Venice Legends: Casanova, Vivaldi & Marco Polo Private Tour

Meet your guide in front of the Church of the Pietà.

The Church was built in the XVIII Century by Giorgio Massari. It was ment to be both a place of worship and an auditorium. "Figlie del Choro", instructed by masters such as Antonio Vivaldi and Francesco Gasparini, used to perform inside the church. Moreover, the Pietà preserves three frescos by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and the altarpiece La Visitazione di Maria a Santa Elisabetta, by Giombattista Piazzetta and Giuseppe Angeli.

We will start with Vivaldi in the sestiere of Castello visiting the church of the Pietà where he served as priest, music teacher and composer, as well as other places related to him such as the ruota degli esposti, where unwanted children were left in the orphanage, the campo della Bragora, the old Greek market where you can find the beautiful church of San Giovanni where he was baptized.

We continue our walking tour towards the house of the Polo family where Marco Polo himself lived in the sestiere of Cannaregio, here we will discover a little of the adventurous life of this curious young man who left the Serenissima together with his father and his uncle, to return after 24 years with Hao Dong, his wife. He wrote about his experiences during these years which are captured in his famous book Il Milione, dictated during his imprisonment in Genoa to the Pisan writer Rustichello, his fellow prisoner, and also the first information about this then unknown world.

Walk through the small “calle” we make our way towards the sestiere of San Marco to get to know the places frequented by Giacomo Casanova's in his childhood and youth, such as the house where he was born and the theatre where his parents worked, where he spent long hours learning the difference between fantasy and reality and where his love for music was born. We will get to know better the eclectic man who lived conscious of the decadence of the Serenissima, the freemason, the gambler, the cosmopolitan, the playwright, the writer, the intellectual, the libertine and the faithful and generous friend.

Along the way you can see the entrance of the famous "Ridotto Venier'', a private room in which there was gambling and more. Casanova loved these elegant salons and was a frequent visitor!