Venice: Grand Canal and Dorsoduro

Ponte degli Scalzi

The first day of  a week in Venice and what better way to get reacquainted with the city than a tour down the Grand Canal partly on foot and partly by vaporetto (water bus). The plan was to cover virtually the whole of the Grand Canal, from the Ferrovia (railway station) at the top end to where it meets the Guideca Canal and opens out into Bacino San Marco by Piazza San Marco. Vaporetto line 1 runs up and down the Canal, with stops more or less on alternate sides

We walked along the canal side from Ferrovia for a short distance to cross the Ponte degli Scalzi, one of only four bridges across the Grand Canal. The existing bridge dates from 1934 and was built to replace a 19th century iron built by the Austrians.

We walked through the usual maze of small streets to reach the next stop, Riva di Biasio, pausing to study the undistinguished, but unusually narrow Palazzo Flangini. It is said that exactly half of it was demolished out of spite in a row between two brothers who inherited it.

Now we hopped on another vaporetto to the next stop, San Marcuola for what our walk book promised would be an interesting view of the Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi, now the municipal casino. This was a deep disappointment. The view from the canal, once we were back on another vaporetto was much more pleasing.

We soon interrupted our route again to visit the museum of modern art in the Ca' Pesaro. There were some nice late 19th and early 20th century paintings, but it was also wonderful to able to see the spacious interior of this magnificent 17th century palace, one of the largest on the Grand Canal.

Resuming our vaporetto journey we passed the handsome Pescaria (fish market). It dates from only 1907, but looks older, being built in a convincing neo-Gothic style.

Soon afterward, we passed under the Rialto bridge, one of the great symbols of Venice, from the less touristy side.

The wooden Rialto bridge which can be seen in medieval paintings was destroyed by fire in 1514 and was built in 1588-91 to the ambitious designs of the appropriately named Andre del Ponte.

Beyond the bridge, the Grand Canal stretched out in an imposing fashion. I tried for a Canaletto style image.

 

We admired the fine palaces innumerable. The one on the right is the Ca' Foscari, with the Palazzi Giustinian and Bernardo Nani beside it.

By the time we got off at the third bridge, Accademia, we were starting to feel hungry and decided to head for the north side of the Dorsoduro where we remembered a nice restaurant overlooking the Guideca canal. First however, we climbed onto the bridge for the obligatory shot towards the mouth of the Grand Canal with the great church of the Salute on the right.

We headed confidently off and soon passed through the lovely campo Sant Agnese.

Slightly to our surprise, once we reached the canal side path we quickly located the restaurant, La Calcina, and had a leisurely lunch in the sunshine. We hadn't remembered that it was Ruskin's home in when he was writing his epic Stones of Venice. On the other bank, Palladio's imposing church La Redentore dominated the sky line.

We decided to do an impromptu walk around this section of the Dorsoduro and wandered inland to came to the beautiful 16th century facade of San Gregorio.

And then headed back to the Guideca canal for a fine view of San Georgio Maggiore, Palladio's other great Venetian church.

We now circled round underneath the Dogana, the customs house, and admired the view across to San Marco.

We took the vaporetto across and could now clearly see the top of the Dogana - . The building dates from 1677 and was apparently conceived as the prow of a ship - this is more apparent from the Bacino San Marco. It put us in mind of the Vienna Secession building.

Conditions: sunny, hot in the open, cool in the narrow streets.

Distance: about 3.5 miles of actual walking, and about 4 miles of vaporetto.

Rating: four stars.

Reflections

We hadn't made much use of the vaporetto network on our previous visits to Venice, but armed with a week's rover ticket it is an excellent way to get about and a much cheaper way of seeing the Grand Canal than a gondola trip, wonderful though that is. It will also allow us to take walks to distant parts of the city and not have to walk back. But most of all, it solves the perennial problem of crossing the Grand Canal. Otherwise you take have to take circuitous routes to use the two main bridges (Rialto and Accademia) or use the gondola ferries (traghetti) located at various points.