We had booked a Guru Walk for 4.00pm on our arrival day as an introduction to Venice. These are ‘free’ walks, you pay the guide directly what you think the tour was worth. But first we need some food.
We went to the closest cafe to our rooms. It was raining slightly but they had an outside table free so we accepted it. It proved to be a very interesting lunch. Only 10 tables, we sat outside although was raining slightly. Within moments a queue a Chinese had started. Had a gnocchi dish and a spaghetti seafood. Good. Found out later that it had great reviews on the Chinese TripAdvisor, hence the queues of mostly Chinese !
Met Petro our guide at 4pm at the well for our Guru Walk .
These wells, actually cisterns, have always been covered and locked. Each area had a few. The were unlocked and guarded at set times of the day for the locals to collect their water
We had a long and enjoyable walk through the less touristy parts of town. Learnt an awful lot and a great introduction to Venice. Finished at about 7pm. Stopped at local supermarket and bought salads and chocolates for dinner.
I would highly recommend Guru Walks, you don’t know who will be your guide, but generally they are students of things like art and history, and only the good ones, who get better tips, persist, so you are pretty much guaranteed a great time !
These are a mix of pictures with a bit of writing. There is so much in venice, and one needs to look beyond St Marks and see the details.