Venice Bites Food Tours

21/08/2021

Thank you so much for all of the wonderful messages!

We have absolutely loved the photos that some of you attached!

Could we make a request for those that took our tours?

If you have a picture from the tour, would you add it here?

Seeing these photos has absolutely made our day and we’d love to see more!

Memories with you are just flooding in. ♥️♥️♥️

18/08/2021

**Posted from Maya’s personal page**

Hello Friends,

I’m back.

I’ll tell you where I’ve been.

When last we tuned in, Adam and I had to close Venice Bites Food Tours because of the pandemic.

I was also hospitalized twice in Venice— April 2020 and July 2020 with pneumonia, Bell’s Palsy and sepsis-induced tachycardia. It is assumed that I had Covid, even though in those days there were lots of false negative tests.

By August 2020, we knew that tourism was not going to bounce back in Venice, and with my health scares… well, we just decided (for many reasons) to move to Ireland. The weather is more pleasant, no language barrier, etc. September 2020 we moved to County Cork.

In October, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had Stage II invasive ductal carcinoma in my right breast. The surgeons were fairly positive I could have a lumpectomy. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the margins they wanted and a micro cancer cell was found in one lymph node. I had a re-excision and 35 lymph nodes removed. Happily, all the lymph nodes were clear, meaning the cancer likely did not travel, but my surgeons saw more “suspicious” tissue so in the end, I had a right mastectomy.

Three months of chemotherapy and 15 rounds of radiation followed. I have completed all active treatment and will be taking tamoxifen for 5 - 10 years.

Prognosis is excellent. Likelihood of recurrence is incredibly low.

I’m coming out now because I’m strong enough to do so. Previous to this, as you can imagine, I didn’t have the mental, emotional or physical strength to put myself out here. I cried every day. I was terrified of dying. I was also on an endless treadmill of doctor appointments, biopsies, tests, surgeries, treatments, etc. I just went where the doctors pointed.

During all of this, I had Adam by my side, who did absolutely everything, but most importantly kept me laughing when I needed it most. If there is one thing I have learned, marry the funny one.

Even though we lost our business and our home in Venice, we both still feel so incredibly blessed.

We’re blessed that we have each other (divorce rates are sky high for cancer patients), we’re blessed that we are living in the most peaceful country with the kindest people imaginable, we’re blessed that we found an affordable, comfortable home to rent in the countryside, surrounded by happy cows. We’re blessed that in Ireland, all of my cancer treatments were/are free. We’re blessed by our family who helped us financially, we are blessed by support from the Federico family and by my dear grade school friend and fellow survivor Heidi. By the support from six truly amazing women, Linda, Mary, Susie , Barbara, Marjorie and Esther.

I could go on and on about being blessed, my heart just overflows with gratitude.

We have no idea what we are going to do in the future. We’d love to start another food tour, but tourism obviously is not the industry to be in right now, so we’re at a bit of a loss there. We miss our work, we miss meeting people from all over the world, we miss being hosts. We loved it and it was fulfilling and gave us purpose. Hopefully, we’ll figure out what to do in the future to bring us those feelings again.

But for now, I wanted to say hello, I’m well, and I’m back, bi***es.

08/09/2020

Hello friends,

Though we are no longer in Venice for the time being, for all those who are planning a trip to to this magical city and are looking for ideas on how to spend your time, we would like to introduce you to Nadia Danesin, owner/operator of "Friend in Venice." We've known Nadia for years, and she is one of our dearest friends. Aside from her passion and knowledge of Venice, Nadia an absolute joy to be around. We've taken some of her tours and had the best time. In addition to offering historical, cultural, walking, and art related tours, she also offers custom tours specifically designed around the interests of her guests. For anyone looking for a tour similar to what we offered, a food tour, simply contact Nadia, explain your tour preference, and she will design a tour based on her vast knowledge of some of the best bars, sweets shops, and restaurants Venice has to offer. We cannot speak highly enough about this woman. Friend in Venice is one of the top five rated tours on TripAdvisor, and for good reason.
We do not offer our recommendations lightly, and we have complete confidence that spending a day in Venice with Nadia as your guide will prove to be an experience that you will forever consider to be one of the highlights of your stay!

We hope you enjoy Venice as much as we do, and we know you'll love Nadia!

Adam and Maya

26/08/2020

Thank you all so much for the lovely messages and best wishes. We are trying to respond to each and every one of you and it’s been so heartwarming to reminisce about our times together.

The movers arrived today and we have two more days of them packing. We’re exhausted in all kinds of ways but please know that if we haven’t written you back, it’s only because we haven’t had a moment’s rest, but they are coming.

Thank you so much once again. It’s filled our hearts with joy and just a touch of the blues.

All the best,

Maya and Adam

24/08/2020

Hello Friends,

First of all, we hope you and your loved ones are doing well in spite of what's going on around the world. We think of you often, our friends around the world.

We are both healthy now, after months of battling illness, and with everything that's happened recently, we feel that it's important to bring everyone up to date.

After several months of discussion, sleepless nights, research, waiting, hoping, and much more discussion, we have decided to put Venice Bites Food Tours on hiatus.

Due to covid related travel restrictions, it has become necessary to stop giving tours for the foreseeable future. We will also be stepping back from our social media posts and updates so that we can focus on the new challenges that life has created.

Among those new challenges is the need to relocate to somewhere with more financial opportunities.

Therefore, we are moving to Ireland for the time being. There, we can hopefully find work that will tide us over until tourism is back, which according to multiple experts will be two to three years.

Please note that Venice Bites Food Tours is not closing, we are simply taking a hiatus. Our website and company name will continue to reside with us. And we will keep you updated on if / when we return to this most magical city and resume the walking food tours.

Thank you, every single person that has joined us over the years. This has been the best job we've ever had, hell, maybe the best job in the world, eating, drinking and making friends for a living.

Over the years, we have made many great friendships that we continue to cherish to this day, and countless incredible memories. Regardless of where life takes us from here, we will look back on these last few years as some of the best times of our lives.

Spending the day with all of you has inspired us in more ways than one and given us a sense of fulfillment and reward that cannot possibly be expressed in words.

Thank you, to every one of our vendors. You have been our partners, our neighbors, and our friends. We will miss seeing you everyday, miss our conversations, and especially sharing cicchetti e un ombra together, or a caffè coretto in the mornings! And we will miss Venice. Deeply.

However, the future is unwritten, and so is the conclusion of our story. This is merely the end of a chapter, only to begin another.

Until we meet again, we wish you all the best life has to offer in health, in prosperity, and especially in food!

To new adventures...

Adam & Maya

31/05/2020

This should do it!

29/05/2020

Nothing is better than Italian food! ❤️🇮🇹

22/05/2020

Italy was the first European country to impose nationwide restrictions in early March, only permitting an initial relaxation of the rules on May 4, when it allowed factories and parks to reopen. Monica Robaldo, owner of the Pierre Alexis 1877 restaurant in Courmayeur, said she would not reopen befor...

22/05/2020

We were supposed to be in Italy this week with 12 travelers.

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We would have been in Positano dining on Marika’s porch with her incredible view of the Mediterranean,

touring the stunning isle of Capri with Domenico,

rolling pasta dough with Chef Alain in a Tuscan villa,

following Gaia around the narrow backstreets of Florence,
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and being entertained by Gloria in her stunning apartment overlooking the Duomo.

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In February, we could have never guessed that instead we’d be here — and by “here” we mean 1. decidedly not Italy, and 2. hosting online cooking classes.

But over the past few months, even though it’s all been weird, and scary, and cabin fever-y (though not COVID fever-y here, thank heavens), Italy really hasn’t seemed that far away.

We’ve been talking to our friends there more than ever, we’ve been sharing the cuisine and recipes of Italy with all of you, and uh, personally, we’ve been consuming a lot of pasta ourselves 😋
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We won’t be physically traveling to Italy for a while, but we’ll be doing our very best to travel virtually.

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We’ll keep cooking, we’ll keep Zooming, we’ll keep sharing our love for exploration and new, connecting experiences — and we’ll keep inviting you all along on this adventure.

Thank you for joining us ❤️

22/05/2020

In uncertain times, this dreamy outdoor piano performance along a serene Venice canal is just perfect.

20/05/2020

We are excited! This our first meal from the outside world in 77 days. We chose a meal from Muro Frari, which as you know, is our sit down lunch spot on our Off the Eaten Path Tour. We are delighted that Muro Frari is again open for business. Thank you so much to the Federico family for the wonderful gift. ♥️

19/05/2020

18/05/2020

One of favorite Venetians, Valentina, along with Stefano (we’re assuming he’s the cameraman) saying Ciao and that they are looking forwarding to seeing you soon in the most beautiful mask shop in Venice. ♥️

15/05/2020

For the second time in six weeks, Venice has workers disinfecting the entire city. This is what preventative measures look like. Grazie!

07/05/2020

06/05/2020

30/04/2020

Found in our mailbox yesterday. An identical package is being placed in every mailbox in this entire city. During these stressful times, having proof in hand of the tireless efforts by the Venetian authorities to protect their people speaks volumes. We are grateful. Thank you.

29/04/2020

After misleading reports circulated this week claiming that Italy had decided to close its borders to visitors until next year, here's a look at the facts on travel to Italy.