $100USD and love it when i can find meals under $20USD.
I will cross from Greece and work up to Venice, over to Lake Como (hopefully offseason prices will be reasonable), down to Rome, then The Amalfi Coast, Calabria and on to either Sicily or Sardegna. But, again, i will travel for a very good meal.
I am visiting Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand in the meantime, and good food is one of my main goals.

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@ZivBnd suggest you make this a new thread as it will be easier for others to see, reply, and also find later.

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@ZivBnd We are thinking about meeting up with my BIL in Italy in mid-April so I will be following this thread closely. I’ve never been to Italy and B has only visited as a 20-something. BIL wants to go to Lucca (near Milan). He’s an Italophile who knows Italy very well but we’d want to visit Rome for part of the trip.
Anyway, we’re not sure yet…not sure if Spring Onion will enjoy Italy. I’d rather take him to Greece first, but the air fare doesn’t work out (we’d be flying from Reykjavik).

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Piraeus is the port of Athens. That’s where the best Psarotavernas and fish markets are located. I haven’t been since 2007, so my recs are out of date.

How much your dinner costs will often depend on which fish you choose to order, as much as the restaurant chosen. Red mullet tends to be very expensive. Smelts, anchovies, sardines and other small fish are cheap…

In Greece, the psarotaverna menus show the cost for each fish or shellfish by weight. If you order calamari, specify if you want fresh (freska) over frozen. The cheaper frozen calamari from Asia might be what you get (at a cheaper price of course) if you don’t specify that you want fresh local calamari, which I feel is worth the extra money.

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We went to Lucca and loved it. Took our kiddos who were 15 and 11, and they loved it. Tbh, any vacation where there is gelato daily is a hit. But it was also great fun walking the city, walking the outside wall. There was some type of fest one day when we were there and they had a parade and were exhibiting some medieval weaponry - bows and such. Kiddos loved it.

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Any visits to seafood markets now are 20 years or more in the past. So more of a feeling rather than specific places. But do plan on spending time in The Pescheria Rialto in Venice.

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We visited Venice in October and went to the Rialto fish market. Everything is amazingly fresh, and the shoppers are mainly locals and restaurant owners, it is fascinating to watch them shop. the market is located by the harbor and there’s some cute little cafés around you can relax at before or after, as well as some seafood places.

Edit: I just realized that Dean has already mentioned it!

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I am certainly not the first to sing the wonders of Venice. There is a smaller campiello right off the Campo delle Pescheria and it is home to Bancogiro which we used to love before it had a full kitchen. Also there was a bar opposite the Grand Canal side called La March with incredible wines and panini. Before 11 am they had excellent caffe. I am not sure if they are still there.

It’s a beautiful town. We rented one of those silly bikes for old couples to take on the outside wall, and had a lovely picnic of focaccia and local cheeses & meats up there in a park. I also had the best salted pistachio gelato of my life there.

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I am looking forward to Italy and the posts above give me even more ideas for places to visit when i get there in March! Digga, it sounds like Lucca is a gem, i had not heard enough about it until now to plan on going but i had planned on Florence and Livorno so i will not be too far away. Time for me to do a little digging.
Phoenikia, your post about Piraeus and the Psarotavernas is a good reminder for me to explore more. I spent 3 or 4 days in Athens coming and going in 2020 but never really explored Piraeus. Just boarded the ferry there.
Sasha, your post about Lucca reinforces Diggas thought on Lucca and reminds me again to explore more. I do not like sweets and i have only had gelato once in my life. I have to try it a few more times. It took a while but i finally developed a taste for simple afogato, so there is hope!
Dean, thanks for both of your posts, the Pescharia Rialto sounds outstanding. I nay need to book a stay with a furnished kitchen to take advantage of it. I also looked at Osteria Bancogiro, it looks like a beautiful place to enjoy outstanding aeafood! I have it in favorites on Google Maps. I think Tucci went to Pescharia Rialto for squid in his show, “Searching for Italy”. I need to rewatch that episode because wherever he went had incredible variety and rather fresh choices. I need to spend some time looking into your later mentions too. I am on my way to Tokyo today, my flight to New Zealand is taking an unexpected turn. All three airlines w direct flights tacked on a $3k to $4k fee right at the last step before confirming my flight so i am flying into Tokyo for 3 days then down to Auckland.
I see Maria is a fan if the Pescharia Rialto as well, which helps confirm its popularity.
I am inputting a lot of this info into my Google Maps and starting to look at other sources of info too, so thanks to all!
I will post here when i finally get there in late March, and i hope Digga will too!
And in the spirit of adventure, i will try domething new my first week in Italy! Natascha likes it, so i will try salted pistachio gelato!

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It’s not salty-salty, but you may like it bc it’s not very sweet. Florence is usually absolutely overrun with tourists. There’s lots to see, eat & do, but I have a soft spot for Siena, which didn’t seem as crowded.

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It is - you won’t regret spending a couple days there!

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Since you will be moving up the Adriatic coast, I had a few excellent seafood dining experiences in Senigallia. Do you have an itinerary or means of transport in mind yet?
I have not explored between Marche and Puglia, but have you heard of the seaside restaurants known as Trabucco (in Abruzzo)?
This place on the Tuscan coast was where I had one of the most amazing seafood meals of my life: https://www.baciarino.com/en/agricucina
But you have far more than a month will allow, so good luck choosing from among a million good options!
On the Amalfi Coast, Cetara is great–known for colatura.

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I am a train or ship sort of traveler when i can use them. I usually look at travel options and store links to cafes and cool places in the months before i start a trip but i play it by ear as i am traveling. Which works well for a single traveler most of the time, but every once in a while my transportstion ideas blow up in my face. Hence me traveling from Santiago Chile to Auckland New Zealand via Houston and Tokyo right now.
I believe I will be traveling from Corfu to Brindisi by ferry and from Brindisi to Venice via trains and buses so a stop off or two as i travel up the Adriatic is likely.
Il Baciarino kooks interesting. It is a agricucina/agriturismo and will be reopening for the season on March 23rd which may be perfect timing for me. The agri aspect looks like it emphasizes local products and to a much lesser degree, historic dishes. I like both of those ideas.

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Definitely worth doing if you like to cook. We have rented apartments 4 times in Venice and had so much fun hitting the Pescheria Rialto and other markets and cooking the wonderful things we bought. Because few Americans do that we found we were recognized the first time we came back to the same vendor and greeted as a regular the next time which is really nice.

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Senigallia is right on the train line, and it makes for a perfect stopover.

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Not about Greece or Italy, but I wondered if you have ever looked at
Mark Wien’s Youtube channel. He is pretty obnoxious but has a lot of very good info on food especially inexpensive in many destinations worldwide, especially asia -He is based in Thailand. For example he was in Uzbekistan and Istanbul (highly recommend that city and its food) around the time we visited and his advice was very good (tho I did not see til I returned.

We did not have any bad seafood in coastal greece when we were there in fall of 2019. All the food, especially the vegetables salads and oven baked goat was pretty good but stay away from the places with music which have guys who try to entice you in! Here is a link that might help you with the fish choices https://www.greece-is.com/greek-fish-translated-guide-greeces-seafood/ one of the good meals i had was barbouni, a small redfish. The greek wines are good and cheap, the breakfasts are great in a decent hotel. You willl enjoy.

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Ravenna and Bologna are both well worth stops coming up the Adriatic coast toward Venice. The latter is not on the coast but it is on the train line.

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My problem there is that i like to cook more than i have the skills needed to cook well. I am more of an enthusiast than a good cook. Though i can assemble a decent stew or soup from time to time.

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I like Wiens and i admire his enthusiasm but it seems like every dish is “the best dish ever” which makes them all suspect, in my view. But i still watch his videos.
I am not sure where i will stop on my Adriatic route north but i will definitely add those cities to the list of " want to go to".
Ravenna just has a certain cachet which helps. :smile:

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