Florence is the cradle of the Renaissance; Venice, threaded with canals, is that most serene city of Gothic palaces. Both are renowned for their excellent cuisine. Florentine cooks choose the thickest, juiciest cuts from the Chiana valley's snowy white cattle, brush them with olive oil and cracked peppercorns, and slow-grill them to perfection to become the mighty bistecca fiorentina. Venetian chefs cruise the ancient loggias of the Rialto market with an eye for the finest fish and shellfish caught that morning, which they will put in their famous fresh-seafood medleys. So basically we're talking about one town famous for its steak and another for its seafood. Neither comes cheaply.

We're here to help.

Below are a dozen of the best cheap meals these two capitals of Italian culture have to offer. We've got everything from a pizzeria in Venice to a stall in Florence's food market; a Venetian tavern where Casanova took other men's wives for romantic trysts to a candlelit Florentine trattoria suitable for a romantic dinner.

At all of them, you can get a full meal, including first and second courses and wine or water, for under E13 ($14.04). The prices quoted here are based on the exchange rate of E1=$1.08. To call Italy from the United States, dial 011-39 before the numbers listed below. Buon appetito!

Florence loves its food. When Brunelleschi was erecting the cathedral's great dome, the engineering marvel of its age, he installed a trattoria up in the fabric of the dome itself so the workers could enjoy a full meal on their lunch breaks. Here are the joints where latter-day laborers, market workers, and farmers in town to sell their harvest find inexpensive, filling meals of traditional fare.

Trattoria Mario

Via Rosina 2r (on the north corner of Piazza del Mercato Centrale), 055-218-550, www.trattoriamario.com. Closed for dinner and on Sundays. E8.45-E12.90 ($9.13-$13.93). No credit cards.

Tucked into a side street behind slightly pricier trattorie surrounding Florence's central food market, this unabashedly old-school trattoria doesn't seem to have changed one iota since Mario Colzi opened it in 1953. His son, Romeo Colzi, Romeo's wife, Patrizia, and brother Fabio refuse to alter the simple tiled walls, glassed-in kitchen, ancient wood ceiling, and culinary traditions (tripe on Mondays, fish on Fridays, etc.)-or the habit of shoehorning strangers into already packed tables to make new friends and enjoy genuine Florentine cooking at the lowest prices in town. The menu is hand-printed at the door and on the wall, and changed constantly to include such everyday delicacies as mezzelune al rag- (half-moon cheese ravioli in meat sauce) and coniglio al forno (roast rabbit). Even if you order both the most expensive first course and second course on the menu and have wine, you still ring in under E13-practically unheard of in Florence.

Le Mossacce

Via del Proconsolo 55r (halfway between the back side of the Duomo and the back of Palazzo Vecchio), 055-294-361. Closed Saturdays and Sundays. E10.70-E15.80 ($11.56-$17.06).

You can tell this is a working-class trattoria: It's only open weekdays, and you have to thread your way past the bar to the single tiny room in the back to sit elbow to elbow with strangers at tables stuffed around a busy open kitchen. Most primi, including the tagliatelle, rigatoni, and minestrone, are E4.20; for cannelloni (Florence's famed meat-stuffed pasta tubes) or cheese ravioli it's E4.70. To stay strictly within our E13 limit, order boiled or roasted chicken for your second course. If you're willing to go a little over budget, the field opens up to include succulent involtini (thinly sliced veal wrapped around veggies, then stewed) or spezzatino (a goulash-like stew)-pretty much everything except the cheapest bistecca fiorentina in town, which weighs in at E12 to E14 and is well worth the splurge.

La Mescita