Day 1: Arrivals

By private water taxi from Venice airport to our hotel in the heart of the city, our home for the whole of the tour. Meet your tour director, and enjoy some typical Venetian cuisine in an included dinner at a nearby local restaurant.

Day 2: The Doge’s Venice

After breakfast, your tour director will host a welcome meeting before we head out for our first day exploring Venice. We start with the famous Saint Mark’s Square, home to the Venetian government, courts and heads of state. The square is lined with administrative offices and elite apartments, and of course the magnificent Basilica of Saint Mark, with its eastern domes and opulent facade. In our tour of the Basilica, we examine its shimmering mosaics and its Pala d’Oro, made from thousands of precious gems.

In the afternoon, we explore the adjacent Piazzetta, where the city’s impressive library was located, where the doge lived, and also where criminals were hanged. Entering the Doge’s Palace, we walk through richly adorned government rooms, making our way from the law courts to the city’s gruesome prisons by way of the famous Bridge of Sighs.

Day 3: The Sacred Venice

Today we consider the relationship between the State and the Church, which is fundamental to understanding Venice. Aristocratic families competed for top clerical offices and vied with each other to commission the most magnificent chapels and works of art. It is no wonder, then, that Venice was an important artistic centre. We discover a number of religious institutions, such as the influential Dominican church, the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, which was a kind of Westminster Abbey, being the resting place of many famous Venetian statesmen. No less important is its Franciscan counterpart, the extraordinary Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, which houses great works of art from Bellini to Titian, including Titian’s Assumption and Pesaro Madonna.

Alongside these, we discover the enclosed convent of San Zaccaria, which took in nuns from only the best families, and the Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli, a tiny jewel of a church built by the famous Lombardo stonemasons in order to house a miraculous image of Mary. Finally, we visit the grandest of the many Venetian Scuole, or confraternities, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco which contains Tintoretto’s enormous Crucifixion, considered one of the great masterpieces of Renaissance art.

Day 4: The Ethnic Venice

Having experienced the grandeur that Venice produced, today is dedicated to exploring the lives of ordinary Venetians in the district of Castello, an area crucial to the navel power of Venice. This is where the city’s sailors and dock workers lived, a good number of whom were foreign. Crossing the Ponte dei Greci, we enter a part of Venice where many Greeks made their homes. Here, we visit the Chiesa di San Giorgio dei Greci and the Museum of the Icons, both still beacons of Hellenic culture. Next comes the Scuola Dalmata di San Giorgio, set up to offer support to Croatian sailors and dock workers. This confraternity was able to hire the great Venetian artist, Vittore Carpaccio, who produced his most famous works here. Castello is also home to the Ospedale della Pieta, a charitable institution which trained and looked after foundlings. This is where Vivaldi (who was born in the parish) spent decades teaching music to the orphan girls; singing behind grills in the adjoining Chiesa della Pieta’, these girls became musical superstars.

Walking down the Riva dei Schiavoni, named after the many Croatians who loaded goods here, we make our way to the Arsenal, the dockyard which employed tens of thousands of workers, and where innovative shipbuilding techniques enabled the city to become Europe’s pre-eminent naval power. We end the day with a boat trip across the lagoon to visit the small island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni, gifted to the considerable Armenian population in the 18th century.

Day 5: The Noble Venice

In contrast to the previous day, we focus today on the opulent and sometimes uproarious lives of the city’s elite. The Palazzo Grimani, located close to the delightful Campo Santa Maria Formosa, was home to a powerful family which produced several dogi. The palazzo is famous for its extraordinary collection of ancient statuary. Making our way towards the commercial heart of Venice, which was notable for its seedy lifestyle, we visit the little-known Casino Venier, an elite 18th century pied-à-terre, which served as a literary salon and gambling den.

After lunching in the Canareggio district, we visit the beautiful 14th century Ca’ d’Oro, whose facade once shimmered with gold, attracting the attention of all those who saw it from the water. Crossing the Grand Canal, we visit the Ca’ Rezzonico, the impressive baroque palazzo which is today home to a museum of the 18th century, where we see an assortment of paintings depicting details of Venetians and their heady lifestyles.

Day 6: The Merchants of Venice

On our last day, we consider the lives of the merchants and craftsmen who enriched Venice. We start with the Rialto market, whose signs still bear the names of the goods that were once sold there, from spices and citrus fruits to fish and metal goods. Crossing the famous Rialto Bridge, we make our way to the Jewish Ghetto, where Jews from all over Europe lived and worked cheek by jowl in cramped apartment blocks.

Crossing one of the three bridges of the Ghetto Nuovo, we explore the Canareggio region, home to many Venetian merchants, including the family of spice and silk traders who lived in the Palazzo Mastelli del Cammello. This is also where the painter Tintoretto, the son of a dyer, lived, and we find his tomb in the Chiesa della Madonna del Orto.

We end with visits to some of the artisans still plying their trade today, keeping Venetian traditions alive. These include printers and artists who work in glass.

This evening we include a farewell dinner, enjoying cicchetti and other Venetian delicacies as we celebrate our time together and knowledge gained exploring this extraordinary city.

Day 7: Departure

You will be transferred from your hotel to the airport for your flight home, or why not stay longer in Venice?