Venice-Along The Grand Canal To Saint Mark's Square™

Tie on your aprons and join us in a hands-on cooking experience and cultural program – including a Food and Shopping Tour in Venice – often called Serenissima!!!

Join us in Venice for food, wine, and hands-on cooking classes in our Renaissance Women Tour.  Sail on a gondola, stroll along the majestic Piazza San Marco, and visit the Rialto Market.  Venice’s beauty is magical and its food is exquisite.  You’ll discover Renaissance Venice in a week filled with cooking, touring, and a boat excursion to an artisan glassblowing workshop on the island of Murano.

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

Venice is a dreamy destination where food and culture blend – gondolas glide along narrow canals, festive Carnival masks are displayed everywhere, and the local cuisine wows.  Venice’s cuisine blends centuries and centuries of culture past.  During your stay, visit the Rialto Market which dates back to the 9th century, and see the local vendors who sell their daily catch of fish, farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, artisan cheese, herbs, bread, and wine.  Vendors display their produce and products with passion and pride.  Also during your stay, learn about Venetian art, literature, and opera – and the great artists, writers, and composers who were inspired by its beauty while living here.  Our English-speaking guide welcomes you and shares stories and facts on this beautiful city.  Get ready to cook, explore, and fall in love with bella Venice.

Venetian Cooking Classes

Our hands-on cooking classes are led by Chefs Enzo and Vittorio who will teach how to transform seasonal ingredients into Venetian full-course lunches and dinners. You will learn the traditions and techniques using farm-to-table products and produce from the Rialto Market – think fresh fish, meat, herbs, and fruits and vegetables.  Hands-on cooking classes include preparing antipasto, fresh pasta and sauces, risotto, main courses, and desserts.  Learn to make peperonata, a local antipasto with red pepper, capers, olives, creamy risotto, and sea bass with artichokes.  Discover the art of Venetian dessert-making including delicious Zanetti and Bussole, biscotti.  Tie on your apron for a splendid cooking experience with Chef Enzo and Vittorio in their Venetian kitchen!

Venice’s Menus

Cooking Class menus vary by season, a sampler includes:

Seafood Menu

Seasonal vegetables sautéed and served with sea salt, herbs, and olive oil
Risotto with shrimp and artichokes
Fresh sea bass encrusted in a bed of sea salt and slow-baked

Venetian Tiramisu’

Meat-Based Menu

Venetian flan finished with a creamy cheese sauce
Risotto with mushrooms served with homemade sausage
Tenderloin encrusted with herbs
Creamy warm custard drizzled with Marsala wine and served with Baicoli biscotti

Fresh Pasta Menu

Venetian pasta served in a light tomato sauce with Parmesan cheese
Potato gnocchi with a duck sauce ragù

Fresh hand-made ravioli stuffed with fresh spinach, Ricotta,
Mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, and sautéed in sage butter
Mixed seasonal salad with fresh fruit, walnuts & extra virgin olive oil
Fresh fruit bavaroise

Menus vary using the highest quality ingredients available at the Rialto Market.

Venice Accommodations

Check into the beautiful 4-Star property in the most desirable area of Venice.  The property dates back to the 17th century and has been updated and refurbished keeping its old-world charm while offering many amenities.  Nestled on a quiet waterway just off the Grand Canal, is a short walk from the Accademia Bridge and vaporetto stop.  Rooms are large, lovely, and furnished with comfortable beds adorned with Italian linens.  Decorated in luxurious Venetian style, the property has antique accents with modern comforts:  air conditioning, a mini bar, international TV, a private ensuite bath, and in-room wireless internet.  A friendly and professional staff is at your service and ready to answer any questions and help you during your stay. An expansive daily breakfast with Venetian cakes, biscotti, fresh fruit, eggs, artisan bread, yogurt, ham, cheese, cappuccino, tea and fresh fruit juices, espresso, and cappuccino is served in the elegant breakfast room overlooking the garden and waterway.  Following breakfast, step outside and stroll along the canal where artisan shops, bookshops, wine bars, and museums are conveniently located.  The 4-star property is set in one of the most beautiful areas of Venice.

Click for Property Photo Gallery

Rialto Market

Venice’s famous Rialto Market is a bustling place starting at dawn.  Venders sail from their barges, unload their products, and set up their areas for a colorful scene of buyers, sellers, and spectators negotiating their between produce piled high on display.  Locals and chefs come daily and shop for high-quality ingredients while visitors come to learn about its history.  This outdoor marketplace dates back to the 9th century and continues with the same generation of family merchants selling their produce and goods.  The endless stalls of fish – Venice is famous for fish and shellfish – along with farm-to-table fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices is an experience for the food lover!!!

The Campo Margherita

The Campo Margherita is a vibrant and welcoming place and the heart of the Dorsoduro district.  The Campo takes its name from the Church of Saint Margherita, dating back to the 9th century.  Surrounded by ancient buildings, today it is home to caffés, bookshops, wine bars, and artisan shops. The Campo wakes each morning with an outdoor market where locals vie for the best flower, fish, vegetable, and fruit vendors.

The Accademia Museum

The Accademia is home to a collection of Venetian paintings from Veneto, as well as from the Byzantine and Gothic 14th centuries.  There is a beautiful collection of Renaissance art from Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Veronese, Tintoretto, and Tiziano to Gianbattista Tiepolo and Vedutisti.  A must on every guest’s visit!!!

Murano – Glassmaking and Burano – Lacemaking

Murano, the closest island to the mainland of Venice, is the most famous of the Venetian Islands and is noted for its artisan hand-blown glass. Venetians have been making crystal and glass here since the 10th Century – when the merchants of Venice brought back the secrets of glass production from the East. Murano is home to several famous glass producers who carry on the tradition of making Murano glass chandeliers, vases, and glasses.  The island of Burano, the most picturesque of Venetian Islands, is known for its famous artisan lace makers.  Small shops where Venetian women still produce this precious lace line the canal.  It’s a magical island that is also noted for its brightly painted houses built on the lagoon.  Take time for lunch in any one of the quaint trattorias.

Itinerary ~ 7 days, 6 nights

Day 1: Arrival & Welcome Dinner

• Arrival and transfer from the Venice Train station or airport with your captain for a water taxi transfer to the hotel.  Check in, relax, and enjoy your welcome Prosecco.
• Later in the evening, enjoy your Welcome Dinner featuring a Chef’s Tasting with an antipasto, pasta and sauce, main course, and dessert.

Day 2: Cooking Class 1 ~ Venetian Food and Shopping Tour

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet your chefs in the kitchen for your hands-on cooking class 1.  Tie on your apron and get ready for a morning of slicing, dicing, and preparing an authentic Venetian lunch. The cooking class includes an antipasto, pasta, main course, and dessert.  Lunch follows and includes the foods that were prepared in the class. Wine and water included.
• In the afternoon, meet your English-speaking guide and visit the Campo Santa Margherita.  Discover the best secret addresses in this exclusive area of Venice brimming with boutiques, art galleries, and trattorias.
• During the tour, everyone will enjoy Tea Time followed by a visit to the famous 18th Century caffé serving hand-made pastries, biscotti, and gelato.
• Evening free and dinner on your own with suggestions provided.

Day 3: Rialto Market Tour & Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet our Chef for a tour of the Rialto Market.  The Rialto Market is a historic place where vendors have been selling fruits, vegetables, fish, artisan cheese, wine, and bread since the 9th century.  Learn about the local cuisine as you discover the market’s history and products.  After the market visit, head into the kitchen for your hands-on cooking class 2 preparing an antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce or risotto, main course, and dessert.  Following the cooking class, everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in the cooking class with wine and water included.
• Later afternoon, explore on your own or relax by the hotel in any one of the local caffes or wine bars.
• Evening free and dinner on your own with suggestions provided.

Day 4: Cooking Class 3

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet your chefs in the kitchen for your hands-on cooking class 3.  Tie on your apron and get ready to prepare an antipasto, pasta and sauce, main course, and dessert.  Lunch follows and includes the foods that were prepared in the cooking class with wine and water included.
• The afternoon is free to explore Venice on your own – take a gondola ride along the Grand Canal, or visit La Fenice, and Harry’s Bar for a Bellini.
• Evening free and dinner on your own with suggestions provided.
  

  Day 5:  Sail To Murano – Artisan Glassblowing and Burano – Artisan Lacemaking

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet your boat captain for a boat tour to the island of Murano.  Discover the ancient art of glassblowing shown by generations of Venetian glass artisans.  The artisans transform glass into beautiful chandeliers, vases, glasses, and jewelery.  Our host, who comes from a family of Venetian glass merchants, leads you through the studio and then to the shop.   Learn the art of glass blowing and see the masters turn glass into art.  This tour includes a tour of the workshop and a demonstration of glass making.   After your tour, take time to stroll the main waterway, sip a caffè, and shop for artisan creations of Murano glass.  The tour ends here, and guests can decide to stay in Murano for lunch and then shop, continue to Burano – known for handmade lace or Torcello – a small island known where Hemingway lived, or return to Venice on your own aboard the public vaporetto, water bus.  If you would like to extend your tour to Burano and or Torcello, we will provide pricing for your group.
• Following your visit to Murano, return to the hotel.
• Evening free and dinner on your own with suggestions provided.

Day 6: Bacaro & Cicchetti Tour With Wine & Food Tastings

• Breakfast is served. Morning is free to relax.
• In the afternoon, meet your guide for your Bacaro Tour, a 3-hour walking tour through Venice with stops in the most historical bacari, Venetian wine bars, where cicchetti, small bites, and ombra, wine, are served,  Enjoy the Venetian aperitivo with small food tastings while learning about this ancient tradition.
• Later afternoon, enjoy any one of the museums or sip a vino at any one of the local wine bars.
• Evening free and dinner on your own with suggestions provided.

Day 7: Departure

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet your captain and transfer to the Venice train station or airport.
• Ciao – Arrivederci!