VENICE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS  –  Venice isn’t a small town, and, besides the universally famous sites, St Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge, there’s a whole historical center to explore.

Our guess is that you should plan to stay at least 4 or 5 days. If you wish to include some of the nearby towns, such as Padua, Vicenza, Verona, or some of the Palladian Villas, then you should stay an entire week! A good idea is to come back at different times of the year…

However, to make the best out of your little time in Venice, we’ve built up an itinerary, lasting 4 hours, covering all the ‘unmissable’ sites, allowing to savor the city both on foot and by boat, and giving you some insights of the everyday life of the city. Without forgetting to provide you with the fundamental historical facts and, if required, with tips about restaurants, shopping, more sightseeing and the like.

Venice at your fingertips  is a tour articulated in 4 steps – depending on our starting point and time we will customize it, spending our time wisely and always using all our experience to beat the crowds. Here are the 4 major stages in our tour:

1 – St Mark’s Square – political center of the Venetian Republic for 900 years (from the 9th to the end of the 18th century). Its buildings symbolize the power of Venice through the centuries and epitomize its cosmopolitan vocation. A panoramic survey of the Doges’ Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, the Marciana Library, the Bell Tower, the Procuratie, the Clock Tower will allow our guide to introduce Venetian history and civilization.

More attention will be given to St Mark’s Basilica, that we shall enter (April through October using our priority access) for a brief visit. This unique architecture, with its more than 900 years the oldest building in Venice, tells about the Byzantine heritage of Venice, and helps the visitor to understand which were the ideals of beauty in Medieval Venice. Its golden mosaics and magnificent polychrome marbles will hit your imagination!

2 – As a second step in our journey we’ll then board a private water-taxi to view parts of the Grand Canal, the most beautiful waterway, and to sneak into the maze of minor canals. The facades of the noble houses, with their variety of styles and colors, the hidden gardens, the lively traffic of gondolas and other boats will thrill you! Last part of the ride will be a 10 minutes’ ride in the Lagoon, heading north to the island of Murano.