Rough Guide. Venice Directions

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San Pietro di Castello

Marooned on the edge of the city, the former

cathedral presides over a district where

boat-maintenance is the main business.

 P.128  EASTERN CASTELLO 

Campo San Giacomo

dell’Orio

The area around the church of San Giacomo

dell’Orio is spacious and underpopulated, as

it lies off the beaten track for the majority of

visitors.

 P.94  SAN POLO & SANTA CROCE 

Northern Cannaregio

On any day of the year, residents far

outnumber tourists on the long canalside

pavements of northern Cannaregio.

 P.108  CANNAREGIO 

More than anywhere

else in Italy, the

division between

bars and restaurants

is often difficult to

draw in Venice.

Almost every bar

serves sandwiches

at least, while a

distinctive aspect of

the Venetian social

scene is the

bacarò, which is

essentially a bar that

serves a range of snacks

called cicheti, plus

sometimes more

substantial meals.

Conversely, many

restaurants are fronted by

a bar, which may stay

open long after the kitchen

has shut down for the

night.

Food and drink

Wine bars

The Veneto produces more DOC

(Denominazione di origine controllata) wine

than any other region of Italy, so it’s no

surprise that it’s bursting with bars in

which you can sample Valpolicella,

Bardolino, Soave and Prosecco, the last a

light, champagne-like wine from the area

around Conegliano. Al Volto has the city’s

widest selection.

 P.68  SAN MARCO: NORTH OF

THE PIAZZA

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Seafood

Venice has dozens of restaurants, some

very good, some very bad, some very

expensive, many not, but almost all of

them have one thing in common: seafood

dominates the menu. Visit the Rialto fish

market for an overview of what’s on offer.

 P.90  SAN POLO & SANTA CROCE 

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Cafés

Europe’s first café opened in Venice in 1683,

and within a few decades Goldoni had

created a play in which the hero, a café

owner, declared “my profession is necessary

to the glory of the city”. Coffee culture is still

crucial to Venetian life, with every parish

having its busy café-cum-social-centre.

 P.62  SAN MARCO: THE PIAZZA 

Gelati

Every Italian city has its makers of sinful

homemade ice cream, and Venice has some

of the best. Don’t go home without sampling

the products of Paolin, or Nico, or Causin.

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WEST OF THE PIAZZA

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Cicheti and sandwiches

Virtually all bars will have a selection of plump

tramezzini

(sandwiches) at lunchtime, and in

many – such as the Osteria alle Botteghe –

you’ll find an enticing array of

cicheti

, typically

including

polpette

(small beef and garlic

meatballs),

carciofini

(artichoke hearts) and

polipi

(baby octopus or squid).

 P.75  SAN MARCO:

WEST OF THE PIAZZA

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Pasticcerie

Venetian pastries are as delicious as any in

Italy. Look out for the Antichi Pasticceri

Venexiani sign: membership of this group

signifies high standards and top-quality

ingredients. No standards – or prices – are

higher than those at the famous Marchini.

 P.67  SAN MARCO:

NORTH OF THE PIAZZA

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The music written

and performed in

San Marco was

imitated by

composers all over

Europe, and for a

long time Venice

was the world’s

greatest centre for

opera – around five

hundred works

received their first

performances here in the

first half of the eighteenth

century. And Venice was

home to the composer of

the Four Seasons, the

most frequently recorded of

all classical pieces. As you

might expect in a city with

a dearth of native

teenagers, the live music

scene isn’t too exciting, but

the university population

ensures the presence of a

few lively bars, some of

which double up as live

music venues.

Music in Venice

Monteverdi

The greatest of all Venetian composers

wrote sacred music for San Marco and

operas for the San Cassian opera house,

and is buried in the Frari.

 P.97  SAN POLO & SANTA CROCE 

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Palazzo Pisani

Venice’s conservatory of music is now

housed in the vast Palazzo Pisani, the

ostentatious home of the grotesquely

wealthy Pisani family.

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Palazzi Giustinian

The double palace of the

Palazzi Giustinian was for a

while the home of Richard

Wagner, who wrote part of

Tristan und Isolde

here.

 P.138  THE CANAL

GRANDE

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Paradiso Perduto

Nightlife in Venice is pretty

tame, but the buzzing

Paradiso Perduto – one of

Venice’s liveliest bars – often

has live music and DJs.

 P.113  CANNAREGIO 

The Pietà

Vivaldi wrote some of his finest music for the

orphanage of the Pietà, where he was violin-

master and choirmaster.

 P.121  CENTRAL CASTELLO 

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Teatro Malibran

Closed for decades, the historic Malibran is

now restored and back in business as the

city’s main concert hall.

 P.123  CENTRAL CASTELLO 

It may not have

produced monsters

to compare with the

Borgias and the

other murderous

clans of

Renaissance Italy,

but Venice’s

reputation was far

from spotless: the

Council of Ten (in

effect the

department of state

security) was once

regarded with the

same sort of dread

as Stalin’s secret

police, and the city’s

prisons were notorious far

beyond the city’s

boundaries. Various sites

around the city have dark

associations.

Crime and punishment

The Piazzetta columns

Many a felon’s life came to an end on the

executioner’s block between the twin

columns of the Piazzetta, a place whose

grisly aura lives on in Venetian superstition.

 P.60  SAN MARCO: THE PIAZZA 

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The Gobbo di Rialto

Misbehaving Venetians were sometimes told

to report to the Gobbo di Rialto for a partic-

ularly embarrassing form of punishment.

 P.92  SAN POLO & SANTA CROCE 

Paolo Sarpi

Brilliant scientist and dauntless defender of

Venice’s independence from papal inter-

ference, Father Sarpi fell foul of the Vatican

and was targetted by its hired assassins.

 P.110  CANNAREGIO 

The Bridge of Sighs

Towards the end of your visit to the Palazzo

Ducale, you cross the bridge by which

prisoners were led to their cells on the other

side of the canal.

 P.57  SAN MARCO: THE PIAZZA 

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Campo San Zaccaria

In the ninth century a doge was murdered

outside the church of San Zaccaria; three

hundred years later another doge suffered

the same fate.

 P.120  CENTRAL CASTELLO 

La Fenice

People went to prison for burning down the

opera house in 1996, but many are sceptical

that the real villains have been caught.

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Venice celebrates

enthusiastically a

number of special

days either not

observed elsewhere

in Italy, or, like the

Carnevale,

celebrated to a lesser

extent. Although they have

gone through various

degrees of decline and

revival, the form they take

now is still related very

strongly to their traditional

character. In addition to

these, Venice can boast

two of the continent’s most

prestigious cultural

events: the annual film

festival and the Biennale

art show, which – as the

name says – takes place in

alternate years.

Festivals

The Film Festival

Glamour and controversy always share top

billing at Venice’s annual film festival.

 P.172  ESSENTIALS 

The Regata Storica

A flotilla of ornate antique boats makes its

way down the Canal Grande to mark the

start of the Regata Storica, the year’s big

event for Venice’s gondoliers.

 P.173  ESSENTIALS 

La Vogalonga

The “long row” is the most arduous of Venice’s

numerous rowing races, inflicting 32 kilo-

metres of suffering on the competing crews.

 P.173  ESSENTIALS 

The Biennale

It’s been going for more than a hundred

years, and the Biennale remains the art

world’s most prestigious jamboree.

 P.172  ESSENTIALS 

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Carnevale

Italy’s wildest fancy-dress party fills the ten

days leading to Shrove Tuesday and draws

revellers from all over the world.

 P.173  ESSENTIALS 

Festa del Redentore

Celebrating the city’s deliverance from

plague, the Redentore festival culminates

with spectacular volleys of fireworks.

 P.173  ESSENTIALS 

Festa della Salute

The Salute church is the focal point of

another festival giving thanks for the

restoration of the city’s health (

salute

) after a

terrible pestilence.

 P.173  ESSENTIALS 

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