VoiceMap

These 15 phrases are featured on VoiceMap tours around the world, and most of them started out far stranger than they sound today.

In St. Augustine, “saved by the bell” comes from the string that was tied to a corpse's wrist and attached to a bell above ground – in case someone had been buried alive and needed rescuing. In Venice, medieval bankers worked from wooden tables called "banca" at the Rialto Market, and if one couldn't pay his debts, his table was smashed, giving us "bankrupt." And in London, Admiral Nelson, already blind in one eye, would hold his telescope up so he could ignore orders he disagreed with – which is where we get "turn a blind eye."

Download VoiceMap and find out what you've actually been saying this whole time, in cities around the world. 🎧

One particularly active VoiceMapper has spent the equivalent of 10 days taking tours. She’s listened to stories from local publishers on audio walks and drives across 77 destinations and 20 countries. Imagine the state of her tour library!

Version 16 of the app, which we’ve just released, was built with VoiceMappers like her in mind.

You can now mark tours as Completed, then filter them out of your library. Sort by newest, oldest, or what's nearby. And search by attraction to find every tour linked to a landmark, like the 15 that cross Florence's Ponte Vecchio.

This statue was at the centre of Rome's gossip. Today, nobody recalls why it's even there.

Context Travel’s Hidden Gems of Ancient Rome tour points it out on a quiet side street off Via del Corso. They also share how it and the five other statues named Rome’s “Talking Statues” came to be. Swipe to find out why. 🎧

Save this for your Rome trip and download the tour using the link below.

🔗 voicemap.me/hiddenrome

Provincetown's pilgrims landed here in 1620, but it's the pirates and ghosts who stuck around.

Provincetown Walking Tours’ 3-day Provincetown itinerary shows you both sides. VoiceMap's The Pilgrims, Pirates, and Pride tour traces the town's journey from that 1620 landing to its present as an art-filled LGBTQ+ haven. Then the Helltown Horrors and Pirates Ghost Tour takes you back out after hours to dig into its darker history. Day 2 slows things down with The West End Stroll past sea captains' houses and hidden gardens, ending at Herring Cove Beach, one of the few East Coast spots where the sun sets straight into the Atlantic.

Save this for your Provincetown trip, and share it with someone who needs to book flights. 🗺️

The Canteen Provincetown Art Association and Museum

Girona says a swarm of flies drove off a French army in the 13th century. The truth was probably mosquitoes.

Girona-born guide Miquel Roger narrates VoiceMap's new walking tour of the Old Town. You'll stop at the lioness statue that locals once kissed to prove they were from Girona. You'll cross a red iron bridge older than the Eiffel Tower, built by the same company. You'll also climb the cathedral steps where Jaime Lannister rides up in Game of Thrones. 🎧

Save this for your Girona trip, and download the tour using the link below.

🔗 voicemap.me/girona

These 11 markets are featured on VoiceMap tours around the world, and people have been haggling in some of them for over a thousand years.

Kathmandu's Asan Bazaar has been trading spices, cloth, and beads at the crossroads of two ancient trade routes for roughly 1,700 years. Kraków's Cloth Hall burned to the ground in the 1500s, got a Renaissance facelift, and its ground floor still operates as a market today. And in 1676 alone, an estimated 230,000 cattle and 1.5 million sheep were driven through London's Smithfield Market, which has been trading meat since at least the 10th century.

Download VoiceMap and haggle your way through centuries of history in your next city. 🎧



Credit 📸:

A front door on Bath's Royal Crescent landed its owner in court. They were sued over the paint colour.

Funwithmyfamily's Family-Friendly Facts and Fables tour points it out on the city's most photographed street. Swipe to find out why. 🎧

Save this for your Bath trip and download the tour using the link below.

🔗 voicemap.me/bath

"Just about as good as having her walk with us."⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

That's the whole idea behind VoiceMap. GPS-triggered narration starts exactly when you reach each stop, so it feels like your guide is right there beside you. No screen to check, no one to keep up with. 🎧

Download the app using the link in bio.