The short version: a bacaro is a small Venetian wine bar, cicchetti are the snacks on its counter, an ombra is the small glass of wine you drink with them, and a bacaro crawl through Cannaregio or the Rialto at six in the evening is the best thing to do in Venice after the museums close. Below is what to order, how it works, where to go, and when a guided tour is worth it.
The words
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Bacaro | A small, old-fashioned wine bar, often a counter and a few stools; plural bacari |
| Cicchetto | A bar snack, one or two bites: a crostino, a polpetta, a fried thing; plural cicchetti |
| Ombra | A small glass of wine, a couple of euros; “shade”, from the wine sellers who followed the campanile’s shadow across Piazza San Marco |
| Giro di ombre | The crawl: an ombra and a cicchetto in each bacaro, then the next |
| Spritz | Venice’s aperitivo; with Select or Cynar if you want the local one, Aperol if you do not |
What to order
Baccalà mantecato, salt cod whipped with oil into a cream, on a crostino or polenta, is the king of cicchetti. Sarde in saor, sardines fried and marinated with sweet-sour onions, raisins and pine nuts, is the Venetian dish that tastes of the trade routes. Polpette of meat or tuna, mozzarella in carrozza fried in bread, folpetti, baby octopus, nervetti for the brave, a slice of frittata, and crostini with whatever the cook felt like. Two or three per bar, a couple of euros each. For a plate, bigoli in salsa with anchovy and onion, or risotto al nero di seppia.
How it works
You go to the counter, point, and are handed a plate; you order the ombra, usually a Veneto or Friuli white, or a Raboso if you like red, and you stand, inside or on the fondamenta. You pay at the end. Nobody sits for long. From six to eight the bacari are full of Venetians on the way home, which is the moment to be there; by nine the kitchens are winding down.
Where to go
Cannaregio, along the Fondamenta della Misericordia and the Ghetto, has the highest concentration of good bacari and the fewest tourists. The Rialto, in the lanes around the market, has the oldest, some of them centuries old; go at lunch when the market crowd arrives. Dorsoduro around Campo Santa Margherita is the students’ evening. Avoid anything within sight of San Marco. The Rialto fish market, Tuesday to Saturday mornings, is where the cicchetti ingredients come from and the best cooking classes start; see Venice cooking classes.
Is a tour worth it?
For a first visit, yes. The good bacari look like the bad ones from outside, the menus are not written down, and the order of the crawl matters. A guided giro covers five or six bacari in three hours with a cicchetto or two and an ombra at each, a traghetto crossing of the Grand Canal, and enough food to replace dinner, for 45 to 100 dollars. The most-booked ones have thousands of reviews and are consistent. Compare them on our Venice food tours page. Second visit, do it alone in Cannaregio with this list.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a cicchetto cost?
One to three euros; an ombra about the same. A full crawl with six stops is 25 to 40 euros alone.
Can you sit in a bacaro?
Some have a few tables; sitting usually costs more. Standing is the tradition.
Are cicchetti vegetarian-friendly?
Partly: cheese crostini, vegetable polpette, fried mozzarella and frittata, but the classics are fish. Say so on a tour.
What wine goes with cicchetti?
A Veneto white, Soave or a Prosecco col fondo, or a light red like Raboso; the point is that it is cheap and quick. For the wine regions, see Prosecco tours from Venice.
Best time for a bacaro crawl?
Six to eight in the evening, any day but Sunday, when many bacari close.
More guides
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- Orecchiette in Puglia: The Pasta, the Street in Bari, the Scandal and Where to Make Your Own
- Bologna or Parma? Where to Base Yourself for Emilia-Romagna’s Food
- Florence or Siena: Where to Base Yourself for Tuscany’s Food and Wine
