Many guides and guide books can answer a lot of the ‘what’ questions about Venice, but very few can answer the harder ‘why’ questions. With my history walks in Venice, and boat tours in the lagoon, I try to explain why Venice is the way it is.
My name is René Seindal, and I’m a Danish historian living in Venice for almost two decades with my Venetian family. I am an authorised tour leader in English, Italian and Danish. Besides my walks and boat tours, I’m also a guide on the Lazzaretto Nuovo island.
All my activities are bespoke, centred on what interests you about the history of Venice. I only do small groups, to leave time and space for dialogue, questions and interactions. There are no microphones or ear buds, I do not want to be a walking audio guide.
The tours are not as such targeted for children, but kids are very welcome, and I will do my best.
Tours on offer
Hidden History
A walk around Venice, exploring the many messages from Venice of yore, often hidden in plain view.
Plague Island
A guided visit to the island Lazzaretto Nuovo, where quarantine was invented to fight the Black Death.
Lagoon tours
A boat tour in the Venetian lagoon reveals that there’s much more to Venice than just the city.
What others said
Rene beats all other guides here 10 to 1
I took every available tour of Venice during my three days here. Rene beats all other guides here 10 to 1, he is simply the BEST story teller, accurate research, curious facts and attention to detail, very passionate about the city and loads to learn even for a book worm like me. If I could give him ten stars I would. He will definitely be my guide next time in Venice. You can miss out on all the other tours here but you will not have seen Venice if you don’t go on his tour. Thank you so much Rene for making this visit so special!
— Anna (Nov 2021)
Book this experience, you’ll thank me later!
Rene is a phenomenal story-teller and possesses such a wealth of knowledge on the history of Venice. If you want something more beyond the basic facts you learn on the mainstream history tours, this is the experience for you. He opened our eyes to a Venice we would have never seen otherwise and kept us engaged the entire time and even long after we finished the tour. From climate-change and political/socio-economic forces that shaped the city to ancient graffiti and chips on a blank stone that mean way more than you would think they do. This was, hands-down, one of the most valuable experiences we had as first-timers and lovers of history in Venice.
— Michael (Nov 2021)
Rene is incredibly knowledgeable
Rene is incredible knowledgeable about history in common and Venice in particular! he knows a lot about The history but also how it is to live in a city that is so special! ask questions and you will get tons of answers and he is someone who won‘t stop after the time is over, when he has time he will go on telling you stories about things you probably would not notice. we have done another typical tourist tour which wasn‘t good at all, so we can only recommend this kind of tours, if you are interested to hear something off the beaten path and where you don‘t have the feeling to being ripped off.
— Jörg (Dec 2021)
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Writings on the
History of Venice
You’ll find blog posts, long form articles, newsletters, various lists and the occasional translation of entries from the Curiosità Veneziane on this site.
There’s a unified list of all the articles.
Recent writings
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Quarantine was the main method of prevention of the black plague in Venice, and the lazzaretti served that purpose.
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The L’Archivio di Stato di Venezia : indice generale, storico, descrittivo ed analitico (shortened ASV Indice) by Andrea da Mosto is a very useful reference to all the major and minor institutions and offices of the Republic of Venice.
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The first patent law ever was Venetian, issued by the Pregadi (Senate) on March 19th, 1474.
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