Your tour, your interests
A private Hidden History tour can be anywhere in central Venice, at any time of day, and concentrate on the topics which interest you.
I can meet you at your hotel in the morning, 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.
If you have any particular interests, we can concentrate more on those subjects.
A two-hour private tour is minimum €200 for the group, or €40/person. Longer tours are charged at €75, or €15/person, for each additional hour.
Payment is normally at the end of the tour. I accept most credit cards (Visa, Master, AmEx, etc.) and, of course, cash. Payment in advance is also possible, but not a requirement.
You can book by email to info@historywalksvenice.com.
Alternatively, you can browse the available times, and book your 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.
These articles are examples of some the topics we can discuss on a private tour:
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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 open.
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Long live the doge
Viva il doge – Long live the doge – the writing on the wall celebrating the election of Andrea Gritto as doge in april 1523
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The Fall of Venice
The fall of Venice on May 12th, 1797, was the result of a war that the Republic of Venice formally wasn’t even party to.
What others said
René’s tour was amazing!
René’s tour was amazing! As a historian, he has a huge depth of knowledge of the history of the city, and showed us the incredible evolution of the architecture and layout of the city over the centuries. He was super open to our questions and filled in a lot of gaps of our understanding of the city. If you were ever curious about anything regarding Venice, book this experience!
It exceeded our expectations!
Rene is incredibly knowledgeable. His stories made the city come to life. We learned so much and feel like we can now walk the streets of Venice with a deeper insight and appreciation.
We enjoyed the tour very much and learned a lot!
If you are interested in history, and the reasons for special historical events and relations between architecture and society, he is the right guide! We really enjoyed the tour!
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Excellent guide. Very knowledgeable. He knows everything.
Thank you for a wonderful tour!!
We could have walked with Rene for hours! His knowledge of Venice is impressive. He held both our attention and our son’s attention for the entire walk. Learning about the daily life in Venice from years past was very interesting for us and allowed us to notice other hidden history as we walked the streets on our own the following days.
The history and story telling from Rene was fantastic.
The knowledge shared is a great supplement after visiting The Doge’s Palace and other locations.
Thank you for such a super tour!
What a fantastic tour. Rene is a historian by education and his wealth of knowledge went far beyond anything you may have learned on other tours or before arriving. The tour enhanced the rest of our trip as we were able to notice things around us that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen – including centuries old grafitti! He even kindly went over the allotted time as we were enjoying it so much. I highly recommend – it was one of our favourite parts of our trip to Venice.
Fantastic tour by René
We looked at Venice completely differently afterwards and could see so much more in plain sight. René is extremely knowledgable and engaging.