Venice for The Food Pilgrims: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

The last spice merchant on the spice merchants' street, saffron and dried mushrooms in the window and a back room of wine.

A hole in the wall by the market with a hundred people standing outside it; a glass of prosecco and two crostini, then move on.

Under the arcades where the first bank opened, with tables on the canal; the scallops and the squid-ink pasta are what the market sold them.

The lagoon catch under the neo-gothic loggia before the restaurateurs have picked it over: moeche, schie, canoce, and the fishmongers' commentary.

Monica Cesarato's market tour and class: shop the stalls, then cook sarde in saor and baccalà mantecato in a Venetian kitchen and eat them.

The serious dinner: the Benellis' lagoon fish, raw and grilled, with a wine list that knows the Veneto; book weeks ahead.

Forty minutes across the lagoon past Murano and the marsh; sit outside at the back for the colour of the houses as the boat comes in.

Risotto di gò, made with the goby that lives in the lagoon mud, cooked by the same family since 1965; the canal table is worth asking for.

Walk the footbridge from Burano to the walled vineyard and taste the Dorona, a golden grape found in a few surviving vines; the gate is open to walkers.

The city's pastry shop since 1886, a krapfen and a coffee standing at the counter with the students; frittelle in Carnival season.

The fish stall and the fruit barges on the square, a last look at the lagoon's produce where the locals buy it.

A one-euro glass and a tiny panino with sopressa, taken on the canal wall two minutes from Piazzale Roma; the right last bite in the city.