Bacchus, Bridges and Bacari: A Cultured Pub Crawl of Venice

Italians are known to appreciate a good drink and the Venetians are particularly famous for it. On this walking tour, you‘ll escape Venice‘s tourist jam and get a taste of the city‘s spirit by drinking like a local in the same traditional Venetian taverns, or ‘bacari’. Here, you can savour a glass of local wine with some cicheti, a traditional bacari snack, while you soak up the atmosphere and hospitality of the Most Serene Republic, as Venice is affectionately known.

Our tour unveils the lesser-known locations of five favorite bacari in Venice, and some of their secrets. Starting in Campo San Geremia, we‘ll wind our way through the typical maze of Venetian squares, streets and canals and hear tidbits about the history of bacari and local drinking traditions, interspersed with tales about the city. At another square, Campo Santa Sofia, you‘ll hear about the wars in the 1800s that determined a newly unified Italy. You‘ll also cross the Rialto, the oldest bridge across the Grand Canal. By the time we reach the final stop of our tour at Campo San Giacomo, you‘ll not only have indulged in local delicacies but also in centuries of history that define this unique republic. We‘ll traverse bridges and centuries, exploring an era when Venetian power rivaled that of early modern states like England and France.

The five wonderful traditional Venetian bacari we‘ll stop at along the way are:

Cicchetteria Venexiana di Luca e Fred, where you can recline and people-watch on the bustling Rio San Leonardo
Paradiso Perduto, a Venetian institution that was founded in the 1980s by a group of university friends – even Keith Richards has jammed here!
Al Mercà, where you‘ll get a lesson in the local Venetian dialect
Bacaro Do Mori, one of the oldest taverns in Venice that goes as far back as the 1400s, which is also known as Cantina Do Mori
Osteria Da Filo, where you can catch an art exhibition or lounge back and enjoy a decadent tagliere, a serving of mixed cold cuts and cheeses on a cutting board

On this Venice tour, you‘ll also hear the answers to questions like:

• Where does the name bacari come from and does it have anything to do with Bacchus, the god of wine?
• Why do people ask for a “shadow” of wine?
• How many times was the Ponte delle Guglie rebuilt?
• Why did legendary lover Casanova like Bacaro Do Mori so much?
• After which sport‘s early version was the Ponte Chiodo named?
• Which bridge are you most likely to fall off of?
• Why are some streets called “calle” and others “rio”?

Come with us on this Venetian pub crawl, in which fascinating architecture, culture and history happen to pop up now and then. If you want something more than the standard Venice experience, this is the tour for you.

Please take careful note of the “best time” section to optimise your experience.