The guided tour of the city of Venice will accompany you to discover the places and the history of one of the most beautiful cities of the world, elected Unesco heritage along with its own lagoon, in 1987.

Formed in the fifth century on the area of settlements of the Roman region “Venetia et Histria“, where the people of the hinterland sought shelter from the barbarian invasions, Venice succeeded in becoming progressively more independent from the Byzantine Empire, to form the Republic of Venice, whose glorious history will be interrupted only by the conquest of Napoleon in 1797.

Already a great maritime power to be deserved, together with Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi, the designation of the Maritime Republic, thanks to the control of trade with the East, Venice got considerably rich and started a policy of expansion that led to extend from territories of the mainland of Lombardy and Veneto-Venetian were for example the cities of Bergamo, Brescia, Verona, Padua – up to the islands and coasts of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean Sea.

The richness attained by the so-called Serenissima and the trade and cultural exchanges with the East favoured an extraordinary development of the arts that reached one of the highest moments during the 5th and 6th century thanks to the presence in the city of artists such as Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Tiziano, Tintoretto and Veronese.

The itinerary will start from two symbolic monuments of the city: the Basilica of San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale.

After admiring the splendid marble façade, we will be dazzled by the mosaics lining the walls of the basilica for more than 8000 square meters, offering an exemplary testimony of Christian iconography and the evolution of languages and artistic tendencies that marked the history of the city and the basilica, with the contribution of Greco-Byzantine workers and the work of local artists.

The visit to the Palazzo Ducale in Venice will allow us to search the majestic building, once the Doge’s seat and the heart of the political and administrative life of the Serenissima.

The elegant Gothic forms of the fourteenth-century palace here dialogue with the interventions of the following century, such as the Door of the Paper and the Scale of the Giants, which was the place of coronation of the Doges, later consecrated by the paintings of Canaletto, and Francesco Hayez.

In addition to the individual paintings today preserved in the churches of Venice and museums around the world, Tintoretto’s art found a fundamental occasion of manifestation in the works carried out for the Schools, the name with which the confraternities of laymen were designated in Venice, who gathered in the name of Christ, the Virgin or a patron Saint with the purpose of worship and mutual aid.

The bourgeois extraction of the members of the Schools and the consequent conspicuous economic availability favoured the artistic commissions, aimed at instructing the most important artists of the time to decorate the seats of the confraternities, also indicated as Schools.

In addition to having worked for the School of St. Marco, whose paintings today are divided between the galleries of the Academy of Venice and the Pinacoteca of Brera in Milan, Tintoretto was the main author of the decoration of the School of St. Rocco, to which a specific visit will be dedicated and where practical mirrors will help us in the vision of awesome ceilings.

The visit will conclude with the nearby Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, a veritable jewel of pictorial masterpieces such as the Assumption and the Pala Pesaro by Tiziano and the so-called Triptych of Frari by Giovanni Bellini, as well as valuable sculptural monuments; among them are the Monument to Tiziano and the Monument to Canova, next to those dedicated to some doges.

The itinerary along the monuments visited will offer the opportunity to admire the most famous views of the city such as the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge and to discover at the same time the most hidden corners that open unexpectedly between rios and fields (the squares of Venice).

A journey that will deepen the knowledge of the symbolic places of the city and discover the lesser known treasures, revealing the past and present charm of a city that, once left, you have the desire to return to visit.

What is included

• Frecciarossa train transportaton (Milan – Venice A/R) as per itinerary
• overnight stay (1 night) in a 4-star hotel with breakfast in double room. Single room supplement: €93
• tourist tax
• entrance fee to all sites as per itinerary (St. Marco, Scuola Grande of St. Rocco, Church of Frari)
• guided tours as scheduled (St. Marco, center of Venice, Scuola Grande of St. Rocco, Church of Frari)
• train station/hotel travel tickets by boat
• headsets during the sightseeing tours

What is not included

• Transport to reach the meeting point
• Food and beverage ( if not indicated in the program )
• Tips (optional)
• Personal Extras

To be remembered

• Cancel up to 60 days for a full refund
• 50% refund between 59 and 30 days before the start of the tour
• No refund within 30 days before the start of the tour

The experiences on scheduled dates are in partnership with MILANOGUIDA.

For information and guided tours

Mail duomoviaggi@duomoviaggi.it

Via S.Antonio, 5 MILANO Italy

See general sales conditions here.