Cicchetti Tour

When planning my trip I was always cognizant of the fact that I was 'going solo'.  So each and every decision I was considering making I would 'test it' by asking myself, "Would I be okay doing this alone?"

For some activities the answer was obvious.  In fact when I was musing over what I wanted to do 'after dark' in Venice and the option of the "Cicchetti tour" presented itself, the answer was clear. Chrystal clear.  It was a perfect activity to book, especially if going alone!

So what, you inquire, is a cicchetti tour?  Essentially it is a pub crawl with appetizers - cicchetti (plural), cicchetto (singular) being small, traditional Venetian snacks.  There are as many recipes for ciccheti as there are for any appetizer but they are all traditionally Venetian.

The tradition of the cicchetti are popular with the Venetian residents themselves, often going to a cicchetti pub at lunch or immediately after work.  Each cicchetto is only one or two Euro each.  Have a couple cicchetti along with a 4 Euro glass of wine and it makes for a wonderful, incredibly tasty and authentic Venetian eating experience for only a few coins.

While I had always known about this experience I never had the courage to try it out myself.  Hence my delight in the organized tour.

The tour was limited to only a small group.  There were two couples from the U.K.  Two couples from Australia, myself and a lesbian couple from Belgium on their honeymoon.
(They were the odds ones out, not because they were lesbian but because they weren't a part of the Commonwealth!)  

We had an added benefit of having two guides - Giovanna (born in Venice) and Roberto (Italian but not Venetian), who was in training.  This allowed the guides to engage even more closely with the group.  For instance, I asked Roberto about how Venetians tied up their boats along the canals.  Sounds like a silly question you think?... but wait... you see line after line after line of boats tied securely to the edge of buildings, but nowhere near any place to get back on dry land.

Roberta said they had a variety of ways... if they were lucky enough to have a canal door or a nearby window to their own residence, they used that.  Sometimes they would 'walk' over other people's boats.  But generally, he said, they would 'catch a ride' on a passing boat and get dropped off.

Makes sense.

The tour itself was terrific fun and the other members of the group very friendly.  It was a perfect way to get out and about in Venice after dark,   It was also the tour which introduced me not just to the tradition of ordering cicchetti, but also the traghetto crossings... so lots of new experiences!

Put that with with great food and a glass of wine at each stop and it made it one of my favourite activities of my tour.   We went to 4 or 5 (can not remember which) pubs that specialize in cicchetti - with wine at each stop I was worried I might get a bit tipsy and land up in a canal, but all was well. 

:)

If you are ever in Venice, make sure you do this - either in a tour or (now you know what it is about) on your own.  Lovely.

There are lots and lots of cicchetti pubs in the Rialto market area.  Giovanna said that sometimes you will see a man at one of them, with a glass of wine, at 9 in the morning.  (She said, "In Venice we are not so strict.")  She told us that person would invariably be one of the older, market stall operators.