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Venice food and wine tour: Cannaregio & San Polo cicchetti

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1/15

Duration2h 30m–3h 30m

GroupUp to 15

LanguagesEN · DE +4

Mobile ticketAccepted

Eight stops, three hours, enough food to skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner

You walk through eight stops in Cannaregio and San Polo, tasting cicchetti, pastries, cured meats, pasta, fresh fish, and gelato while a local guide shares the stories behind each dish and the city's food traditions. Lunch or dinner is a sit-down meal at a locally frequented restaurant. By the end of three hours, you've eaten enough to skip your next two meals and learned how to spot real Venetian food when you're eating alone.

2h 30m–3h 30m

Step-by-step itinerary

Start with coffee and pastries
Stroll through wine bars
Taste cicchetti and learn dishes
Visit oldest bacaro and hear Casanova story
Try more cicchetti at local bar
Sample regional cured meat and cheese
Enjoy special pasta or risotto dish
Have freshly caught fish and sarde in saor
Visit another cicchetti spot
Experience artisan gelato tasting

The Experience

You've just landed in Venice, or you're already here with a free afternoon. Either way, you're hungry and you don't want to waste time figuring out which bacaro actually feeds locals instead of tourists. The tour starts 15 minutes before the listed time—so if you're meeting at 10am, be there by 9:45—and the first stop is coffee and a Venetian pastry, the way Italians actually start their day. This isn't a sip-and-move situation. You're eating. The guide knows the history of why Venice imported sugar from the East centuries ago, turning it into a city obsessed with sweets, and you'll taste that obsession in a family-owned pastry shop in San Polo where they still make tiramisu and frittelle the old way.

After that, you walk to the Rialto Fish Market area and into the oldest bacaro in the city—the kind of place where wooden beams and copper pots haven't changed since Casanova supposedly sat at the standing counter. You're eating cicchetti here, the Venetian snacks that pair with local wine, and the guide will tell you the stories that make each dish make sense. Then there's the cured meat and cheese stop, where the owner prepares a selection and explains how to spot the real thing. By the time you reach the sit-down restaurant—the one that's been visited by celebrity chefs and locals alike—you're already full, but you're eating the special pasta or risotto, the fresh fish of the day, and sarde in saor, which this place does better than almost anywhere else in the city. The wine keeps coming. More cicchetti at another local bar. Gelato in Cannaregio, where they teach you how to spot artisan gelato that's actually made on-site instead of shipped in frozen.

The tour guarantees you'll be full by the end—and they mean it. If you eat everything offered and you're still hungry, tell the guide and they'll bring more. That's never happened yet, but the promise is there. Groups stay small, capped at 15 people (though high demand sometimes pushes it to 19, in which case you get extra food and wine as compensation, or a full refund if you decide before the tour starts that the size isn't right for you). The order of stops can shift depending on what's fresh at the market that day, and the specific dishes change with the season, but the amount of food stays the same. If you have dietary restrictions—no fish, no meat, gluten-free—you need to tell them at least 24 hours before departure so the restaurants can prepare. The tour runs rain or shine, and if you don't hear from them the morning of, it's operating as planned.

What’s included

Your three hours include an expert local guide who shares stories and legends tied to each dish, eight stops at bars and locally frequented restaurants, at least 15 tastings of cicchetti, pastries, cured meats, cheese, and gelato, a sit-down lunch or dinner with pasta or risotto and fresh fish, local wine poured throughout, and a gelato lesson on how to spot real artisan gelato. The tour operates in small groups and guarantees you'll leave full—if you're still hungry at the end after eating everything offered, the guide will bring more food at no extra charge.

Good to know

Moderate physical levelWheelchair accessibleStroller friendlyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Savor Italy Tours

Is this one for you?Right for travelers who land in Venice hungry and want to eat like locals without spending the afternoon researching which bacaro is real. Expect three hours of walking and eating across eight stops; the pace is steady but built around food, so you're not rushing between bites.