Italy - My favorite places

I recently took a trip to Italy with OB.  We went to Milan, Venice, Padua, Florence, and Rome.  My impressions - LOVED Milan.  Pretty good shopping and not touristy.  I felt that I got a real authentic experience.  Hated Venice.  Too many tourists, charm was phony, and getting lost along the streets sucked.  Plus, the water smells like ass.  Padua - Not touristy at all, a major metropolitan smaller city, kind of like Milwaukee.  Food was great, no tourists.  Florence - lots of tourist sites to see without the annoyances of Venice.  It's a larger city, but we were still hard pressed to get an authentic cultural experience.  Rome - Huge city, lots of sites, a mix of tourists and locals.  I loved the free cold water everywhere.

Here are some of my favorite places:
Milan: Pizzeria Spontini - Best pizza I had on the whole trip.  It's a thicker pan pizza style.  Crazy throughput so pizza was coming out of the coal fire open oven every 3 minutes.  Multiple locations - 4 Via Spontini, 43 V.le Papiniano, 3, Via Marghera

Cioccolat Italiani - Fancy gelato place.  They get mad if you take pictures.  25 via De Amicis

Buongusto - We stumbled upon this casual fresh pasta place for lunch.  Excellent service.  They have a counter where you can see the pastas.  Their stuffed pastas were amazing, sauce was minimal.  2 Via Caminadella

Ratana - Fancy restaurant in a weird location.  You have to enter a gate where you walk past a playground to get to the restaurant.  Casual fine dining.  They had an excellent rendition of the classic Risotto Milanese (risotto cooked in bone marrow and saffron) with ox tail.  Delish!  28 Via De Castillia

Venice:
Gelateria Lo Squero - Ehh...we had a lot of cicchetti in Venice, but nothing too memorable.  Best thing I ate here was the pistachio gelato with pistachios from Sicily. Dorsoduro 989-90 

Padua:
Osteria Dal Capo - Homestyle place.  Very casual.  Had the best renditions of Venetian dishes here.  Bigoli en salsa (fresh tube spaghetti with anchovy sauce) 45 Via Soncin (fronte Duomo)

Florence:
Trattoria Mario - Ok so this is a major touristy restaurant and you share tables, but the food is solid.  They're all about turning tables here, so at a very cramped table you get your food and fast!  Excellent ragu.  2/R Via Rosina

Mirko Filati - Accidentally stumbled upon this yarn shop next to the church in San Lorenzo.  You can't even tell it's a shop because the window is so sparsely decorated with yarn and you actually have to walk downstairs.  They have shelves up to the ceiling and a nice selection of merino wool yarns.  It's not the cheapest place or the nicest looking shop, but I found some good basics.  36 Plaza San Lorenzo. 

Osteria Del Cinghiale Bianco - Michael Carlson, the chef/owner of Schwa, once said he ate well here.  It wasn't the best meal I had, but it was pretty good.  Best thing I ate here was the ribbolita (their bean soup).  43 r. Borgo S. Jacopo

Rome:
Ristorante Roma Sparita - Surprisingly the best service we had at a restaurant on our trip.  The waiter here hustled, and though he was no quicker getting us the bill than any other restaurant, I felt he was really trying (unlike most waiters we encountered).  Excellent fresh pasta.  Cacioepepe was amazing!  (fresh pasta with black pepper and olive oil in an edible cheese cracker bowl). 24 Piazza di Santa Cecila 

 Panella - Stumbled upon this late night bakery, gourmet market on our way to dinner.  Large selection of all different kinds of pastries.  They also have breads, gelato and some gourmet groceries for sale.  54-55 Via Merulana