You can buy a lot of bad pizza in Venice. That’s mainly because pizza is not a Venetian food staple, partly due to the fact that wood-fired stoves and furnaces were banned from the Rialto in 1291 as a fire safety measure, and even now there are a very few proper pizza ovens in the historic centre. So pick your pizza joint with extra care.
The best place for pizza in Venice, writes The Culture Trip, is the Osteria al Duomo. “Originating as a food cooperative in 1903 … it attempts to preserve the local cuisine and offers typical Venetian dishes.” This food co-op is owned by 50 Muranese families and has a proper wood-fired burning stove. Other pizza places recommended in the Venetian pizza desert are Il Refolo, Muro Frari and Dai Tosi (vouched for by Anne Hanley at the The Telegraph), and Birraria La Corte, where you can sit out at tables in Campo San Polo (via Michela Scibilia in Venice Osterie).
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