This is the 7th post in my Best Bites of Italy series, a round-up of the best eats during my 2 week trip through Rome, Venice, Florence and Cinque Terre. Previous posts include… Rome: highlighting Renato e Luisa, La Gelateria del Teatro, Fried Artichokes at Giggetto, La Pizza del Teatro in Rome and Osteria Le Mani in Pasta (truffle heaven!); and Venice: Osteria Alla Frasca.
This Best Bites of Italy post comes to you as an organic find. A place that I stumbled upon by chance and smell. Sometimes I feel guilty for always looking up reviews online prior to visiting a place to eat. It takes the spontaneity out of traveling but I can’t help but to consult TripAdvisor to see what others have said about the place. Who wants to waste stomach space and calories on a crappy meal right?
Then there are those few times that I wander and trust my own instincts. These little bites of pizza heaven at Cip Ciap remind me that I should ditch the app from time to time and just for it.
Early morning before the cruise ships docked in Venice, J and I were out and about exploring the beautiful Piazza San Marco before the hoards of tourists invaded this tiny city. Too much of a crowd freaks me out a bit. But this lovely AM, I was able to creep around the town without a care in the world.
Around 9 am, we noticed tons of people walking with determination. We quickly realized that it was all the workers of Venice, coming in to open up shop for the day. As we were trying to get back to our hotel, we noticed a shop opened with tons of little pizzas on display but no real shop owner standing at the counter.
Our foodie guide in Rome told us that pizzettes were one of the things that we should try while in Italy. These small little pizzas are usually given to little kids as a tiny serving and often seen at birthday parties. They looked too good to resist, so we went into the shop to try to grab a few.
Since we were going to have more food after this, J and I opted to share 3 little bites. Clearly the store really wasn’t open yet. But, one of the cooks in the back graciously stopped what he was doing to help and fulfill our growing appetite.
After the first bite, I was hooked. The crust was made with a dough that reminded me of fluffy puff pastry. It’s topped with just a dab of tomato sauce, and it’s topping. J and I thought the artichoke was the hands down winner, as with anything artichoke in Italy. The runner up was the olive and then the pepperoni – but all three of them were delicious. They were probably especially fresh since it came right out of the oven.
We finished all three pretty quickly and realized that it just wasn’t enough. It was too good for us not to get more, especially since we were going to leave Venice that afternoon. So, after nicely asking one of the chefs in the back to pause their daily prep work, we got 2 more. ๐ As with anything in Italy, the prices of these were calculated by weight, but they cost around โฌ1 each.
As I am writing this post, you know I had to look this place up in TripAdvisor to see what others had to say about it. They have pretty good reviews from others – there’s also pictures of pizza pies that are displayed in the window, but we must have just got to the shop right before it was opening so the pizzettes were all we tried. These things are a must try especially since it takes up relatively little space in your belly! You need this in your life, trust me.
Cip Ciap Pizza | Trip Advisor
Calle del Mondo Novo 5799/A, Venice, Italy
