What to Expect from Alternative Venice (and from Your Tour Guide)
"Hi Rita, we are home from our wonderful trip to Venice and I just wanted to drop you an email to let you know how much we enjoyed your tour! It gave us such a strong sense of the city and we felt confident to choose our own sights and things to see instead of just following the usual tourist route. The girls (who were very tired so I know they didn’t look very interested at points) got such a lot out of it. Millie said her favorite thing in the whole trip was going ‘to the church where Venetian people get married’. Cyd really liked being able to tell which district we were coming into whenever we crossed a bridge and knowing what we’d be seeing next (bridge, alley & church!). Mostly though Rich got the most out of the tour, I have wanted to visit Venice all of my life but he has been very reluctant to visit anywhere as touristy or as busy as Venice can be. I cannot tell you how skeptical he was about the trip beforehand. I think he imagined long queues, being around crowds of tourists and paying over the odds for food & sights etc. Because of your lovely tour, we felt we knew where we were going and had a stronger idea of the things we wanted to do. Leaving lots of time for wandering the islands, catching water buses and even a couple of meals out in places we knew locals liked to eat at too! We both came away feeling that we knew a bit about Venice and about what it might be like to live there. We all fell in love with it and cannot wait to return.
Many thanks, Nina Page"
Rita Sartori is member of Venice Guides for Sustainable Tourism, and shares the objectives of their heartfelt campaign that helps understanding the right approach one should have with Venice: We are Venice, You are Venice!