$148 coffee bill

$148 coffee bill. A GROUP of holidaymakers were shocked to receive a bill of over 100 euros ($148) after ordering drinks at an outdoor cafe in Venice.

Their case is a lesson to tourists to read the fine print before ordering.

The group ordered four espressos, three of them laced with liqueurs, at the famous Caffe Lavena in St. Mark's Square, the UK's Telegraph reported.

When browsing the menu they failed to notice a rather surprising extra fee - a 'music surcharge' which ended up making up nearly half of the bill, totalling $62.

The owners of the cafe, which opened in 1750, said all the prices are printed on the menus - including the surcharge.

"If they found the prices too high, they could have got up and gone somewhere else, like many people do, or have the coffee standing at the bar inside, where it costs one euro," Lavena's manager, Massimo Milanese, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

It comes after a group of British tourists got fired up for being charged $82 for four ice creams in Rome.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/tourists-shocked-by-8216ridiculous8217-bill-for-coffees-in-venice/story-e6frfq80-1226701754053#ixzz2d1GRYlJx