Anywhere you look, hidden history stares back at you.
An inconspicuous sign on a wall tells a story about long forgotten crafts and social welfare in the 15th century. Ancient graffiti under a portico reminds us how public transport worked in the 18th and 19th centuries. An oddly placed altar shows how faith was used to fight crime. History is all over.
The humblest of little signs on a wall hides a story worth being retold.
Even a short walk down the calli with a knowledgeable guide can teach you as much as a shelf full of guidebooks.
The Hidden History tour
I will meet you at your hotel, or at the restaurant where you’ve had lunch, or wherever it suits you in Venice, and we’ll walk around the city together, searching for messages from the past.
This is not a tour of great monuments and famous places. That’s all in the guidebooks, and you won’t need to for that. Rather, it is a search for all those little messages past Venetians have left around the city, that we don’t see even if they’re just in front of us.
We’ll talk about how social welfare worked in the renaissance, about the ancient links between Venice and the Byzantine Empire, about the Venetian trade on the Levant, and much, much more.
The hidden history is in front of our eyes, but we don’t always see it.
These articles cover some of the subjects we might cover on a hidden history walk:
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Differentiated rubbish collection in Venice
Venice had an organised system of differentiated garbage collections from the 1400s, to keep the city clean and the canals…
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Daghe adosso, Nino!
An Austrian admiral giving orders in Venetian, in a naval battle against Italy, which eventually led to Venice becoming Italian
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Prostitution in Venice
In ancient Venice prostitution was considered a necessary evil, where more harm would come from a ban than from a…
What others said
René is very knowledgable and has so many interesting stories to tell. I feel like I got to know the city in a way I could never have done on my own. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a more in-depth tour.
The tour was very nice. We really enjoyed and we ended up spending more than the two hours.
Perfect if you are really into history and want to know every bit of Venice’s history. However I would say this tour isn’t for casual tourists who just want to hear some interesting information about places in Venice, as René often goes into really a lot of detail. He’s definitely an expert on the history of Venice, though, and is super passionate about it. I just expected the tour to be a bit more engaging, and that I would mostly hear more about the places or sights we see. Instead we often stopped for half an hour at a time and the storytelling wasn’t with much interaction or visual aspects.
Prices and booking
The hidden history walking tour can be two or more hours. The more time we spend together, the more we’ll see and explore.
Group tours
Groups can be from two to eight persons, so everybody can see and hear everything.
The price for group tours is €30/person for the first two hours, and €10/person for each additional hour.
Children under five can come for free, and children fourteen or younger for €10.
Private tours
Private tours are minimum €160 for the group. Otherwise, they’re priced as above.
A private tour can start at a time and place of your choosing.
You only pay for a private tour if you request a private tour.
Meeting place and time
I regularly do Hidden History walks starting at 10am in Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo, and if this will work for you, drop me a message.
If you’re looking for some other time or place, use this link to book an appointment directly into my calendar, and I’ll come back to you as soon as possible.