Cheapskates! Mayor’s reply to £463 Venice lunch moan

THE mayor of Venice said British tourists who complained about being charged £463 for lunch in a restaurant close to St Mark’s Square were ‘cheapskates’.

Luigi Brugnaro said they should have learnt Italian and even some of the Venetian dialect so they could have understood the menu.

He also criticised the tourists for not leaving a tip, adding: ‘If you come to Venice, you need to shell out.’ His remarks came after Luke Tang, a university lecturer from Birmingham, wrote to the mayor saying he and his two 70-year-old parents were ‘blackmailed’ by the Trattoria Casanova restaurant.

They were brought £100worth of oysters they did not order, he claimed.

Mr Tang, 40, added that the pricing of fish was misleading, as it gave the cost per 100 grams. But in response to the letter, Venetian mayor Mr Brugnaro, speaking on television yesterday, said: ‘They’re cheapskates. Someone eats and drinks in a restaurant, then says they cannot understand the language?

‘If you come to Italy you need to learn Italian, maybe even a few words of Venetian.’