Brits heading on their holidays this summer are being warned about extortionate prices for food and drink in Venice after unwitting tourists reported being ripped off.
Known around the world for its stunning and romantic scenery, over a million visitors travel to Italy's floating city every year to explore its maze of charming streets and its gondola-laden waterways.
But the bucket-list destination has also picked up a reputation for leaving some unlucky diners seriously out of pocket when unscrupulous business owners overcharge them for a simple coffee or a small bite to eat.
In the worst cases, tourists find themselves struggling to find enough money to pay after they are presented with a shocking bill in the hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
Once incident reported by the MailOnline involved four students from Japan being charged €1,100 (£970) at Osteria de Luca restaurant near St Marks Square on a bill containing only four steaks, a serving of fried fish, water and a service charge.
They later complained to police upon returning to the city of Bologna, where they were enrolled in a course in Italian cuisine.
After the local authority looked into the incident, the restaurant - which is rated 1.5 out of 5 on Tripadvisor - was eventually fined a total of £12,300.
It later emerged that their friends who dined at a nearby restaurant had also been charged €350 (£300) for only three plates of seafood pasta.
Similar complaints also came from an Italian tourist in 2019, who was charged €43 (£37) for two coffees and two bottles of water at Caffe Lavena near St Mark's Square.
In an incident at a different restaurant, one British tourist claimed he and his elderly parents were conned into running up a massive £463 lunch bill after dining on lobster and oysters at a popular spot in the city.
Luke Tang and his parents in their 70s were shocked when they saw how much they were being charged for their food - and said they hadn't even ordered many of the items on the bill.
The university lecturer said the waiters in the restaurant, Trattoria Casanova, kept bringing them dishes that they had not asked for and failed to tell them the cost.
Describing the restaurant as "a disgusting place", he also accused staff of scamming them and taking advantage of the fact that neither he nor his parents spoke any Italian.
He said: “They said they’d sort out lunch for us — we just wanted a few small starters and then some spaghetti.
“The next thing I knew we were being served 20 oysters, which I thought was a bit odd as we hadn’t asked for them and my elderly parents don’t eat shellfish.’’
The Birmingham local said they were also served other expensive items they had not ordered such as lobsters, grilled fish and crayfish, and said he "almost had a heart attack" when he was presented with the bill - but simply paid up as the family was "in a rush to catch the plane".
Owners at Trattoria Casanova however defended the hefty bill, claiming all dishes had been ordered by the family and that all costs were clearly on display.
“We gave them what they ordered. The prices of the fish, per 100 grams, are shown clearly on the menu,” a manager told Ansa, Italy’s national news agency.
“They didn’t send anything back. If there had been dishes that they had not ordered then they could have refused to eat them and then they would not have been charged.”
In an interview with Italian television at the time of the incident in 2018, Mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro described the family as "cheapskates" and said they should not have eaten at the restaurant if they were not prepared to pay.
But the centre-right politician has appeared to harden his stance on extortionate practices in the years since, and pledged to "punish" the restaurants involved in the incident involving the Japanese tourists.
Experts say the best away to avoid falling victim to scams when in Venice or any other popular tourist destination is to research the spots you are planning to eat at beforehand and read the menu carefully before making any orders.
