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Full tour of Dublin's Old Library and the Book of Kells
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From €70 per person
If Italian is your language and you want a proper guided tour of Dublin rather than an audio device and a laminated map, this is the one. It’s the only guided tour in Italian that takes you through the Book of Kells and the Long Room at Trinity College’s Old Library, and it runs for five full hours with a certified local guide at every step.
You start at Dublin Castle - a place that holds around 800 years of Irish history inside a surprisingly compact set of walls. Your guide walks you through the medieval towers, the castle facades, and the Victorian gardens, untangling the layers of British viceroys, Irish revolutionaries, and the long, complicated relationship between this city and the power that governed it from this spot. It’s a place that reveals itself slowly, and the commentary makes sense of what you’re actually looking at.
From Dublin Castle you move into Temple Bar. The cobbled streets, the colourful murals, and the historic pubs of Dublin’s most famous neighbourhood work best on foot, and with a guide who knows the difference between the parts that are genuinely historic and the parts that are performing history for tourists. You’ll likely hear traditional Irish music as you walk through - it’s that kind of neighbourhood.
The tour finishes at Trinity College with a visit to both the Book of Kells and the Old Library. The Book of Kells is a ninth-century illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels, created by monks and considered one of the finest examples of medieval art in existence. The Long Room - 65 metres of dark oak shelving holding over 200,000 of the library’s oldest books - is one of the most striking interiors in Ireland. Your guide covers the history of Trinity College, its founding under Elizabeth I in 1592, and the cultural significance of what you’re seeing.
This is the only Italian-language tour in Dublin that gives you this combination of stops with a certified, knowledgeable guide throughout.
Temple Bar is worth understanding before you visit. The neighbourhood gets a lot of criticism from Dubliners for being overly touristy, and some of that is fair. But the area genuinely is historic - it was Dublin’s original cultural quarter and media district before it became what it is today. Your guide will help you see past the stag parties to what’s actually interesting about it.
The Long Room is one of those spaces that earns the word breathtaking. The 65-metre barrel-vaulted ceiling, the double-decker shelves, the smell of old books - it’s the kind of interior that people describe afterwards in hushed tones. Photography is allowed in parts of the library, so bring your phone charged.
Dublin Castle’s gardens are a quiet surprise. Most visitors walk through the formal grounds without realising there’s a garden below that was once the moat of the medieval castle. Your guide will cover this, but knowing it in advance means you’ll look for it differently.
Five hours is a proper day out, not just a morning. Wear good shoes, carry water, and plan to eat well when you finish. The area around Dame Street and the blocks south of Trinity College have some decent spots for an early dinner or a long lunch if you finish in the afternoon.
Speaking Italian in Dublin tends to be warmly received. Irish people have a particular affinity for Italian visitors - the connections between Irish and Italian Catholic culture, the shared love of food and family, and decades of summer language school students mean the warmth is genuine. Don’t be surprised if locals outside the tour try to join the conversation.