Rick Steves Pocket Venice

Introduction

Map: Venice

Key to this Book

About this Book

Venice by Neighborhood

Map: Venice’s Districts

Venice at a Glance

Planning Your Time

Daily Reminder

Venice is a world apart. Built on a hundred islands, its exotic-looking palaces are laced together by graceful bridges over sun-speckled canals. Romantics revel in the city’s atmosphere of elegant decay. And first-time visitors are often stirred deeply, waking from their ordinary lives to a fantasy world unlike anything they’ve ever seen.

Those are strong reactions, considering that Venice today, frankly, can also be an overcrowded tourist trap. But Venice offers so much. By day, it’s a city of art-filled museums, trendy shops, and narrow alleyways. At night, when the hordes of day-trippers have gone, another Venice appears. Glide in a gondola through quiet canals. Dance across a floodlit square. Don a Carnevale mask—or just a fresh shirt—and become someone else for a night.

About This Book

With this book, I’ve selected only the best of Venice—admittedly, a tough call. The core of the book is eight self-guided tours that zero in on Venice’s greatest sights and neighborhoods.

My Grand Canal Cruise, snaking through the heart of the historic core, introduces you to this moist metropolis. Then hit St. Mark’s Square, with its one-of-a-kind basilica and Doge’s Palace. I’ve included several neighborhood walks that take you to both major sights (Rialto Bridge) and out-of-the-way places (Frari Church).

The rest of the book is a traveler’s tool kit. You’ll find plenty more about Venice’s attractions, from shopping to nightlife to how to do a Venetian pub crawl. And there are helpful hints on saving money, avoiding crowds, getting around town, enjoying a great meal, and more.

Venice by Neighborhood

The island city of Venice (population 58,000) is shaped like a fish. Its major thoroughfares are canals. The Grand Canal winds through the middle of the fish, starting at the mouth where all the people and food enter, passing under the Rialto Bridge, and ending at St. Mark’s Square (Piazza San Marco). Park your 21st-century perspective at the mouth and let Venice swallow you whole.

The easiest way to navigate is by landmarks. Many street corners have a sign pointing you to (per) the nearest major landmark. St. Mark’s Square (San Marco) and Rialto Bridge are the center of the tourist action. Other major landmarks are Accademia Bridge (gateway to the charming Dorsoduro neighborhood), Ferrovia (train station), and Piazzale Roma (another transportation hub). I’ve organized this book—sights, hotels, and restaurants—around these major landmarks.

Officially, Venice is divided into six districts, called sestieri (see the map). Addresses generally list the district and house number (e.g., Cannaregio #221b), not the street. For more on the sestieri and addresses, see here. I find it easier to navigate by landmarks, not sestiere, addresses, or street names.

Venice is small. You can walk across it in an hour, and most sights are within 20 minutes of the Rialto Bridge or St. Mark’s Square. Beyond the city’s core lie several other interesting islands (Murano, Burano, Torcello, Lido) accessible only by boat.

Planning Your Time

Plan your sightseeing carefully to avoid lines and work around closed days. ( See my sightseeing tips, here.) Venice is small enough that, even if you only had one day, you could see the biggies in a 12-hour sightseeing blitz. But let’s assume you have at least three days.

Day 1: In the morning, take the slow vaporetto #1 down the Grand Canal from the train station/Piazzale Roma to San Marco. Stop off along the way to explore the Rialto market, grabbing an early lunch at the cicchetti bars nearby. Continue down the Grand Canal to St. Mark’s Square. Spend the afternoon sightseeing the square, the basilica, the Doge’s Palace, the Correr Museum, and the Campanile. Around 20:00, have dinner (make a reservation). Afterward, enjoy the dueling orchestras with a drink on St. Mark’s Square.

Day 2: Spend the morning shopping and exploring (consider my Rialto to Frari Church Walk) as you make your way to the Frari Church. See the Frari and nearby Scuola San Rocco. Head over to the Accademia/Dorsoduro area and have lunch. Spend the afternoon seeing the Dorsoduro’s main artsy sights: Ca’ Rezzonico, Accademia, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Or take a nap. Around 18:00, have a pub crawl for dinner. Afterward, take a gondola ride (or, much cheaper, a moonlight vaporetto ride).

Day 3 and Beyond: Choose from among Venice’s lesser sights: a trip to San Giorgio Maggiore, La Salute, modern art at the Punta della Dogana, or the area east of St. Mark’s (Church of San Zaccaria, Scuola Dalmata di San Giorgio). Budget time for just exploring, using my walks as a jumping-off point. In the evening, have dinner and catch a Vivaldi concert. With more time in Venice, you could visit the lagoon islands (Murano, Burano, and more), but these require at least a half-day.

Quick Tips: Avoid the midday crowds around St. Mark’s as best you can. Take advantage of my free Venice audio tours, covering the Grand Canal Cruise, St. Mark’s Square, St. Mark’s Basilica, and the Frari Church— see here for details. A vaporetto pass and a Museum Pass may be worthwhile. Consider an afternoon nap to maximize energy for after dark. Stop often for gelato.

Finally, remember that Venice itself is its greatest sight. Make time to wander, shop, and simply be. When you cross a bridge, look both ways. You may be hit with a lovely view.

I hope you have a great trip! Traveling like a temporary local and taking advantage of the information here, you’ll enjoy the absolute most out of every mile, minute, and euro. I’m happy that you’ll be visiting places I know and love, and meeting some of my favorite Italian people.

Happy travels! Buon viaggio!

Grand Canal Cruise

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ORIENTATION

BACKGROUND

Map: Grand Canal

THE TOUR BEGINS

1 Ferrovia

2 Riva de Biasio

3 San Marcuola

4 San Stae

5 Ca’ d’Oro

6 Rialto Mercato

7 Rialto

8 San Silvestro

9 Sant’Angelo

10 San Tomà

11 Ca’ Rezzonico

12 Accademia

13 Santa Maria del Giglio

14 Salute

15 San Marco

16 San Zaccaria

Canal Grande

Take a joyride and introduce yourself to Venice by boat. Cruise the Canal Grande all the way from the train station (Ferrovia) to St. Mark’s Square.

If it’s your first trip down the Grand Canal, you might want to stow this book and just take it all in—Venice is a barrage on the senses that hardly needs narration. But these notes give the cruise a little meaning and help orient you to this great city.

I’ve organized this tour by boat stop. I’ll point out what you can see from the current stop, and what to look forward to as you cruise to the next stop. Now, kick back and let Venice entertain you with its charms.

ORIENTATION

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Length of This Tour: Allow 45 minutes.

Cost: €7 for a one-hour vaporetto ticket, or covered by a transit pass—the best choice if you want to hop on and off ( see here).

When to Go: Avoid the morning rush hour (8:00-10:00), when everyone is headed toward San Marco. In the uncrowded evening, sunset bathes the buildings in gold; after dark, chandeliers light up building interiors.

Getting There: This tour starts at the Ferrovia vaporetto stop (at Santa Lucia train station). It also works if you board upstream from Ferrovia at Piazzale Roma, a short walk over the Calatrava Bridge.

Catching Your Boat: This tour is designed to be done on the slow boat #1, which takes about 45 minutes. The express boat #2 travels the same route, but it skips some stops and takes 25 minutes, making it hard to sightsee. Also, some #2 boats terminate at Rialto; confirm that you’re on a boat that goes all the way to San Marco.

Audio Tour: If you download my free audio tour ( see here), you won’t even have to look at the book.

Stops to Consider: Consider hopping on and off along the way. Some interesting stops are: San Marcuola (Jewish Ghetto), Mercato Rialto (fish market and famous bridge), Ca’ Rezzonico (Museum of 18th-Century Venice), Accademia (art museum and the nearby Peggy Guggenheim Collection), and Salute (huge art-filled church).

Sightseeing Tips: Try to snag a seat in the bow (though not all boats have them). You’re more likely to find an empty seat if you catch the vaporetto at Piazzale Roma. Frankly, it’s hard to sightsee while reading aboard a moving boat. Some readers do this cruise twice—once in either direction—to enjoy it all.

Starring: Palaces, markets, boats, bridges—Venice.

BACKGROUND

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While you wait for your boat, here’s some background on Venice’s “Main Street.”

At more than two miles long, nearly 150 feet wide, and nearly 15 feet deep, the Grand Canal is the city’s largest canal, lined with its most impressive palaces. It’s the remnant of a river that once spilled from the mainland into the Adriatic. The sediment it carried formed barrier islands that cut Venice off from the sea, forming a lagoon.

Venice was built on the marshy islands of the former delta, sitting on wood pilings driven nearly 15 feet into the clay (alder was the preferred wood). About 25 miles of canals drain the city, dumping like rivers (called “rios”) into the Grand Canal. Technically, Venice has only three canals: Grand, Giudecca, and Cannaregio. The 45 small waterways that dump into the Grand Canal are referred to as rivers (e.g., Rio Novo).

Venice is a city of palaces, dating from the days when the city was the world’s richest. The most lavish palaces formed a grand architectural cancan along the Grand Canal. Once frescoed in reds and blues, with black-and-white borders and gold-leaf trim, they made Venice a city of dazzling color. This cruise is the only way to truly appreciate the palaces, approaching them at water level, where their main entrances were located. Today, strict laws prohibit any changes in these buildings, so while landowners gnash their teeth, we can enjoy Europe’s best-preserved medieval city—slowly rotting. Many of the grand buildings are now vacant. Others harbor chandeliered elegance above mossy, empty, often flooded ground floors.

THE TOUR BEGINS M

1 Ferrovia M

The Santa Lucia train station, one of the few modern buildings in town, was built in 1954. It’s been the gateway into Venice since 1860, when the first station was built. “F.S.” stands for “Ferrovie dello Stato,” the Italian state railway system.

More than 20,000 people a day commute in from the mainland, making this the busiest part of Venice during rush hour. The Calatrava Bridge ( see here), just upstream, was built in 2008 to alleviate some of the congestion.

Opposite the train station, atop the green dome of San Simeon Piccolo church, St. Simeon waves ciao to whoever enters or leaves the “old” city. The pink church with the white Carrara-marble facade, just beyond the train station, is the Church of the Scalzi (Church of the Barefoot, named after the shoeless Carmelite monks), where the last doge (Venetian ruler) rests. It looks relatively new because it was partially rebuilt after being bombed in 1915 by Austrians aiming (poorly) at the train station.

2 Riva de Biasio M

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Venice’s main thoroughfare is busy with all kinds of boats: taxis, police boats, garbage boats, ambulances, construction cranes, and even brown-and-white UPS boats. Somehow they all manage to share the canal in relative peace.

About 25 yards past the Riva de Biasio stop, look left down the broad Cannaregio Canal to see what was the Jewish Ghetto ( described on here). The twin, pale-pink, eight-story “skyscrapers”—the tallest buildings you’ll see at this end of the canal—are reminders of how densely populated the community was. Founded in 1516 near a copper foundry, this segregated community gave us our word “ghetto.”

3 San Marcuola M

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At this stop, facing a tiny square just ahead, stands the unfinished Church of San Marcuola, one of only five churches fronting the Grand Canal. Centuries ago, this canal was a commercial drag of expensive real estate in high demand by wealthy merchants. About 20 yards ahead on the right stands the stately gray Turkish “Fondaco” Exchange, one of the oldest houses in Venice. Its horseshoe arches and roofline of triangles and dingleballs are reminders of its Byzantine heritage. Turkish traders in turbans docked here, unloaded their goods into the warehouse on the bottom story, and then went upstairs for a home-style meal and a place to sleep. Venice in the 1500s was very cosmopolitan, welcoming every religion and ethnicity, so long as they carried cash. (Today the building contains the city’s Museum of Natural History—and Venice’s only dinosaur skeleton.)

Just 100 yards ahead on the left, Venice’s Casinò