What is the Venice scavenger hunt?
The Venice scavenger hunt is a self-guided city game you play on your phone: you find your way through the alleys and squares of Venice, solve a riddle at each of 10 landmarks by looking closely at what is around you, and unlock the stories and legends behind them. It takes about 2 hours, with around 41 minutes of actual walking over 3 km, and you start whenever you like.
Highlights include the Frari with Titian's Assumption, the Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal, Teatro La Fenice, St Mark's Square with the Basilica and the Doge's Palace, and the Greek church of San Giorgio dei Greci. Venice has no cars, so the whole route is on foot, over small bridges and through narrow alleys where the game keeps you on track.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 41 min · 3 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese
How the hunt works between the Frari and Castello
A riddle on every campo
One riddle waits at each of the 10 stops, and the answer is somewhere on the stone around you: a column, a relief, a cannonball still stuck in a wall. You need an eye for detail and nothing else.
The story once it cracks
Then the stop gives up what it knows: the relics of St Mark, said to have left Alexandria in 828 hidden under pork, the theatre that burned in 1836 and again in 1996 and reopened in 2003 under the name of the Phoenix, Casanova climbing out of the cells under the lead roof of the Doge's Palace in 1756. The narration plays as audio as well, useful while you watch the boats go past.
3 km over the bridges
Google Maps keeps you from losing the thread in the alleys: 41 minutes of walking in all, barely 3 km, from San Polo across the Grand Canal and on into Castello. Venice has no cars, so every metre of it is on foot.
Stop whenever you like
No clock is running. Sit down on the steps of a campo, keep the last riddles for the evening when the day visitors have gone, and let the app reshuffle the stops if you are coming from another sestiere.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who this Venice hunt is right for
A short day in Venice
Two hours is enough to put the Frari, the Rialto, St Mark's Square and a Greek church in Castello into one line, which is a lot of Venice for one morning. It also gets you off the Mercerie and into campi that most day trippers walk past.
Young players
There is a cannonball from 1849 lodged in the façade of San Salvador, a bell tower beside San Giorgio dei Greci that leans visibly, and four bronze horses above the door of the basilica, and an adult goes along in the team.
Colleagues in teams
Teams of five, each player with the riddle on their own screen, suit a small company outing: everyone starts at the Frari and the scores are settled by the canal at San Giorgio dei Greci. Nothing is reserved besides the tickets, as the campi and the fondamente are public ground.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
The route: the Frari, the Rialto, St Mark's Square, Castello
10 stops · about 41 min walking · start: Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari · finish: San Giorgio dei Greci
The hunt starts at the Basilica dei Frari in the San Polo district and crosses Campo San Polo to the Rialto Bridge. On the other side of the Grand Canal you pass Campo San Salvador and Teatro La Fenice before reaching St Mark's Square, St Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace. From there you head into the Castello district to the Church of San Zaccaria and finish at San Giorgio dei Greci. Since every answer is out in the campi, on the stonework and the façades, the hunt asks for no entry ticket at all, and if your vaporetto stop lies elsewhere the app will begin the game at another church and resequence the rest.
Open the route map ↗
1Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei FrariStart
The Frari is the great brick church of the Franciscans in Venice, consecrated in 1492. Over the high altar hangs Titian's Assumption of the Virgin, put in place in 1518, and the church also holds a monument to Titian and the pyramid-shaped monument to the sculptor Antonio Canova, made by his pupils.
2Campo San Polo
Campo San Polo is the largest campo in Venice, second in size only to St Mark's Square among the city's open spaces. Paved in 1493, it once hosted bullfights, sermons and masked balls, and it is still used for Carnival events and open-air screenings, framed by the Church of San Polo and old palaces such as Palazzo Soranzo.
Read the full story →
3Rialto Bridge
The Rialto Bridge is the oldest of the four bridges across the Grand Canal. Antonio da Ponte built it in stone between 1588 and 1591 to replace a wooden bridge that had collapsed more than once, and its covered ramps still carry rows of shops.
4Campo San Salvador
Campo San Salvador, on the Mercerie shopping street, is framed by the Church of San Salvador, which holds two paintings by Titian, and by the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro. The marble column in the middle was set up in 1898 in memory of the Venetian uprising against Austrian rule in 1848–1849, and a cannonball from 1849 is still lodged in the church façade.
Read the full story →
5Teatro La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice, the Phoenix, opened in 1792 and has lived up to its name: it burned down in 1836 and again in an arson fire in 1996, and each time it was rebuilt, most recently reopening in 2003. Giuseppe Verdi's operas Rigoletto and La Traviata had their world premieres here.
6St Mark's Square
Venetians simply call St Mark's Square the Piazza, while most other squares in the city are called campi. It is framed by the long arcades of the Procuratie, and its bell tower, 98.6 metres high, is a faithful rebuild: the original collapsed on 14 July 1902, and the new tower was inaugurated in 1912.
7St Mark's Basilica
St Mark's Basilica was built to house the relics of St Mark, which, according to tradition, Venetian merchants smuggled out of Alexandria in 828 hidden under pork. The present 11th-century church is covered with about 8,000 square metres of mosaics, and the bronze horses on its façade are copies of the originals brought from Constantinople after 1204.
8Doge's Palace
The Gothic Doge's Palace was the residence of the doge and the seat of the Venetian Republic's government and courts. Its prisons are reached across the Bridge of Sighs, built around 1600, and in 1756 Giacomo Casanova escaped from the Piombi, the cells under its lead roof.
9Church of San Zaccaria
The Church of San Zaccaria was built between 1458 and 1515, begun in Gothic style by Antonio Gambello and completed with a Renaissance façade by Mauro Codussi. It belonged to a wealthy Benedictine convent, several doges are buried in its crypt, and inside hangs Giovanni Bellini's San Zaccaria Altarpiece.
Read the full story →
10San Giorgio dei GreciFinish
San Giorgio dei Greci was built from 1539 to 1573 for the large Greek Orthodox community of Venice and is one of the oldest churches of the Greek diaspora. Look for its leaning bell tower beside the canal; inside, the iconostasis holds icons by Michael Damaskinos, and since 1991 it has been the cathedral of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy.
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Hugues– France –
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bien
Tunbola – Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
The activity went well, the riddles sometimes were not easy to understand but overall it was a fun activity and a cost effective way to go through the major historical places in Venice at your own pace.
Germany –
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Schöne Tour. Gut geeignet für Familien. Die Stationen sind max. 5 Minuten voneinander entfernt. Den Kids (5 & 8 Jahre hat es gefallen).
Swenja – Germany –
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Leider braucht man die ganze Zeit WLAN, mobile Daten reichen nicht. Das macht es schwer
Germany –
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Sehr interessant und lösbare Aufgaben ohne Zeitdruck – man kann zwischendurch Pausen einlegen und die entdeckten Orte besuchen.
France –
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Nous avons adoré découvrir Venise en famille, appris pleins de petites anecdotes grâce à l’appli et certainement vu des bâtiments que nous n’aurions pas vu autrement. Les enfants sont fans !
Jennifer– Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Insgesamt viele hilfreiche Informationen und eine angenehme Runde durch Venedig. Schade ist, dass die Route nur in vorgegebener Reihenfolge gemacht werden kann. Verwirrend auch die immer wiederkehrenden Nachfragen, ob man sicher sei, hier weiterzumachen. Die Informationen waren umfangreich, aber der Satzbau schwierig zu lesen. Kürzere Sätze wären besser. Die Fragen fanden wir auch nicht eindeutig, aber wir konnten 9/10 lösen. Insgesamt okay mit Verbesserungsvorschlägen.
François– France –
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Bonne activité qui stimule les enfants à merveille pour les faire marcher dans la ville
Denmark –
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Slovakia –
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Italy –
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Attività valida il prezzo potrebbe tenersi più basso visto l autonomia
Israel –
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Was great to keep the kids engaged. App is a bit buggy but works well enough.
Germany –
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Eine Alternative zur normalen Walkingtour. Hat Spaß gemacht.
France –
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Cette chasse au Trésor permet de découvrir des lieux dans lesquels nous ne serions sans doute pas passés. Très sympa.
Germany –
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sandrine– France –
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Bonne activité pour intéressé les enfants !
Laure– France –
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Des explications précises Une visite à notre rythme Amusant pour adultes et enfants
France –
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Bonne activité, pour découvrir la ville de manière ludique avec les enfants.
Portugal –
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Italy –
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Great way to spend a few hours – although we wanted to do the hunt backwards from our location (which was near the end) and we couldn’t easily figure out how to do that
Christelle– France –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Une façon ludique et très agréable de découvrir la ville ! Tout est très clair (infos, détails de chaque étape…) et adapté aux enfants. Les adultes aussi se prennent au jeu !
France –
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Libellés des questions particuliers ( exemple chiffres latins à transformer en code: en fait non à garder en chiffres latins) Mais surtout pas moyens de changer les étapes d’où grosse perte de temps et beaucoup de marche
Italy –
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Germany –
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Die Rätsel waren oft Bilderrätsel ohne Erklärung, was zu tun ist. Das war eher frustrierend. Die Informationen zu Venedig und die einzelnen Orte, waren für Kinder nicht fesselnd, sondern langweilig. Die Aktion würden wir so nicht wieder buchen.
Austria –
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Stephanie– United Kingdom –
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I liked the fact you could do it in your own time and there was lots of information
United States –
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Great fun with the kids.
Italy –
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Caccia al tesoro per famiglie con bambini sopra i 6 anni. Gli indizi si trovano lungo un percorso che attraversa alcune delle attrazioni più famose di Venezia. Divertente sfidarsi in squadre.
Barbara– Italy –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Schön gemacht – um den Kindern auch die Kultur näherzubringen. Nette Geschichten, die rund um die Attraktionen erzählt werden! Alles in allem – eine super Sache um so einen Städteurlaub zu beginnen!
Austria –
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Gut, allerdings etwas einseitig, da bei jeder Station das gleiche Schema angewendet wurde. Könnte etwas abwechslungsreicher sein.
Finland –
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Aivis – Latvia –
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It was great, plan worked
Netherlands –
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Spain –
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Germany –
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France –
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Pas tellement ludique pour des enfants. Impossible de revenir en arrière. On aurait aimé plus d’étapes avec des détails dans la ville et pas seulement des monuments.
Francesca – Italy –
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Bella esperienza. In una tappa l’enigma ci è sembrato avere poca logica. È stata una bella occasione per attraversare zone che non avremmo visitato.
Latvia –
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Anne-Laure – France –
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Riche en informations et en légendes, le format a plu aux enfants comme aux parents. Le circuit dans Venise etait adapté, nous l’avons fait sur une journée pour bien profiter de tous les monuments mais aussi des lieux mentionnés dans les légendes par le jeu.
Netherlands –
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Laurra– United Kingdom –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Fun way to spend a half day, the clues are quite challenging (too hard for children for example), nice to have the info about Venice.
Netherlands –
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Veel zien op details in korte tijd
Germany –
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Germany –
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Marion – France –
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Activité idéale pour les familles : nous avons pris bcp de plaisir à le faire , les enfants étaient très amusés tout comme les adultes et nous avons découvert les centres d’intérêts efficacement !
Germany –
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Italy –
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Tour interessante, un pò fuori dalle rotte principali. Consigliatissima la visita alla Chiesa S.M.Gloriosa dei frari.
Christophe – France –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Trop cher pour ce que c’est. Les énigmes sont sans intérêts. Il n’y a pas besoin de prendre plus d’une place, une application suffit. Bref je ne conseille pas
Lindsay – United Kingdom –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Really nice way to see Venice as a family. The four of us split into two pairs and did it as a challenge. Was really good fun.
Belgium –
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