cicchetti

I don't know how often or how quickly Alessandro Schezzini's tours get booked up and it will vary with the seasons. Since Rick's Italy book advises reserving by email instead of phone, you have to allow some time for a response. It's also possible to pubcrawl on your own between several establishments listed in the book and/or to pop into various bars that you find near your hotel or sightseeing. Recently, it seems I've noticed more happy-hour groups spilling out from various holes in the walls, when I wasn't particularly looking for them.

We tried to book with Alessandro using the email provided on his website. I emailed several times prior to our trip in September and never got a response. We asked our gondolier about cicchetti tours while in Venice and he indicated they were more for lunch than dinner, and we never really saw any other tours, so we gave up on the idea. Hopefully you will have better luck.

We just did the "pub crawl" on 11/14/14 and had a wonderful time. I contacted Alessandro by email about a month before we went and he was able to get 6 of us on the tour. We were all glad we did. It is a very fun way to wander around Venice and duck into bars to have lots of wine and eat some Italian appetizers. He is engaging, funny, and loves his wine and his city.

I think its best to reserve a couple weeks in advance, since he only runs the tours if he has 8 people or more. I did the tour 11/2/14, and it was one of the highlights of my entire trip!

Another vote for Alessandro here! I took both his tours, back-to-back, in late May this year. Contacted him by e-mail at least a month in advance, before I traveled, and he noted my name and asked me to check back closer to the time. By then he had a group and we were all set. Especially the Cicchetti Tour was fun and excellent. If you like appetizers and wine like I do, given general prices in Venice, I think you will get the cost of the tour back just in food and drink, with Alessandro tossed in at no added cost. I can't imagine most of us could easily find these bars, and communicate and fit in, nearly as well on our own.