Venice is an incredible destination which entices visitors from all around the world to travel and experience its magic for themselves. Venice is a charming mixture of tradition and prestige and is known and loved for its charm and its beautiful sights. The city is best explored on foot and from the water and a visit to Venice would not be complete without a gondola ride! We booked a Private Gondola Tour with Dinner through SIT Italy, a company who are experts in Italian holidays and have been organising travel in Italy since 1999! Our evening was romantic, relaxing and luxurious and we loved our private gondola tour followed by a romantic, indulgent three course meal. It really was the perfect night in Venice!
Our gondola meeting point was less than a 5 minute walk away from our hotel at Bacino Orseolo Gondola Pier and as soon as we arrived we were whisked onto our private gondola and set off along beautiful, hidden canals that were clear of traffic and other gondolas. Our gondolier was very friendly and took the time to point out a number of sites but also gave us time to relax and enjoy an incredibly romantic ride (and of course the bottle of Prosecco that we’d packed)!
Our ride continued along the beautiful Grand Canal and as it was around 7pm the waterways were so much quieter and smoother than they were during the day and our ride was relaxing, romantic and truly a must do in Venice! It is truly an enchanting Venetian experience not to be missed and we both loved it and couldn’t believe how quickly our 30 minutes passed!
Our gondola dropped us off at our restaurant, Le Maschere which is loved by both local Venetians and visitors alike. Le Maschere offers an elegant dining experience around their beautiful, bright Campiello courtyard. The menu consisted of traditional Venetian cuisine which took us from the Mediterranean sea to the mountains, with the chefs adding a personal touch and modern twist to create wonderful, unique dishes.
Our evening began with welcome bellini’s which were wonderful, along with freshly baked bread. Dan chose the spaghetti with clams for his first course, whilst I chose spaghetti with tomatoes. The pasta was cooked to perfection in both our dishes and we both loved every bite. Both our meals were incredible and Dan particularly loved his spaghetti with clams! For our main courses we chose veal and john dory fish, both served with vegetables and a delicious lemon sauce. To finish off an incredible evening of food, Dan chose the tiramisu whilst I opted for gelato. We really enjoyed every dish we had throughout the evening and it was lovely to finish off our meal with limoncello, a must try when in Italy!
Le Maschere has a wonderful romantic, elegant atmosphere and we had a very romantic, wonderful evening of excellent food and great service.
As we only had such a short time in Venice we wanted to make the most of our time there and I am so glad we booked this tour with SIT Italy, every aspect of our evening was absolutely perfect and we had such a romantic, quintessential evening in Venice. We’d highly recommend SIT Italy and this tour to anyone visiting Venice, it allowed us to maximise our time in this incredible destination and we truly had a perfect night! If you’re interested in booking this tour head over to the Private Gondola Tour & Dinner Page of if you’re interested in checking out their other tours in Italy you can visit the SIT Italy homepage!
The Aussie Flashpacker experienced our Private Gondola Tour & Dinner as a guest of SIT Italy.
Our opinions are as always, our own.
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