RS Venice audio guide in grand canal

Get all the audio tours you want right here. You can also download the app.

Nothing to buy, and RS's audio guided tours are WONDERFUL! Just go to your app store (for me its my iPhone "App Store" icon) and download the free "Rick Steves Audio Europe" app. Then its a very easy, intuitive app; click on "Find Tours and Interviews" and download to your heart's content! I just returned from almost 3 weeks in Italy and used the Uffizi, the Florence Renaissance Walk, the "Accademia, and in Venice - Frari Church, & St. Mark's Square. My travelling partner used several other audio tours, also. I can't believe how easy and wonderful they are! He includes the written script, also, and a map for each tour.

Just one head's up! When we got to Italy, for both of us our playlists were suddenly empty. Can't figure out why they emptied out, for both of us, coming from different places. Anyway, while on wifi at our first Italian hotel, we downloaded again the tours we planned to use. Of course, you DON'T need wifi to listen to them, once they are loaded into your phone (or pad).

For Android phones, go to the Playstore and download the app. After opening the app you have to choose Italy as the country you want and then you select which part of the Italy-related tours/interviews you want and then you have to select which tours/interviews (of the MANY!!) and press download individually. The downloading of each tour takes awhile, depending on how many you want but then you're all set. Without wifi, when phone is on airplane mode, etc. you can hear and see everything - photos, talking, maps, etc. You can also print maps from your phone/tablet/computer and take with you if needed.

Thanks a lot. I will do that on my iPhone.

Agree with the comments above praising the RS audios. One small caveat to note: if a museum has re-arranged their display AFTER the last RS audio update, you may find that the RS audio guide appears to be describing things in the wrong order. We encountered this recently. Obviously there will always be some lag time between museum changes and RS updates. Clearly, this will not be a problem on the Grand Canal as buildings don't move around much. We found it to be very useful for our Venice visit and will always use RS audios where ever we go. Have a great trip.

As bobbing4data notes, museums may have moved things around. A big change in Italy is that the Uffizi audiotour is for the Uffizi before the museum opened up an entire lower level a couple of years ago, and moved many of the major artworks to that level. The audiotour works now if before you go to the museum (or soon after you arrive) you take a look at which artworks are on the audiotour, and then "flip" to those pieces when you encounter them as you walk through the museum.

Sally,

I used all of the Venice audioguides in June! They are all really helpful and added to my enjoyable experiences.

Sharon

When we got to Italy, for both of us our playlists were suddenly empty.

If this was a recent experience, it was probably due to the recent Audio Europe App update. It had to be rebuilt with a new service provider and once you choose to update (or you may have it set to update automatically), then the new version no longer has your saved downloads. So those traveling now should check that they have the new version of the app before taking the time to load in topics.