Gone to the Doges

Restaurant cover charge?
That's a nice little trick! Although it probably covers their costs with those tourists who sit and nurse one drink forever, or share one meal but use two sets of crockery and cutlery (I'm grabbing at straws here...). Venice looks particularly beautiful in that autumn light, seriously gorgeous photos :)

Brilliant maneuvers!
You stayed and ate outside the city, and had a drink in a small plaza, not in St. Mark's--excellent. I stayed in a convent over on Guidecca Island (20 of us in a huge,open room hung with massive crucifixes, where novice nuns would have slept for years--yikes; 2 weeks was enough for me) and illegally took a ferry in daily. Fortunately, I paid for Murano and the other islands because that was the only time anyone checked. Brilliant to have saved pricey, fabulous Italy and Western Europe for last. You'll get back home and think the prices reasonable.

Loving the memories!
Venice is beautiful, over run by tourists for most of the time however worth the visit. So glad you got to see it Scotty and Shelly, revisit it. Great pizza! Where are the pigeons?