• Discover a ‘hidden’ Venice

• Private visits include a remarkable baroque palace not open to the public

• A morning spent on the Island of Torcello

• Private visit to St Mark’s Basilica after hours at night

• Gently paced visit to include a vaporetto pass and several private boat transfers

• 4* Hotel overlooks the Grand Canal mid-way between the Accademia & Rialto Bridges

For the British connoisseur, the image and cultural memory of Venice is perhaps best remembered through eighteenth-century view paintings created by a constellation of remarkable Venetian painters who recorded the city in dazzling detail from its grand public spectacles to the remote corners of the campo, calle, the fondamenta and the everyday. The first English travellers began to charter its waters and appreciate its splendours early in the reign of the Stuarts. Diplomats from Sir Henty Wooton, James I’s ambassador to the city, to Consul Joseph Smith in the eighteenth century were all hypnotized by Venice’s idyllic waters and the possibilities of trade and patronage.          

No figure sums up these possibilities more than Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. Lord Arundel travelling with both his wife, Lady Arundel, and the architect Inigo Jones, spent many months in the city and the Venetian countryside opening English eyes to an appreciation of Venetian painting and the Vitruvian approach to architecture through the works of Andrea Palladio. The stately and the splendid would soon be adapted to British tastes back home.

Our visit follows in their footsteps and will appeal both to the novice and to travellers who, though they may know Venice, would like to discover a Venice hidden from the casual visitor and at an unhurried pace.  To this end, we have arranged a wonderful series of visits, many offering exclusive and private access to places you may not have seen before. Curious architectural conceits, small votive churches, smaller though no less interesting galleries, the palaces of the nobility and the grand painted and mosaic schemes of Venice’s greatest interiors are all aspects of the city open to the connoisseur.

Day 1: Monday 8 March – We fly from Heathrow to Venice, arriving in the afternoon. We then transfer by private water taxi to the 4*superior Hotel Palazzo Barocci. We have our first group dinner in an excellent local restaurant - wine, water and coffee are included with our group lunch and dinners.

Day 2: Tuesday 9 March – We spend today on the island of Torcello, usually neglected by most visitors, put off perhaps by the logistical challenge of getting there. This need not deter us as we travel there and back by private motor launch. Jan Morris memorably described Torcello as existing in “a positive ecstasy of melancholia” and it is indeed a world away from the hustle and bustle of Venice. There are a unassuming houses, the small church of Santa Fosca and above all, the Cathedral. Here we find some marvellous mosaics – a gentle Madonna, a not so gentle Last Judgement and much else. We then return to Venice and Cannaregio for a group lunch. The remainder of the afternoon will be free. Later in the evening, we shall stand in St Mark’s Square and take in this remarkable space before entering privately into the Basilica of San Marco, the most remarkable of Venetian churches. Originally built as the private chapel of the Doges, it has been enriched with the finest medieval mosaics in Italy, together with many other treasures including the astonishing Pala d’Oro (the Golden Altar). We shall visit at night when it will be closed to the public. And at night is how the great Byzantine mosaics, specially lit for us, can be best appreciated – a memorable end to our first day. The remainder of the evening will be free. 

Day 3: Wednesday 10 March – We begin with a unique architectural conceit, the small fifteenth century Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, famed for its remarkable staircase and loggia. We continue to visit the church of San Salvatore with its marvellous sacristy and take in the Santa Maria dei Miracoli, a triumph of the Venetian Renaissance by Pietro Lombardo. After a coffee break, we continue to visit privately Ca’ Venier, a unique survivor of the eighteenth-century and one of the few private gambling clubs who stucco decoration is largely untouched since the hedonistic days of the ‘Grand Tour’ period. Following a group lunch, we end our day at Palazzo Querini Stampaglia, given to the city in 1869 by Count Giovanni Querini. It houses that great rarity, an intact collection from an ancient noble Venetian family, still in its splendid original home. The evening will be free.

Day 4: Thursday 11 March – This morning will be devoted to those two giants of late sixteenth century Venice, Palladio and Veronese. Palladio worked in Venice in his later career, designing two magnificent churches, San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore on Giudecca both of which we shall visit. For the monks of San Giorgio, he also designed the adjacent monastery, now the Cini Foundation, which we shall visit privately. Our final visit of the morning will be devoted to a true gem, the little-known church of San Sebastiano. The wonderful sixteenth century painter Veronese was, indeed is, much loved by the English, inspiring none other than Inigo Jones and London’s Banqueting House ceiling in Whitehall. After many years of restoration, his wonderful cycle of paintings are once again on view. After lunch, not included, you will then be free for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Day 5: Friday 12 March –We travel up the Grand Canal to visit the Accademia Art Gallery. This famous collection of Venetian pictures and sculptures has been rethought in recent years, and we shall see the results, with the Bellini family, Giorgione, Titian and Tintoretto as well as the great view painters of the eighteenth century well-represented. After a coffee break, we continue to San Pantalon, not at the forefront of most visitors’ itineraries and more fool them! An unremarkable, indeed unfinished, brick façade hides an interior which has probably the most extraordinary trompe l’oeil ceiling in the city, painted by the sadly unknown Gian Antonio Fumiani. After lunch, not included today, we continue to Ca’ Rezzonico, one of the city’s finest eighteenth century palaces, now a museum with wonderful eighteenth-century paintings and decorative arts. Later on, our second group dinner takes place in a charming restaurant close to La Fenice Opera House.   

Day 6: Saturday 13 March – On our final morning, we engage with the most lavishly decorated of Venice’s ‘scuole’ – the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. San Rocco was the patron saint of plague victims and the confraternity dedicated to his cult was not only important but also very rich. Tintoretto, a member, completed the decoration of the entire building in 1588, an astonishing mannerist tableau. After a coffee break, we shall be received privately in Palazzo Albrizzi close to the Rialto Bridge, which contains what must be the most ravishingly stuccoed interiors in Venice, complete with that rare entity in Venice: a garden. There will be some free time for lunch (not included) after which we continue to Venice Airport by private water taxi for our return flight to London.

Price £3070 Without flights £2895 Deposit £450  Single Supplement £475 (Double/Twin Room for Sole Use)

Hotel 5 nights with breakfast in the 4* superior Hotel Palazzo Barocci. Premier Room/side Canal view supplement: £395 per couple, Premier room DSU supplement: £450. Junior Suite with Canal view supplement: £1295 per couple

Flights British Airways

            Outward:          BA596 Departs London Heathrow (Terminal 5) 1340 arrive Venice 1655

            Return:             BA597 Departs Venice 1805 arrive London Heathrow (Terminal 5) 1925

Price includes 2 dinners & 2 lunches with wine, water & coffee, all local private boat airport transfers and to Torcello, City Tax, 3-day Vaporetto pass, entry fees & gratuities, services of Tom Abbott and James Hill

Not included Travel to/from Heathrow, 3 dinners & 3 lunches

Please note our tours generally involve a significant amount of standing and walking, sometimes across uneven ground, or over cobbled streets, or up and down steps and inclines. We do not have an upper age limit for participants, but we require you to have a level of fitness which does not affect other participants' enjoyment of the tour. Please also note that many palaces, gardens, villas, museums and galleries have limited seating and perhaps do not have lifts. You should be able to walk at a reasonable pace and/or stand for at least twenty minutes without aid or requiring a rest. If you are in any doubt, please do contact us for advice on the tour’s suitability for you.