AGROUP of tourists holidaying in Venice had to call police at the weekend – after a restaurant charged them €1,100 (£970) for a basic meal.The Japanese students, who were on a trip from their home in Bologna, were charged the hefty fee for three steaks and a dish of fried fish, plus mineral water.The group were dining at Osteria da Luca restaurant near St Mark’s Square on Friday when the incident happened.Marco Gasparinetti, a spokesman for local civil rights organisation the April 25 Group, told Venice Today: “This is just the latest case of many of this kind.“The young people, who are university students in Bologna, made a formal denunciation to the local police station as soon as they got off the train.” The restaurant in question has just a 1.5rating out of five on TripAdvisor, with customers labelling it “rip-off central,” and “the worst place in the world”.One former diner called Chris G who ate there this month said: “They added on almost €50 in taxes and tip, these are the hidden fees that they don’t tell you.” Another called Donal M said: “These people are robbing thieves, avoid at all costs.€16 for a large beer and then they steal another €3 service charge from you on way out.“ The incident comes just a few months after a British tourist claimed he and his elderly parents were duped into running up a £463 lunch bill by waiters in Venice.University lecturer Luke Tang, 40, claims the waiters in a restaurant near St Mark’s Square took advantage of the fact they did not speak Italian to rip them off.He said: “They said they’d sort out lunch for us — we just wanted a few small starters and then some spaghetti.“The next thing I knew we were being served 20 oysters, which I thought was a bit odd as we hadn’t asked for them and my elderly parents don’t eat shellfish.’’ Mr Tang, from Birmingham, said they were then served other expensive items they had not ordered such as lobsters.He added: “When the bill came I almost had a heart attack.We were in a rush to catch the plane so I just paid but I felt we were conned.” At the time, the Mayor of Venice said that the Tangs were cheapskates who should have learnt some Italian before their visit so they could understand what they were ordering.Mayor Luigi Brugnaro spoke to an Italian TV station, saying that tourists who come to Venice "need to shell out a bit." He said: "They’re cheapskates, someone eats and drinks in a restaurant, then says they cannot understand the language? “If you come to Italy you need to learn Italian, maybe even a few words of Venetian would be good too.” The mayor has yet to comment on the latest incident, but Marco Gasparinetti from the April 25 Group has warned that more tourists are likely to fall victims to unscrupulous restauranteurs in the next few weeks.As the Venice Carnival gets underway, scores more tourists are set to descend on the town.

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