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Cicchetti of Venice Tour

General Info | Photo Gallery | Traveller Feedback
Highlights:

• Learn Venice through its bars and taverns
• Discover the delicious range of local cicchetti dishes on this Venice tour
• Experience the buzz of Italian Bacari wine bars
• Ride a gondola into the Rialto area
• Try local specialties such as spicy meatballs and fried olives
• Get a history lesson while sipping wine

Tour style:Walking & Orientation, Local Food, Market Visits, Local Life & Culture
Inclusion:

Wine glass and tapa in each place (about 5 places) Traghetto ride to cross the canal.

Exclusion:

Items of a personal nature and tips or gratuities for guide.

Group size:Maximum 12
Schedule details:

• Duration: 3 hours
• Pickup location:

  Entrance of Round Church in Campo della Maddalena (NOTE: The nearest vaporetto stops are Ca'D'Oro and San Marcuola. Both of them 5 minutes away from the meeting point.)

• Pickup Time: 11.30 AM,5.30 PM
• Drop off location:

  Rialto Bridge

Additional information :

• Voucher exchange details:

  Please present your voucher to the local guide at the beginning of the tour.

• Confirmation of booking:

  Please contact Venice Urban Adventures to confirm your tour 24 hours prior to departure.

• Additional information:

  Change of itinerary according to opening times of bars and restaurants during the way and also how crowded they are. Pretty much will be almost the same itinerary, but changing the places where to go for a drink. (also historical places just two doors down the regular place)

• Dress standard:

  No standard dress required

• Child policy:

  Children must be 6 years of age to 11 years inclusively. Children below the age of 6 are not permitted on this tour.

• Language: English

Itinerary:

Join us for the perfect Venice evening. Embark on a delicious adventure with this three-hour Venice tour that takes in its most famous Bacari wine bars and their famous cicchetti dishes. Start off from Campo de la Maddalena, a small raised square that is unchanged since medieval times, and is famous for its modest houses topped with interesting chimneys. Call into the old historical bar, a much loved bar that specialises in cicchetti, for your first taste of these Venetian-style tapas.

 

The best things to do in Venice often revolve around food. On this Venice tour, you will try some of the city’s famous specialties, from plates of olives to marinated seafood served on wedges of soft polenta. This atmospheric bar has a long history, and used to be an old charcoal store, so learn about the city as you feast on some of its specialties.

 

With your local Venice guide, we continue on, walking into Strada Nuova, and calling into another old historical bar, or the widow’s place, which has been open since the 18th century and is famous for its polpette, spicy fried meatballs. Head to Campo de Santa Sofia and jump on an iconic Venice gondola to cross Canal Grande into the Rialto area.

 

Pay a visit to a true local Venice attraction - the local market, before heading to the Bar in the centre of Venice, a hole-in-the-wall place that serves a simple but delicious selection of cicchetti and great regional Italian wines and proseccos. Stop by a couple of other nearby bars to try a few more specialties and to finish up this Venice food tour through the city.

 

This Venice tour then comes to an end on the steps of the Rialto Bridge, where you can head back to one of your new favourite bars, or easily make your way to any other part of the city.

Photo Gallery:

Traveller Feedback:

Mr. Jeffrey S.
USA ~ 13 May 2013[back to top]

Cecilia was fantastic! We ate, laughed, got some history, and learned some tricks on how to easily get around Venice. Her tour helped show us a slice of the city that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Afterwards she suggested some restaurants and places to check out that did not disappoint. In addition to her knowledge of Venice her personality really made us feel very comfortable. She was very patient, kept the pace of the tour going with her enthusiasm, and even taught us some key phrases to help us get around in Italy. I will be recommending it to everyone I know who goes to Venice!

 

Mr. James T.
Australia ~ 09 May 2013[back to top]

Exceeded my expectations. Thank you Cecilia for a really fun and informative tour! We've been to Venice before but thanks to you we now have a new appreciation of this multi-faceted city.

 

Ms. Anne O.
United Kingdom ~ 07 May 2013[back to top]

A perfect way to get in to the real Venice behind the obvious tourist places. Great company, food and wine.

 

Mrs. Donna S.
USA ~ 25 Apr 2013[back to top]

We loved our Cichetti tour with Cecilia! We found some great, local places that were suprisingly close to our B&B. We were able to re-visit some of them before we left Venice. Cecilia was very upbeat and made the tour so much fun.

 

Mrs. Daphne P.
Cyprus ~ 16 Apr 2013[back to top]

Loved every minute of it! Fantastic guide, excellent introduction to Venice, its people, its culture. Highly recommended.

 

Mr. Lee T.
Australia ~ 13 Apr 2013[back to top]

Cecilia was brilliant...warm, funny, knowledgable and passionate! She taught us the culture and some important Italian words that would gain us respect from the locals. A bit of effort surely goes a long way as we have noticed when we try to speak basic italian, it really brings a smile to their face. Very personalised experience with lots to drink! great job and highly recommend this tour

 

Mrs. Amy W.
USA ~ 02 Apr 2013[back to top]

Cecilia was a great hostess to the city - not only did she have lots of information about the places we went on our tour, but she also gave further personal recommendations for the rest of our time in Venice, based on where we were staying.

 

Mr. Norman B.
United Kingdom ~ 27 Mar 2013[back to top]

We will highly recommend it!

 

Mrs. Emma M.
United Kingdom ~ 25 Mar 2013[back to top]

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour - our guide, Cecilia was excellent and we had a lot of fun!

 

Mrs. Linda M.
United Kingdom ~ 17 Mar 2013[back to top]

the guides' enthusiasm and professionalism was excellent.

 

Mr. Chris B.
United Kingdom ~ 16 Mar 2013[back to top]

I am so glad that we booked the Venice Urban Adventures tour on our first visit to the city. Cecilia is an absolutely amazing tour guide, we could not recommend her enough. During the tour Cecilia introduced us to a selection of delicious wines and cicchetti in locations we would never have discovered if we had not done the tour. The places which Cecilia focused on were within a stone's throw of major tourist destinations (i.e. Strada Nuovo and Rialto bridge) but once you entered these places you were made to feel like you were in an undisconvered gem in the middle of the Italian countryside.
Cecilia's passion for Venice, its reputation, its food and drink and its well-being really comes through and she single-handedly changed my opinion of the city; after the tour I decided that I would like to come back to the city and explore the city in more depth whilst staying in one of the quieter neighbourhoods of the city.
The tour itself lasted around 3 hours, only about 15 mins of the tour was spent walkiing whilst the rest was spent inside gorgeous osterias, restaurants or ciccheti places. Cecilia's exuberance, knowledge and charm made the 3 hours whizz by and after the copious amounts of delicious wine and food we came away from the tour feeling like we owed her much more than what we had paid for the tour and given her in tips.

To top this off Cecilia found out on the day that we were visiting Venice to celebrate my mother's 60th birthday and she was evidently watching my mother's reactions to all the wines she tried. Just before the tour ended Cecilia presented my mother with a bottle of the wine that she had enjoyed the most during the tour which Cecelia had paid for out of her own pocket. My mother and all of us were so touched by this gesture.

If you only have time to fit one thing into your inventory in Venice I implore you to do this. I think those people that gave this 4* may be a bit crazy; i would give this a 6th star if I could.

 

Ms. Michele K.
USA ~ 06 Mar 2013[back to top]

Do not miss this adventure! I'd highly recommend taking it the first night you're in Venice so you can enjoy on subsequent nights some of the cichetti bars you're introduced to on the tour. The food was fresh, interesting flavors, delicious! We sampled a number of different, unique wines and prosecco (including a surprisingly wonderful fizzy RED wine!). Our guide, Cecelia, was lively and informative. We had so much fun on this trip! I'd do it again.

 

Mrs. Rebecca B.
United Kingdom ~ 30 Nov 2012[back to top]

The wonderful Cecelia gave us an insiders guide to Venice that we would not have otherwise had. It was a great way to spend an evening escaping the tourist hubs. Hight reccommended!

 

Mrs. Lisa H.
United Kingdom ~ 27 Nov 2012[back to top]

We did this tour with Julia on Friday 23 Nov 2012. A great group of mixed nationalities; English, German and American. Really enjoyed each bar, each was different and had a great selection of Cicchetti. Julia was really friendly, knowledgeable and happy to answer all our questions; however bizarre! We learnt alot of details about Venice that the usual tours would not have given us. Would highly recommend this tour, it's a great way to see the real Venice and meet new people. As we were having such a good time, our little group decided to stay together after the tour had ended and we returned to one of the previous bars! - Highly Recommended and a big thank you to Julie for a great experience.

 

Mr. Arthur W.
~ 15 Nov 2012[back to top]

The first night we were in Venice we did the cicchetti tour with Julia. She was smart, funny and took us to five different places serving excellent red and white wines and melt-in-your-mouth cicchettis - Italy's version of tapas. We also visited neighborhoods and bars frequented by locals. She shared tons of history and interesting anecdotes about the city and its people. Truly recommend this tour - it changed our whole perspective of Venice.

 

Mrs. Annabel T.
United Kingdom ~ 12 Nov 2012[back to top]

We had the most wonderful time. Lots of wine, local food and information that we wouldn't have known about unless we were locals in Venice. Highly recommend it to any first timers as well as to regular visitors. The guide (Cicilia) was very knowledgeable and extremely friendly. Thank you for a wonderful experience. We will definitely book again!

 

Mrs. Kathleen T.
~ 21 Oct 2012[back to top]

A good value for the price charged. Small group. YEY!

 

Mr. Andy W.
United Kingdom ~ 21 Oct 2012[back to top]

We've been on several tours in the past and I can whole heartedly say this was the best by far. Ceclilia really opend our eyes into how the Venetians eat and drink and we visted many of her suggested sites after the tour for the two days we were in Venice! We actually bumped into her again in one of the bars where she was conducting another tour and she took the time to come over for a chat! Highly recommended!

 

Ms. Patricia E.
USA ~ 21 Oct 2012[back to top]

I booked the cicchetti tour based on reviews and was not disappointed. I decided to do this my first night in Venice as an intro to the other Venice and to learn about this casual style of eating and enjoying the tastes of Venice. Cecilia is an exceptional guide who knows how to get you into the spirit of Venice and feel part of a night out on the town, even though I was by myself. Her explanations were informative, especially about the types of wines and cicchetti bars and her tips about areas to go for a slice of Venetian life were every helpful. Her enthusiasm was contagious and we were all enjoying the our cicchetti and ombra and hated to say "Buona Notte". I highly recommend this to get acquainted with Venice and I especially recommend it to single travelers as a way to enjoy a great night out and meeting other like travelers.

 

Mrs. paula p.
USA ~ 20 Oct 2012[back to top]

Cecelia provided a fun, informative three hour tour.

 

Mr. Paul M.
United Kingdom ~ 18 Oct 2012[back to top]

This is a must do tour, giving you the opportunity to explore Venice as the locals see it. You get to sample some fab taverns and local wines/foods.

 

Mr. Peter C.
United Kingdom ~ 14 Oct 2012[back to top]

Excellent tour, great fun and a superb guide.

 

Mr. Brian A.
United Kingdom ~ 10 Oct 2012[back to top]

This was a superb experience. Our guide was professional but friendly and informative. The wine and food we tasted were excellent. No small measures on the drinks!! We felt we had seen the 'real' Venice, where local people spend their eating/drinking time. Certainly not on the tourist trail. Highly recommend .

 

Mr. Clive M.
United Kingdom ~ 10 Oct 2012[back to top]

Cecelia was fantastic. She gave us a great insight to our 3 day break in Venice. I think the tour should be mandatory for every first time visitor to Venice. Having said that we could easily have done the tour every day. Shall certainly do it again on our next trip. We visited the places she recommended and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Mille grazie !

 

Ms. Jan M.
Australia ~ 08 Oct 2012[back to top]

Cecilia was outstanding and completely changed the remainder of our time in Venice. We began as tourists and became travellers who just loved local culture and traditions. Our cicchetti tour is a standout on our 3months in Europe. Thank you so much Cecilia. I hated Venice the last time I was there, and ended up loving it this time!!

 

Mr. Alan B.
~ 06 Oct 2012[back to top]

Cecilia ,our guide was BRILLIANT !! Fun ,keen and really knew her stuff.She was so good, we changed our next two days in Venice to our own urban adventures, with her help , and had the best time getting lost and drinking wine and eating great local food . Must do trip in Venice . Thank you

 

Your trip:

For your Urban Adventure you will be in a small group of a maximum of 12 people.

Tipping:

If you are happy with the services provided by your local guides and drivers a tip - though not compulsory - is appropriate. While it may not be customary to you, it is of great significance to the people who will take care of you during your travels, inspires excellent service, and is an entrenched feature of the tourism industry across many Intrepid Urban Adventures destinations. Please consider this when budgeting for your extra expenses on this tour.