Rosa Salva (San Marco) – Family Guide

Rosa Salva
(San Marco)

You can find this café just off Calle dei Fabbri. Most cafés in Venice will serve a great coffee and brioche, so you can’t really go wrong. However, this is a particularly lovely one that has gorgeous “tramezzini” (sandwiches), beautiful cakes and pastries, and also sells sweets and chocolates made on site. It has a nice marble interior, with elegant cups and uniformed baristas. It is well worth a stop for breakfast or quick lunch.

WHEN TO GO

Mornings and lunchtimes are often very busy but evenings are usually much quieter so on an early winter’s evening it’s a good place to stop for an aperitvo. They don’t have any outside tables here but they do in their other cafés – there is one on San Giorgio island and one near the hospital (Rosa Salva SS Giovani e Paolo) where you can relax at a table out on the square. They also have a smaller and busier cafe very near to Rialto at the end of Calle della Acque (Rosa Salva Mercerie, San Marco 5020).

INSIDER TIP

I love the sandwich with scamorza (a smoked mozzarella) and grilled courgette on rye bread so much that I regularly walk 20 minutes out of my way just to have one. At lunchtime they also serve pasta (“tavola calda” style, where the food is served from the counter). The selection of cakes is spectacular and they make everything on site.

FAMILY FRIENDLINESS

The toilet is quite spacious and clean. They don’t have a changing table but it’s probably big enough to wheel your pram in if you need to change a baby. At peak times it can be very busy in here, with most clientele standing up, so do be careful that your kids don’t knock into someone with a hot coffee.