English tourists? Charge them double!
I HAVE every sympathy with the family of three who complained to the mayor of Venice after they were charged £463 for lunch (Mail). I was brought up in Rome from the age of seven so when I got married earlier this year I was keen to take my wife Louise on honeymoon to see Italy. We accepted it would be an expensive holiday. However, we were shocked at the cost of eating out. On our first evening in Venice, we went to a small restaurant off St Mark’s Square. It was nothing special. The starters were disappointing, the mains average and we shared a dessert. Though I speak fluent Italian, the restaurant owner immediately realised my wife was English and that we lived in Britain. The bill came to 125 euros (around £112), which shocked me. I didn’t make a fuss, but felt we had been ripped off. Nearly every restaurant we went to in Italy charged similar high prices — we didn’t pay less than 100 euros (£90) for lunch or dinner with a bottle of house wine. It’s fair to say there is a different price list for locals and tourists. When visiting friends in San Marino, I would have breakfast at a local bar. It was always the same price until the day I parked my car with an UK licence plate outside. I was charged double! I will not be rushing back to Italy.
GARY JORDAN, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. I GOT my own back on a rip-off Venice restaurant. Many years ago, when my partner, two young children and I had a light lunch overlooking the canal, we were shocked when the bill for one large pizza, two colas and two beers came to £165. I queried this and was taken to a room downstairs and told in a menacing fashion to sign the receipt on an old credit card machine. When I got home, I had a call from a lady at my bank asking if I had been to Venice lately. ‘Who me?’ I replied, with a hint of ‘however can I afford that?’ in my voice. ‘OK, we will decline payment because we don’t recognise the signature,’ she said. I thanked her and put the phone down with a smile, thinking to myself: ‘I couldn’t recognise it either when I wrote it!’
P. TERRY, London E2.