Join Sara and Daneila, our English-speaking art historian guides, for Art Lover’s tours in Venice. Our selection of highly specialised cultural tours highlight food, art and special exhibits!  Our tours are small, private and really cater to the traveler who wants to soak up the culture and lifestyle of Venice!

As featured in June 2012 – Click here to read more!

At The Guggenheim Museum, Venice

Peggy Guggenheim was dedicated to the advancement of 20th century art and the museum is housed in what was once her Venice home: an unfinished 18th-century palace on the Grand Canal called the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni. The Museum is primarily the personal collection of Peggy Guggenheim herself, including major works by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

This brand new gift from the Schulhof family includes eighty-three important works including paintings, sculptures and works on paper of Italian, European and American artists after 1945. Works by Afro, Alberto Burri, Anthony Caro, Jean Dubuffet, Ellsworth Kelly, Anselm Kiefer, Mark Rothko, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol and more will reside permanently in Venice, and extend the museum heritage to the 1970s and even 1980s.

This tour includes three hours with an art historian English-speaking guide.

Private Boat Tour To Murano & Burano – Glassblowing & Lacemaking

Meet your boat driver at your hotel for a private tour by water to Murano and Burano, the two islands in the Venetian lagoon.

The first stop is Murano, home to the most famous glassmakers in the world.  With your English-speaking guide, you will visit a historical glass making studio where this family has been working for centuries.  Cobalt blue, gold, rose and silver are hand-crafted together to produce Rezzonico chandeliers, Baroque-style goblets, and crystal gold-brushed glasses and chalices.  Watch the artisans transform glass into artful treasures before your eyes.

Following your tour to Murano, you continue with your guide and boat Captain to Burano.  Your tour continues to a beautiful lace studio where you will see Venetian lacemaking first hand.  Following the tour, take time out for lunch on your own.  Following your visit, return with your boat captain to your hotel.  The total tour is 5 hours with English-speaking guide.

Venice Writer, Poet & Literati Tour

The Venice Writer’s, Poets & Literati Walking Tour follows the footsteps of the great writers who once lived in Venice and wrote about this magical city. Your English-speaking guide will take you through canals and over footbridges while explaining the great writers and reading passages from their work, including Lord Byron, Marcel Proust, Henry James, Richard Wagner, Thomas Mann, and Ernest Hemingway. The Venice Writer’s, Poets & Literati Tour brings you to the places where the words themselves come to life. Pack your notebook and pen and soak up the stories, while learning about landmarks, monuments and the authors who made them come alive in their writings. 3 hour tour. Entrance fees to museums are not included.

Venetian Mask Workshop

Create & Design Your Own Venetian Mask

This incredible experience takes you into the workshop of a renowned Venetian mask-maker where you will create your very own mask. Learn how the artisan mask was born, the steps needed to create a mask, and the stories and myths behind the masks of Carnevale and Venetian commedie dell’arte.

Discover the traditional Venetian decoration and characters such as the classic Bauta, a simple full face mask, la Farfalla, the butterfly mask, la Dama, the woman, Pinocchio, Zanni, servants and Jolly, the joker. Paint and decorate your mask of choice with ribbons, feathers, crystals, beads and more. Make your own mass with watercolor, glitters, embroideries, feathers, with the guidance of our experienced mask maker. This experience is 2 hour including the mask making and art supplies.

Discover Dorsoduro To Zattere

The Hidden Venice Tour takes you into secret corners of the Dorsoduro district, Venice’s elegant Rive Gauche, for an insightful visit to one of Venice’s oldest neighborhoods. The 2 hour tour with English-speaking guide starts at the Campo Santa Margherita to San Nicolò dei Mendicoli. The tour continue to the Renaissance church of San Sebastiano – one of the saints invoked to save the sick during the Black Plague – masterly decorated with frescoes and canvases by Paolo Veronese, who lies buried here. Then it is on to San Trovaso, one of the last gondola yards, before the tour ends at the Zattere, the sunny promenade along the Giudecca Canal.

Cannaregio District Jewish Venice Tour

Cannaregio, one of the six sestieri (neighborhoods) of Venice, is even today an area inhabited by Venetians. On this tour, you will visit the open air market, the Jewish Ghetto, and the Gothic church of la Madonna dell’Orto that hosts powerful canvases by Tintoretto. Your English-speaking guide continues to Venice’s synagogues and Jewish Museum. Museum entrance tickets not included.

Venetian Museum Tour – Accademia, Ca’Rezzonico or Guggenheim

Enjoy an in-depth 3-hour guided tour to either the Galleria dell’Accademia, where the most important collection of Venetian paintings are held, dating from the 14th to 17th century, the Ca’ Rezzonico, dedicated to 18th century Venice in art, or the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, noted for European and American art of the first half of the 20th century – with works by Picasso, Braque, De Chirico and Kandinsky.

Venetian Glass Blowing Tour

Join us in an artisan glass-making tour on the romantic island of Murano. Sail to the island of Murano with Cooking Vacations for a fun and unique day of glass-blowing and artisan jewelry making with a family who has been making Venetian glass for centuries.

Each guest will have a unique experience with our master Murano glassmakers. Learn how to select the glass, blend colors and add threads of gold in the process. Learn the technique of layering colored liquid glass, cane working, filigree, engraving and submersion. Following the tour, you will be able to create your own glass piece using over 100 glass beads and pieces to create either a necklace, bracelet or mosaic, beads, supplies and final necklace or bracelet included in price.

Murano glass making, dating back to the 7^th century, includes using crystalline glass, smalto, and aventurine, with threads of gold, millefiori, multicolored and lattimo, mild glass. It is a serious art and today the Venetian artisans continue to create masterpieces of chandeliers, frames, jewel boxes and glasses for Prosecco and wine!

The tour is 2 hours and includes a pick up by boat at your meeting point, transfer to Murano, tour with the glass blower, and 30 minute glass making workshop.

2024 Dates: This program is available throughout the year and tours are available every day based on request. Rates are subject to change based on currency exchange. Call for updated rates. Airfare not included. Group transfers for any cooking tour or tours that include transfers, are for the group and are not private. Transfers before, after or to another destination outside of your cooking tour are not included in the program price. If you would like to add on a private transfer or transfers, let us know and we will send you pricing.