Your LivTours’ Private Venice Highlights & Murano Glass Tour starts from Campo San Giacometto, a small square near the Rialto Bridge, where you will meet your guide and start your private walking tour through the heart of Venice. For centuries, this market has been a bustling shopping area where locals come to shop at markets to buy fresh vegetables and fish.
Just around the corner, you will find the picturesque and famous Ponte Rialto. Its design is not the only thing unique about it, your private local guide will share an interesting story with you. Take a moment to enjoy the magnificent view from the bridge’s highest point and take some memorable photos of postcard-like views.
Your guide will lead you through the maze of Venice’s narrow streets, over romantic bridges while making plenty of stops at important and engaging places such as: Campo San Bartolomeo, Church of San Giovanni, Campo Santi Giovanni and Campo Santa Maria Formosa. When you reach the elegant and expansive Saint Mark’s square, the amazing view of the basilica, the square and the bell tower come into focus and you will understand why this is the heart of Venice. Enjoying privileged access, you will enter the Doge’s Palace without standing in the (usually) long line.
This beautiful building set on the edge of the Grand Canal is home to some of the most ornately decorated rooms adorned with artistic masterpieces, and has been home to 120 Doges – powerful local rulers of Venice. In addition to the beautiful rooms, you will also explore the Doge’s prison, were your LivTours guide will take you over the Bridge of Sighs to explore the Palaces dark dank dungeons.
Your private local guide will lead you on an amazing tour of the inside of this curious and stunning building. Admire the marvelous golden mosaics, bronze horse statues and curvy floors as your guide regales you with the history and anecdotes behind this building. LivTours has designed this tour so that you enter Saint Mark’s Basilica when the interior is illuminated (only for an hour in the morning). When illuminated, the interior details really come alive as the endless golden mosaics shimmer in the light.
Once you are ready, it is time to start another adventure! No tour of Venice is complete without seeing it from the water, so it is off to the Grand Canal. This city built on water has canals for streets and the Grand Canal is the largest of them all! You will explore it together with your LivTours guide in your private motor boat. Take an unforgettable spin on the Grand Canal before leaving the center of Venice to discover yet another island, Murano!
Making glass since the 13th century, Murano is world renowned for its glass blowing factory. You will visit one of the traditional glass making factories to see firsthand the technique the artisans use to shape different sculptures. Take your time to browse through the store and get a memorable souvenir to bring home. But the island, Murano, has so much more to offer than glassblowing and your LivTours tour guide will show you the most beautiful places with charming canals, as well as interesting sites such as the oldest churches in the Venetian lagoon. After enjoying a relaxing afternoon on Murano, your private boat will be there to whisk you back to Venice.