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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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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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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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…
What others said
Es war eine besondere Geschichtstour, die so viele Details gezeigt hat, die mir nie aufgefallen wären. Ich war beeindruckt von Renés Entdeckungslust und die offenbare Liebe und Begeisterung zu Venedig! Es war regelrecht ansteckend und hat Spaß gemacht! Durch seine Einblicke in diese besondere Stadt, konnten wir auch anschließend mit ganz anderen Augen beobachten und einen viel innigeren Zugang zu Venedig finden. Vielen Dank dafür!
René shares a lot of his tremendous knowledge about this city and its past and what you can still see of it in today’s Venice, if you just take a really close look. We sure didn’t feel bored even for a second, the tour is just overall really well-designed and there’s hardly a corner in the city René doesn’t have an interesting fact or story up his sleeve about. After the tour we kept catching ourselves looking for little scratch marks that maybe weren’t left there by an uncivilized tourist as you might believe in the first instant.
Just spent a fascinating 2 hours in the company of Rene. Super knowledgeable guy, great story-teller mixing historical details to current Venetian life.. We will look at Venice in a different light from now on. Thank you Rene..
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 tour lasts 2-2½ hours.
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.
Group tours usually start in Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo, either at 10am or 2pm.
Please note that I don’t do these tours every day, so if you want to come, please drop me a message, preferably at least the day before.
Private tours
A private tour can start at a time and place of your choosing, and we can concentrate on whatever subjects you want.
A two-hour private tour is minimum €160 for the group, or €30/person. Longer tours are charged at €50, or €10/person, for each additional hour.
You can use this link to book a private tour directly in my calendar. You’ll get a confirmation email, and I will be notified immediately when you click the link in that email.
Meeting place and time
Group tours usually start in the Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo in central Venice.