When spices were growing in Venice
One half of Venice consists of private gardens. Come inside and explore the green heart of Venice behind the red brick walls.
Green and fragrant online classes, coming to you from the oldest garden of Venice
Welcome to La Spezeria, our spice atelier located in a private garden in Venice! Come in and discover historical recipes, healing beauty food, spices and fragrances!
For more than 1500 years, Venice was a merchant hub, where spices arrived from the Levant and spice mixtures were created and sold all over Europe: The art of using herbs and spices to create wellness + beauty products, natural remedies and delicious food was developed in Venice! These natural recipes come in useful in our times of surplus and negligence. Discover the art of ancient apothecaries and spice masters, and elevate your health, beauty and food in a natural way.
In our online classes, we share the ORIGINAL Venetian recipes between the 9th and 18th century: Learn how to use herbs and spices to reach immediate well-being and long-term health. And explore Venice along the way!
Scroll and discover more!
Be our guest in a secret garden
Enroll in an online class, filled with lush green imagery, historical spice recipes, healing food and unknown stories of Venice!
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€56,00Venetia: Heritage and Culture of La Serenissima Republic of Venice
SIGNATURE CLASS: When spices were growing in Venice: Complete 3-step roadmap to explore the city in 2020-25, interactive with videos, garden guides, historical recipes and spice stories. Travel back in time to learn for the future.
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A Fragrant Pharmacy: The Healing Gardens of Venice
Wisdom from the healing gardens of Venice from which you can benefit to live well and healthy. Includes aromatherapy and healing food, introducing the forgotten recipes of Venetian monastery and spice gardens. ONLINE FROM 25 MARCH 2020.
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Profumi di Venezia: Fragrances and Natural Beauty from Venice
A map of Venetian perfumery and adventurous voyage along the spice road: Rediscovering the forgotten fragrances of Venice, and learning how to make natural beauty products based on aromatherapy, Venetian style. OPENS ON 25 APRIL 2020.
Our work and atelier was featured on:
About our green and fragrant online classes
from Janice Mancuso - the Italian Historical Society of America
"JoAnn Locktov has compiled a Venice Gift Guide: To assist
Venetians during recovery after the flood, she writes, “One of the ways to really help the
Venetian artisans is to support them through on-line orders … I’m hoping that people
refer to it throughout the year.”
Although all are beautiful, my favorite is La Venessiana, offering e-books and online
courses. The instructors are family members Iris and Lina, and their passion for
Venice is illustrated through the exquisite photographs and articles about life in Venice
posted on their website." ~ Janice Mancuso, The Italian Historical Society of America
More about us
Approximately 55,000 Venetians live in the historic center. Their numbers are down from 150,000 two centuries ago but this core of residents holds a deep love for their home, not least the writer, slow food expert and Venetian Iris Loredan. Iris and her grandmother are passionate to show people that there's much, much more to Venice than just St Mark's, beautiful though it is. So they write about the hidden, private side of Venice. From courtyard gardens to secet orchards, medicinal botany to vegetable patches. Most lie behind anonymus, vertiginous, red brick walls, totally unknown to passers-by or their guidebooks, and astonishingly gardens cover almost half the surface area of the city. Often the only clue you'll have to being near a secret sanctuary is a waft of heavy vanilla, Jasmine or lemon balm as you pass by. And most of the time you're probably no more than just a few feet away from an old vineyard, an ageing convent garden or, as Iris puts it, the second Venice, known only to residents. If you're lucky she'll take you there through her writing or in person. And if we're lucky Venice, her history and her gardens will survive in the safe hands of Venetians like Iris and her grandmother Lina.