Gondolas in Venice

Our hotel in Venice near St Mark's Square and Rialto Bridge

Waterway in Venice

New Year in Venice

29 December 2011 - 2 January 2012

The atmospheric venue for our 2011 / 2012 New Year’s party is the beautiful city of Venice. Apart from the stunning romantic setting itself, we have chosen Venice partly because of the fascinating revival of vineyards on three of its islands. Venice was the world centre in the Middle Ages for trading great wines, but what is less known is that there were once vineyards even near St Mark’s Square.

NB: As this tour is now fully booked, an additional New Year Wine Tour to Budapest (unescorted) is avaialable.

Our 4* hotels are just a short walk from the Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s Square. The first evening will be spent at one of our hand-picked selection of wine friendly restaurants tasting a range of wines from the Veneto. Next morning, we walk through the winding streets to the Fondamente Nuove port where our private boat will be waiting to take us first to lovely Island of Murano, which is also famous for glass production. We then continue across the lagoon to the little visited and unspoilt island of Sant’Erasmo and moor up in front of the Orto di Venezia vineyard.

Here, French TV producer Michel Thoulouze has redeveloped the land around his villa into a vineyard with the assistance of the highly respected Rhone winemaker Alain Graillot with further advice from Jacques Seysees of Domaine Dujac and from famous Burgundian soil experts the Bourguignons. The team set about clearing the land of house-high brambles and reeds, dredging the ancient drainage canals and replacing the derelict 18th century locks, plus obtaining permission to empty them daily.

In addition, in order to reduce salt levels cereal crops, mulches and long-rooted grasses have been planted along with a plant barrier to protect the vines from the salty winds. M Graillot then visited a local vine nursery (which happens to be one of the largest in the world) and finally selected Malvasia Istriana, Vermentino and Fiano, which they have planted ungrafted. The resulting wine, first produced in 2007, had been intended as a delightful early drinking wine. It is in fact proving to age remarkably well.

The cook will prepare some delicious home-made antipasti, made from local produce, to taste with the wine. This will be a fascinating opportunity to see the result of all this innovation and hard-work. Though, as M. Thoulouze points out, he recently found a 17th century map of his property calling the land “the noble-man’s vineyard.”

We continue on our private boat to Burano for a late lunch at an excellent traditional fish restaurant. The streets of Burano are lined with multitudinous coloured houses, since no two may be painted the same colour. We’ll be back in Venice late in the afternoon and again wend our way across Venice on foot back to the hotel.

This evening, you can take your pick from the selection of restaurants on our recommendations list.

Venetian cuisine

Once away from the tourist restaurants who serve “international Italian food” – the food is fresh and mouth watering. Obviously there is lots of seafood and fish, including the wonderful spaghetti with cuttlefish ink, as well as grilled vegetables featuring the slightly bitter red radicchio or sardines marinated in a sweet & sour sauce with pine nuts and raisins. Look out on menus for Soasi, the baby Venetian Turbot. Risotto features strongly due to predominance of rice fields further to the West in the Veneto. Pasta & faglioli is a typical warming soup from the Veneto and of course there is the classic Venetian liver dish, fegato alla Veneziana.

Venice is home to many tiny bars located throughout the twisting alleyways – many of whom serve a selection of tempting nibbles (cicheti in local dialect – served with an Ombra – a small glass of wine!) such as fried baby eels, Castraure artichokes or vegetable strips. Other specialities might include fish carpaccio, hard-boiled eggs with anchovies, fried sardines or little panini’s filled with sorpressa, a local salami. You will have plenty of time to explore these during your free time in Venice.

On New Year’s Eve you have the day to explore the wonderful city and, if you wish, to visit one of Venice’s many museums, such as the Accademia Galleries brimming with Venetian masterpieces by Bellini, Titian and Giorgione; Peggy Guggenheim’s famous collection of contemporary art or Francois Pinault’s (of LVHM) modern art collection set in the traditional surroundings of the Palazzo Grassi. The Gala New Year’s Eve dinner party tonight is at our hotel with music!

On New Year’s Day we’ll arrange an optional guided walking tour in the morning and free time before meeting up in the evening for a further wine tasting followed by a relaxed dinner to enjoy further food and wine selection from the Veneto. Our last day is free to see more of this unique and beautiful city!

Hotel choice

We are offering 2 different hotels on this tour, despite being sister hotels located next door to each other, each are very different in style. They are just 5 minute walk from St Marks Square and the Rialto bridge.

The included hotel is 4* Hotel Bonvecchiati, a traditional Venetian hotel with wonderful Murano Glass chandeliers and a look of faded grandeur that is so typically Venetian. We include Superior (not standard) rooms which are the second category of rooms.

However, there is also the option to upgrade to Palace Bonvecchiati, which is a Palazzo that was transformed internally a few years ago to have a stylish, modern interior decor, with clean lines, elegance and good bathrooms. Again we have chosen the second category of rooms, here called Deluxe (and more spacious). Breakfast is served at the sister hotel as well as the Gala Dinner. There is very limited availability of Junior Deluxe Suites with Canal views as well.