cichetti

It's logical that Venice should be the only place in Italy where the 'tapa' idea took hold; even in the Middle Ages, Venetians were too busy having fun to ever cook anything at home. And as in Spain, cicchetti (or cichetti) had a popular, working-class origin and are now a bit fancy and yuppified.

In Venice, bars called bàcari are the place to look for them. Cicchetti are mostly what you would find for antipasti: every sort of seafood, salame and cheeses, olives and other sott'aceti and sott'oli, and just about anything on a small bit of bread or toast. Usually accompanied by a glass of white wine, an ombra in local slang.