Many guides and guidebooks can answer a lot of the ‘what’ questions about Venice, but very few can answer the harder ‘why’ questions. With my history walks in Venice, boat tours and kayak in the lagoon, I try to explain why Venice is the way it is.
The over two hundred blog posts, long form articles, newsletters, lists and translations on this site should give an idea of the breadth and depth of the possible subjects for discussion during our walks.
My name is René Seindal, and I’m a Danish historian, living in Venice for almost two decades with my Venetian family. I am an authorised tour leader (accompagnatore turistico) in English, Italian and Danish. Besides my walks and boat tours, I’m also a guide on the Lazzaretto Nuovo island.
All my activities are bespoke, centred on what interests you about the history of Venice. I only do walks in small groups, to leave time and space for dialogue, questions and interactions. There are no microphones or ear buds, I do not want to be a walking audio guide.
The tours are not as such targeted for children, but kids are very welcome, and I will do my best.
Tours on offer
Hidden History
A walk around Venice, exploring the many messages from Venice of yore, often hidden in plain view.
Plague Island
A guided visit to the island Lazzaretto Nuovo, where quarantine was invented to fight the Black Death.
Boat tours
A boat tour in the Venetian lagoon reveals that there’s much more to Venice than just the city.
What others said
★★★★★ An engaging and passionate storyteller with an extraordinary depth of knowledge — Helen
★★★★★ Excellent insights into Venetian history — Tom
★★★★★ Wonderful, Informative and Enjoyable — Erica
★★★★★ A history master class — Alberto
★★★★★ We were riveted by the tour — Alicia
★★★★★ Simply brilliant — John
★★★★★ Thanks for a great few hours! Learned so much 🙂 — Amy
★★★★★ A perfect start for a Venetian sojourn — Laura
★★★★★ WOW, Rene is an amazing storyteller, historian and a scholar — Noy
★★★★★ Rene beats all other guides here 10 to 1 — Anna
★★★★★ Book this experience, you’ll thank me later! — Michael
★★★★★ I would totally recommend this experience!! 👌👍 — Amrita
★★★★★ Rene is incredibly knowledgeable — Jörg
★★★★★ First class and insightful tour — Paul
★★★★☆ We loved the information so much — Katherine
★★★★★ Fantastic Time Learning About Venice — Mathew
Venetian Stories
Podcast
The Venetian Stories podcast is about the history of Venice. It is not a chronological narrative, but independent episodes, each 25–30 minutes.
Recent episodes:
Newsletter
The Venetian Stories newsletter is a sibling of the podcast, but not a twin. The newsletters might, or might not, treat the same subject.
Recent newsletters:
Writings on the
History of Venice
Between blog posts, long form articles, various lists, and translations from the Curiosità Veneziane and others reference works, there are over two hundred in-depth articles on this site.
Alternatively, consult the single-unified list of all the articles, or browse the writings by location.
Recent writings
-
Habiti d’huomeni et donne venetiane — Giacomo Franco
About forty engravings from the early 1600s, with dresses, attires, ceremonies, feasts, regattas and much more.
-
The game of Pallone
The “Game of Pallone” was the quintessential ball game in the Republic of Venice and elsewhere, but it wasn’t really like any modern game.
-
The game of Calcio
The Venetians played ball games of various kinds. The game of Calcio is the one sounds most modern, but it wasn’t exactly like it’s played today. Far from it, in…
In-depth article series
-
The Venetian Lazzaretti
The lazzaretti in Venice were the Venetian republic’s response to the emergency of the plague, and an efficient response too.
-
The Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice never had an actual formal constitution, much less a written constitution. Neither did it have any kind of foundational event.
-
Gaetano Zompini and the trades of Venice
The “Arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia”, by Gaetano Zompini, is a fantastic source for how people appeared on the streets of Venice in the mid-1700s.
Most popular articles
-
Prostitution in Venice
In ancient Venice prostitution was considered a necessary evil, where more harm would come from a ban than from a de facto acceptance
-
The mysterious hooks of fortune at San Canciano
A bridge at San Canciano is called the “bridge of the hung and quartered”. Nearby hangs some hooks on the wall, but nobody knows what they were for.
-
Old maps of Venice
Old maps are an important source for our understanding of how Venice looked and functioned in the past
Free downloads
An unreasonably short history of Venice is — surprise — an unreasonably short history of Venice, from the bitter start to the bitter end. In fact, it is so short, it can be read in a couple of hours, on the flight or in the airport. Seven chapters, each of around 3000 words, tell the History of Venice as succinctly as possible.
Read it online on the History of Venice web-site, or download the PDF or the e-book for your off-line reading pleasure. There is also a TL;DR version available online.
Looking for something?
Write a few words below and search through all the writings on the site …
A list of some of the sources and publications used to prepare this site.
Social media
You can follow History Walks Venice on several social media sites.
Mastodon and the Fediverse
History walks in Venice with a professional historian.
Follow with RSS feeds
This site has several RSS feeds for the History of Venice articles, the newsletter and everything on this site, which can be used in any compatible reader.