I am guessing it goes through floods often enough not to change too much?
Peak seasons can be unbearable at times.
Yeah, I don't like crowds, but city destinations make them hard to avoid.
We have also done what you've suggested, bought bread and a pastry at a bakery and had that for lunch or breakfast instead of spending a bunch of money on an expensive meal. Its a good tip for sure.
And far more enjoyable when you can pick the location and don't have to worry about whether the overpriced restaurant food is even going to be edible. The first place we ate at in Milan was a shocker, but it overlooked the Duomo. The next night we went to another place just around the corner and the food was fantastic and still overlooked the Duomo. The first was on the main entry into the scquare though, so everyone stopped there....once.
Really, the food at the one place was that bad eh. There is nothing worse then paying for a crappy meal.
It really was terrible. Better than the service though.
We were on the terrace and literally told a group about to take a seat that they should go somewhere else.