Venice Off the Beaten Path: private tour in Venice with a local

Posted By : H2541WZjoel
Our tour of St. Mark's Square, the Basilica, and the Doge's Palace with Lucia was outstanding! She was incredibly knowledgeable, personable, and engaging. We learned everything from the history of the Doges and the republic to Venetian superstitions. Her enthusiasm for Venice is infectious. She had our whole family, including three teenagers, fully engaged in the tour. We all agreed that our experience with Lucia was much better than being part of a large group tour with headsets and a guide with a flag. She was very generous with her time and also gave us great recommendations for restaurants and things to do in Venice. Highly recommended!!!
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Posted On : 2024-01-10 21:15:21

Posted By : Monica F
Lucia provided us with a fun afternoon strolling around Venice (Dorsoduro), showing and explaining to us all kinds of interesting things. Most importantly, she kept our two boys (ages 10 and 7) engaged with several fun games, facts, and stories that they could relate to (now they see lions everywhere!).
We had a great time and can highly recommend her as a guide. Patient, great with kids, and very knowledgeable, she clearly enjoys showing her city to visitors.
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Posted On : 2023-07-31 12:40:15

Posted By : Cabinteelyman
Lucia is one of the best tour guides we have met, she is organized, intelligent and fun. Her ‘off the beaten track’ tour took us away from the crowds to a quieter, but still fascinating part of Venice. Highly recommended.
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Posted On : 2023-06-05 06:01:56

Posted By : mgcNYNY
This was a GREAT morning tour. And a must- do even for those of us who’d been to Venice before. Lucia was knowledgeable, funny and 100% engaged in our enjoyment of her native city. She even arranged a surprise trip to the rooftop of the Tedeschi department store for a glorious view of the whole city. Our trip included an hour on a boat, exploring the canals and that was such a treat with an excellent water taxi driver. We really really enjoyed ourselves and cannot thank Lucia enough.
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Posted On : 2022-11-09 10:23:25

Posted By : MartaLearningEscapes
This was an absolutely briliant tour and a highlight of our family trip to Venice. We chose to do a private tour with Lucia and since I had my ten year old daughter with me, Lucia structured it as a scavenger hunt. It was a lot of fun but also very informative even for me who had already visited Venice several times. I highly recommend this tour for families witn kids of primary school age and tweens and Lucia as competent, kind and professional guide
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Posted On : 2022-11-08 09:25:59

Posted By : JBCx2
We had the easiest, most informative and special day touring Venice with Lucia. She is absolutely lovely and kind but also knows her city inside and out. Of course she took our family of 4 (2 teenage girls) to the characteristic must see spots, but she also explored hidden gems and kept everyone interested and happy for several hours.
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Posted On : 2022-08-25 08:40:17

Posted By : achillesbk
Lucia was an absolutely amazing tour guide! We have been traveling as a family for years and booking local private guides…Lucia tops the list! She was super knowledgeable, kept us engaged the entire time and was a pleasure to be with for the day! Such a wonderful experience overall! Highly, highly recommend Lucia!!
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Posted On : 2022-08-10 08:16:02

Posted By : 962nicholasg
Our family of six spent a half day with Lucia on a private cicchetti tour of Venice back in 2019. I won’t repeat what I wrote in my review then other than to say that both Lucia and the tour were simply unimprovable — THE unexpected highlight of a wide-ranging, high-end trip through Europe.

Fast forward three years and through lots of pandemic-rescheduled travel, we finally had a chance to get back to beautiful Venice and immediately booked Lucia for two private full-day tours. We let Lucia know that our main interests were (1) getting a real “drink” of hidden, off-the-beaten-path Venice, and (2) continuing our tour through Venice’s amazing food/wine/cocktail scene. We otherwise left ourselves entirely in her hands. Long story short, we once again had a tour and guide that surpassed every expectation. We spent hours touring and learning about unspeakably beautiful areas of Dorsoduro and Canareggio which were often literally empty except for Lucia, our family, and the inimitable city of Venice. We had amazing food and drink surrounded by happy locals, we visited (courtesy of Lucia’s friendship with everyone in Venice, I think) some closed/private locations I won’t detail here, and we spent two days with a guide whose knowledge, passion, kindness, humor, patience, discretion, and just plain old goodness/decency makes her feel to us like a forever family friend.

I’ll wrap up this review this way: think of the effort and expense required to thoughtfully plan and execute a family trip to a faraway place like Venice. Think realistically about the number of times you’ll actually make it there. And now trust me when I say that a guide like Lucia is like the catalyst — the unexpected secret ingredient — who makes each of those hours and dollars pay off the way you hoped and dreamed but almost never actually achieve. She is the best tour guide we’ve ever worked with anywhere period and we could not recommend her more highly. Do your life a favor and reach out to Lucia if you’re visiting Venice. You can thank me later!

:-)
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Posted On : 2022-08-05 09:45:43

Posted By : Jesusortega24
Thanks a bunch Lucia for the tour, it was a great experience and interesting stories, I really recommend this tour with her
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Posted On : 2022-02-18 15:42:46

Posted By : CaStellaLuxury
I had the chance to go on a tour including the details of the Scalzi church, the garden of the carmelite monks and then the Ca' Zenobbio with its huge garden and meadow. Lucia is a wonderful guide with a deep knowledge of and loveHer for Venice. Her English is excellent and Lucia is a lovely person.
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Posted On : 2021-06-30 13:45:30