Venice Food & Wine Tasting Tour

Free day to explore Venice! There is a regular boat service between your island and Saint Mark’s square (only 10 minutes), and this is a great place to start. Visit the stunning Doge’s Palace and Basilica. Hop into a Vaporetto and enjoy a cruise on the Grand Canal, lined with exquisite palaces such as the Fondaco dei Turchi (now the Natural History Museum), the Palazzo Sagredo and Ca’ Pesaro (now the Gallery of Modern Art and Oriental Museum).

If time permits and if you are an art lover, don’t miss the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. This superb art museum is home to over 50 priceless paintings by the Italian master, Tintoretto (who lived for over 20 years in Venice).

At 5 PM, rendezvous with your private chefs. First, you will enjoy an aperitif in a Venetian Bacaro. Venetians are Italy’s biggest cocktail drinkers, and there are hundreds of charming “Bacari” traditional Venetian bars. The Bellini is probably the most famous Venetian cocktail, invented at Harry’s Bar (Ernest Hemingway’s home away from home), made of Venetian Prosecco and fresh peach juice.

After your snack, your charming chef will lead you through the cobblestoned streets of Venice to a private palazzo, where you will enjoy a hands-on cooking class of Venetian specialties. After the class, you will sit down with your chefs and enjoy the meal you have helped prepare, along with excellent local wines.

From the colorful canal side market, you will carry on to a beautiful private palazzo for your last cooking lesson of the short break. But first, Francesca will delight you with a Wine Tasting of goodies from Friuli and the Veneto. Friuli is Francesca’s passion and you will taste something special and unique from this beautiful, mountainous region. The Veneto wine region is a vast area that includes the vineyards of Soave, Valpolicella, and Bardolino. Fresh, light whites are made in Soave, while reds such as Amarone (a rich, delicious “Passito” style red wine) are made in the Valpolicella sub-zones. Prosecco is made just near Venice, and you will enjoy an aperitif before lunch.

You will prepare a magical three-course lunch under the guidance of your friendly instructors, sipping wine as you cook, and you will then all sit down to enjoy it.

After your cooking class and lunch, you have one last treat today: a 2-hour gourmet walking tour of Venice (with an excellent guide), with an interesting explanation given on Venetian cuisine and the many influences from the west and east.

After the tour, the rest of the evening is on your own. For dinner, we recommend the typical Venetian wine bars, or for something more formal a dinner at the seafood restaurant Da Fiore. Enjoy!

Venice offers a lifetime of sightseeing, but if you only have a short amount of time, here is a quick orientation of the city. The main island is broken into different pedestrianized neighborhoods. These include San Marco, Dorsoduro, San Polo, Cannaregio (where Marco Polo was born), and Castello. Some particularly special places include the Basilica of San Marco, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Ca’ Pesaro, la Scuola Grande dei Carmini, the Peggy Guggenheim museum, and of course the “Accademia” (which houses the largest collection of Venetian art in existence).

Also very interesting is the “Ghetto”, the ancient Jewish quarter in Cannaregio. Finally, the islands of the lagoon are very charming. You can visit Murano and see how glass is blown, or see an ancient 7th-century church in Torcello. Venice will always delight and there are so many things to see and do. If you just feel like relaxing, then head to Harry’s Bar for a refreshing “Bellini”!