Tag: specialtytours

September , 2021

Orsola Mainardis Jewelry – An exceptional selection of luxury accessories

Orsola Mainardis showroom – photo by Orsola Mainardis

A visit to Orsola Mainardis’ showroom is a real hidden treasure in Venice. Located in the Dorsoduro district, away from the mass, Orsola welcomes you at her atelier in a sophisticated Venetian home, full of details and with a beautiful, unexpected, walled garden.

While enjoying a welcome drink, Orsola explains how her passion was born, how her jewels are made and where her inspiration comes from.

All the jewelry that Orsola creates are unique and one of a kind pieces, made with love and patience by expert hands. The experience led her to combine traditional and modern working methods experimenting with unusual combinations of materials creating besides necklaces, earrings and bracelets, also beautiful handbags, diaries and handmade sandals embellished with pearls and precious fabrics. Orsola’s creations are synonymous to extrovert luxury but in a relaxed way.

photo by Orsola Mainardis

A visit to Orsola Mainardis’ showroom is really a visit to a small art exhibition in a Venetian house, an elegant and very suggestive experience.

For more information and reservations contact me at: info@khospitality.it

June , 2020

Winetasting in the Venice Lagoon

Wine tasting on the islands of the Venice Lagoon

Can you imagine seeing wineries in the middle of a lagoon?

Cruise from Venice to the islands were grapes are still cultivated making a wine which is really unique. The first stop will be at Sant’Erasmo, the vegetable garden of Venice. Here, beside the famous violet artichoke, some important vineyards have been created to produce a tasty white wine. The wine tasting will be in the garden facing the lagoon among fruit trees and cultivated grounds.

Proceed along Sant’Erasmo island to reach the small and picturesque island of Mazzorbo, connected by a wooden bridge to the more famous Burano. The Venissa estate features an ancient walled vegetable garden as well as a vineyard originally from Venice. On this unique island, in fact, the ancient Venetian vines cultivated during the Serenissima Republic, only recently rediscovered, have been wisely replanted. The wine has a slightly salty taste as grapes absorb some salt from the ground making it very tasty and different from Sant’Erasmo’s white wine.

Enjoy your visit to these two islands where, beside the wine tasting, a lunch with local food can be arranged.

The 1964 Cabin Cruiser Bora was totally renovated in 2015, maximum capacity 6 persons (including captain and guide) The boat features padded seating and sundeck areas, fresh water shower, private toilet, mineral water and Audio Sound System.

For bookings and more information: contact us

K Hospitality Sales & Marketing – Your Key to Italy!

September , 2019

Photo tour of Venice with Bressanello Art Studio

picture by Bressanello Art Studio

Discover Venice from behind the lens of your photo camera. Venice born and raised professional photographer Fabio Bressanello will accompany you on a truly unforgettable 2 hour photo tour of Venice.

Fabio will show you unusual and little photographed angles of this fantastic city where every corner holds a secret…. an amazing experience for all-level photographers.

Besides that, a visit to Bressanello’s Art Studio, near the Ponte dei Pugni at San Barnaba, is really a must. You will enjoy a great selection of pictures capturing Venice and its inhabitants, from day-to-day life to extraordinary weather conditions. Some of Fabio’s works have been included in the recently published book Dream of Venice in Black and White.

picture by Bressanello Art Studio

Interesting combinations can be found in some of the temporary exhibitions with well-known local and international artists, like East Far East in 2018 where the works of two Venetian artists meet the works of two Asian artists.

For more information: contact us

January , 2019

Passion & Fashion! Private Tango lessons in Milan

When visiting Milan, Tango dancing lessons might not come to mind immediately. But wouldn’t it be great to combine passion for dancing with fashion in a trendy city like Milan?

Antonio is a professional Tango teacher with over 20 years of experience, specialized what is commonly called Estilo Milonguero. He will introduce you to the technical and interpretive aspects of this magnificent dance. Whether you are single, a couple or in a group, experienced or a beginner, Antonio will guide you during a private 1 or 2 hour tango lesson at the dance school located in the center of Milan or possibly at your hotel.

In addition, if you want to, you can put into practice your newly learned skills when Antonio accompanies you at a Milonga in one of the trendy places in Milan after dinner where you will find tango passionates dancing the night away!

Interested in finding out more? contact us!

October , 2018

Visit to the Gold-beater workshop in Venice

The art of gold-beating, an ancient artisan craft that in Venice still exists!

In the beautiful setting of what was once the famous painter Tiziano’s Palace, hidden away in the Sestiere of Cannaregio, “Mario Berta Battiloro” is the last gold-beater workshop in Venice. In the small workshop Marino, together with his wife Sabrina and their 2 daughters Eleonora and Sara, continue still today the art pursued by the family since 1926 and handed down from generation to generation.

Gold, silver and other precious metals are turned into wafer-thin sheets that are used for applications in a wide range of sectors.

Think of Artistic decorations: you will find gold leaves used in mosaics, beautiful artistic creations of Murano glass, but also applied on furniture and wooden sculptures.

Or also Cosmetics: recent research has shown that gold boasts significant anti-age properties and gold is also used as body decoration on nails, lips and eyelids.

And why not, Gastronomy: just imagine the aesthetic effect of unrivaled beauty when gold is used by chefs and barmen as a finishing touch on their culinary creations, of course certified as an edible food decoration.

You can enjoy a 40 minute tour of the Gold-beater workshop, only upon reservation, and discover the various stages of production that transforms the gold bar into sheets so thin that you can move them with a blow of your breath.

For bookings and more information click here: contact us

K Hospitality Sales & Marketing – Your Key to Italy!

September , 2018

500th Anniversary of Tintoretto in Venice

2019 marks the year of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto, one of the greatest Venetian painters of all times. And of course this must be celebrated in Venice!

So if you visit Venice between September 2018 and January 2019, this extraordinary monographic exhibition presented by The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, together with The National Gallery of Art of Washington, and the Gallerie dell’Accademia, can not be missed.

at the Doge’s Palace:

The exhibition in the Doge’s apartment of the Palazzo Ducale “Tintoretto 1519 – 1594” is curated by Robert Echols and Frederick Ilchman, under the scientific direction of Gabriella Belli. You can admire 50 paintings and 20 drawings by Tintoretto, brought in for the occasion from a variety of famous international museums.

There are several extraordinary works of Tintoretto already present at the Palazzo Ducale and therefore visible in their original location. Together they create an itinerary that will allow you to rediscover Tintoretto’s visionary, daring and unconventional painting.

at the Gallerie dell’Accademia:

In addition, the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia celebrates the anniversary with the exhibition “Il giovane Tintoretto”. Here you will find an integrated journey of extraordinary masterpieces from the main public and private collections of the world, curated by Roberta Battaglia, Paola Marini and Vittoria Romani.

The exhibition covers, through approximately 60 works, the first decade of activity of the Venetian painter. That is: from 1538, the year in which the independent activity of Jacopo Robusti is documented in San Geremia, to 1548, date of the renowned success of his first public work, the Miracle of the Slave, commissioned by the Scuola Grande di San Marco, today the pride of the Gallerie dell’Accademia.

All together, an exciting path that recounts an extraordinary period of stimulation and experimentation thanks to which Tintoretto has renewed the way of painting in Venice.

Both exhibitions are on display from September 7th 2018 till January 6th 2019.

For more information contact me at: info@khospitality.it

July , 2018

Padiglione del Vetro – The Glass Pavilion – Venice

During my recent visit to The Padiglione del Vetro – “Donne + Uomini in Vetro – WO / MEN in Glass” in Campo Bandiera e Moro, I had the pleasure of meeting Alice Biba, one of the artists exhibiting.

Taking turns the artists are present at the venue and it was amazing to get Alice’s personal insight on her beautiful sculptures and the reasoning behind them.

Curated by Lisette Caputo, the Padiglione del Vetro, or Glass Pavilion, a subject very much linked to Venice, hosts an interesting exhibition of works of art by both young and upcoming as well as already established artists, around the central theme of glass, expressed in a variety of its fascinating facets and characteristics.

The Exhibition is on display until September 23rd 2018 and definitely worth a visit!

photo by Marco Contessa

Exhibiting artists: Alice Biba, Antonia Trevisan, Cinzia Elena Capece, Svetlana Ostopovici, Veronica Croce, Tommaso Pitton, Elisabetta Guerra, Marco Contessa, Aldo Navoni, Federica Repetto.

Curator: Lisette Caputo

Location: Scoletta San Giovanni in Bragora – you will love this little square; off the beaten track but close to St. Mark’s square.

The entrance is free of charge.

For more information contact me at: info@khospitality.it

March , 2018

Fulvio Roiter at the Casa dei Tre Oci

The Casa dei Tre Oci presents the first exhibition dedicated to Fulvio Roiter after his death in 2016, presenting the most complete monographic ever realized on the author. A tribute to the photographer who more than any other has linked the image of Venice to his name.

The exhibition, curated by Denis Curti, shows through 200 photographs the greatness and the internationality of Fulvio Roiter’s work; Images, full of significance, that take you on an amazing journey from Venice and the lagoon to Umbria, Sicily and Sardinia, but also to New Orleans, Belgium, Portugal, Andalusia and Brazil. To return, in the end, home to his beloved Venice.

The exposition is on display until August 26^th 2018.

The Casa dei Tre Oci (translated “the house of the 3 eyes”) is a splendid example of early 20th-century neo-Gothic Venetian architecture. Designed by the artist Mario De Maria (Marius Pictor) and built in 1913 on Giudecca island, offering incomparable views of St Mark’s basin, the square and the Doge’s Palace.

The building was declared a monument of historical and artistic interest in 2007 by the Veneto Regional Direction for Cultural and Landscape Assets and, after careful restoration, the Casa dei Tre Oci became a public exhibition venue in 2012. It has since hosted a number of important photography exhibitions with world famous names like Sebastiao Salgado, Helmut Newton, Rene Burri, Ferdinando Scianna, David Lachapelle and Werner Bischoff. Definitely worth a visit to see a different Venice.

The Casa dei Tre Oci is also available for private events.

For more information: contact us

August , 2017

Private boat tour of the Venice Lagoon discovering Churches & Cloisters

Board your private boat with a skilled captain for a 4 hour cruise of the Venice lagoon, discovering Churches & Cloisters:

In the past many islands have been colonized by religious congregations. Just across San Marco’s basin lies the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The beautiful Palladian façade of the church invites people to visit the whole island, also called the “cypress island” as the first settlement of a Benedictine community. The island offers a breathtaking view of Venice from the top of the bell tower.

Proceeding towards Lido meet a little jewel of the lagoon, the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni, dedicated to St Lazarous, patron of leprous, in fact the island was first a leper hospital. After centuries of decay, at the beginning of the 18th century, a community of Armenian monks settled here and they turned the old building into a monastery. The islands became an incredible cultural centre, world famous for the collection of books and the typography opened in 1789.

Heading north, after passing by the islands of Sant’Andrea and Sant’Erasmo, the next stop is the island of San Francesco del Deserto, recognizable by a small cypress wood. Since 1227 it has housed a friary founded by San Francesco from Assisi on his way back from the Holy Land during the 5th crusade. It is here that the “Miracle of the birds” took place. The tour starts from the little church and small cloister to a stroll in the beautiful garden.

This tour can also be organized for larger groups.

For bookings and more information: contact us

K Hospitality Sales & Marketing – Your Key to Italy!

August , 2015

500 years of the Venice Ghetto

The Jewish Ghetto in Venice: on March 29th 1516, the Government of the Serenissima Repubblica issued special laws that declared the Jewish population of Venice had to live in an enclosed area, near San Girolamo where there used to be a foundry (in venetian “ghèto”). And so the first Ghetto of Europe was instituted where Jews from German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Levantine Sephardi origins lived together keeping their own traditions and synagogues. The area was closed by gates at sunset and opened again at dawn and still today the marks of those gates are visible.

Jews at that time were allowed to practice only some professions: they were doctors, because they were the most prepared and able to understand Arab writings, money lenders, because Catholic religion forbade this practice, ragsellers and merchants. And especially the merchants and bankers conveyed an important role to the Jewish community for the economic life in Venice.

The Ghetto of Venice in those days was also of great importance to the cultural life of the Jewish society as Jewish books printed in Venice were distributed to the Jewish communities all over Europe. Eighty years after the creation of the Ghetto, Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice.

The Ghetto existed for more than two and a half centuries, until Napoleon conquered Venice and finally opened and eliminated every gate in 1797.

Today the Ghetto is still the center of Jewish life in the city, with working synagogues but also a kindergarten, a home for elderly, a guest house; The Kosher House Giardino dei Melograni and a bakery. Along with its architectural and artistic monuments, the community also boasts a Museum of Jewish Art, the Renato Maestro Library and Archive and the Info Point of the Jewish community inside the Midrash Leon da Modena.

When in Venice the Ghetto is definitely worth a visit and guided tours are organized on a daily basis.

Stay tuned for special events in occasion of the 500th anniversary!

For more information: contact us at info@khospitality.it