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, and boat tours 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.
Lagoon tours
A boat tour in the Venetian lagoon reveals that there’s much more to Venice than just the city.
What others said
★★★★★ 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 – newsletter
Our email newsletter comes out two or three times each month, with stories about Venice, past and present, and updates from the website.
Writings on the
History of Venice
Between blog posts, long form articles, newsletters, 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
-
Farewell to Twitter and Facebook
The old social media sites are by now useless for sharing information, so I will post no further articles there. Posts will still be shared on Mastodon and Bluesky.
-
404 Doctor Not Found
The iconic cloaked and beaked plague doctor is often associated with Venice, but there is no documentation that the figure ever existed in Venice.
-
Tombs of the doges
Where were the doges of Venice buried? A little bit all over, in churches and monasteries in Venice and beyond.
In-depth article series
-
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.
-
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
-
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
-
Old maps of Venice
Old maps are an important source for our understanding of how Venice looked and functioned in the past
-
Population 49,999
The population of the city of Venice has been in a steep decline for the last seventy years, and is now under 50,000 inhabitants.
A list of some of the sources and publications used to prepare this site.
Looking for something?
Write a few words below and search through all the writings on the site …
Social media
You can follow History Walks Venice on several social media sites.
Mastodon and the Fediverse
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.