Ready to be a traveller rather than a tourist on my Venice food tour?
Venice is a beautiful old girl, but in her senior years she can be a touch contrary. In winter, when she’s relatively free of tourists, she’s also often grey, windy and flooded. In summer, when the sunshine sparkles off the Istrian marble of her churches and palaces, she’s often packed to the gills with camera-toting day trippers. But once you learn a few of her secrets – such as which tiny calli to wander down to find the best bacari – and settle in for some cicchetti and un’ombra, then you’re living like a Venetian and truly fall under her spell.
Andiamo, I’ll show you the real Venice.
Immerse yourself in the food culture of Venice. Stay in a hotel overlooking the Grand Canal, eat regional specialties in osterie frequented by locals and enjoy cicchetti and local wine in out-of-the-way baccari on this food & wine tour of Venice.
The below itinerary covers the tour highlights, the order of activities and locations may vary.
Our hotel sits at the very end of the Grand Canal, with views across to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore and the majestic dome of Santa Maria della Salute. Sunrise and sunset over the bustling mouth of the canal look like a water colour painting.
Napoleon called St Mark’s Square ‘the drawing room of Europe’. We'll ride to the top of the bell tower there, where Galileo demonstrated his telescope in 1609, for breathtakingly memorable views over the lagoon and red tiled roofs of La Serenissima.
No trip to Venice is complete without a visit to the definitive Venetian bar opened in 1931 by the Cipriani family. A bellini, the famous cocktail of Prosecco and white peach nectar, developed by Harry’s Bar founder Giuseppe Cipriani, is a must.
About half an hour across the lagoon, is the colourful island of Burano and lunch at Trattoria al Gatto Nero. Seafood antipasti of razor clams, tiny scallops and mantis prawns is fresh out of the lagoon, and the tiramisu to finish may be Venice’s best.
At the thousand-year-old Mercato Rialto we’ll mingle with locals shopping for fresh seafood and an amazing array of fruit & vegetables grown on the lagoon's outer islands. Breakfast of mini panini and local red wine on crates outside Bar al Merca is a Venetian right of passage.
The very casual, no-menu Trattoria da’a Marisa in Cannaregio is named for a famous prostitute (and some of her promotional signage still decorates the walls). It serves the best baccala mantecato I’ve ever tasted along with other delicious daily specials.
An aperitvo before dinner is essential throughout Italy. In Venice it’s taken at bacari serving a delicious array of cicchetti (bar snacks). The accompanying small glass of white wine is un’ombra. We’ll visit some of Venice’s most out-of-the-way bacari for our cicchetti & ombre.
Whether it’s a tour of the canals in a private gondola, the thrill of joining the locals in a stand-up traghetto, a wooden speedboat trip across the lagoon, or a ride on the convenient vaporetti (ferries), you’ll find yourself hopping on and off boats throughout your stay in Venice.
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