Smithsonian Journeys Cultural Guides - Venice

CULTURAL GUIDES

Venice

F From promotional ads. Does not require payment.

San Secondo Po nt ed

ell a

VENICE

Li be

r tà

Museo Ebraico t t o Venezia e h

AG N

C Tronchetto

N

S an Michele

Madonna dell'Orto

A

R

E

Fo nd am en ta

G

Ca' Vendramin Chiesa G r a n d Calergi degli l e a e t ra Venezia- Scalzi Fondaco a n Santa C Ca' Pesaro da N dei Turchi Lucia uo ve Ca' d'Oro E Palazzo C Mocenigo

I

S

O

S A N T A

C R O

Piazzale Roma

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari Scuola Grande di San Rocco

Scuola Grande dei Carmini

D

O

R

S

S

A

O

D

U

a

R

L O Rialto

Can al e

Ponte dell’Accademia

O

Santa Maria Collezione della Salute Peggy Guggenheim

i

u

d

e

c

c

T

E

Museo Storico Navale di Venezia

Sa n

S an Giorg io Mag g iore

L

M

a

Giardini

r

o

G

S

c

t e Ca r e na le del a la G iu d e c c

di

Arsenale

a

N 0

½ mile 500 metres

nS

er v

Contains data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

La Grazia Sa

0

O

t

P

L

Z

Gallerie dell’ Accademia

Santi Giovanni e Paolo

Santa Maria Formosa e d C Museo an A G r Palazzo Querini e l Stampalia Contarini na Torre C a Palazzo O dell'Orologio del Bovolo C Fortuny Basilica di San Marco RCampanile A Palazzo Ducale M Museo Piazza a di S chiavone N Correr San Marco R i v S A la Teatro Fenice

N

Ca' Rezzonico

O

Nu ov e

olo

Table of Contents Title Page Copyright CHAPTER 1: A Brief History CHAPTER 2: Arriving CHAPTER 3: Getting Around by Boat CHAPTER 4: Helpful Information CHAPTER 5: Festivals in and Near Venice CHAPTER 6: Venice Biennale CHAPTER 7: Neighborhood by Neighborhood CHAPTER 8: Lagoon Islands CHAPTER 9: Day Trips From Venice CHAPTER 10: Food and Drink CHAPTER 11: Shopping CHAPTER 12: Venetian Vocabulary

SAN POLO The name of this small district refers to the 15th-century church of San Polo at its heart, in a square of the same name. Famous for being the place where the visiting Florentine ruler Lorenzo de’ Medici was assassinated in the 16th century, Campo San Polo was a lively public gathering place that hosted bullfights, races, and masquerade balls. Today, the

square is a quiet spot where locals meet on benches to share the day’s gossip and small children play.

Northeast of the square is the more populated Rialto area, its majestic bridge

spanning the Grand Canal. Beyond the souvenir stalls are the centuries-old pescheria (fish)

and erberia (fruit and vegetable) markets.

Tip: The Riva del Vin (also known as the Fondamenta del Vin) is one of the few promenades along the Grand Canal where you can enjoy a canalside stroll and a drink. As this is one of

the more highly trafficked spots in the city, don’t expect your walk to be intimate. And you

may be pestered by persuasive gondoliers who just happen to have an empty gondola with your name on it.

Scuola Grande di San Rocco (Calle Tintoretto, Campo San Rocco, tel. 041-5234864)

Founded in 1478 as a charitable institution, or scuola, and named in honor of St Roch, this

16th-century building houses an extensive and much-celebrated fresco cycle painted by Jacopo Tintoretto in the 1580s.

During the 14th and 15th centuries, Venice experienced a series of outbreaks of the

plague. In 1478, hoping to fortify their city against further ravages of the disease, a group of citizens established a scuola grande dedicated to St Roch, who they regarded as both a

protector against the plague and a champion of the poor. In 1517 architect Pietro Bon was hired to design the building and supervise construction. In keeping with the floor plan of other scuole, Bon's design featured two large rooms, one above the other. Two rows of

stone columns divided the ground floor Sala Terrena into three naves. A front door opened onto the piazza; a stairwell ascended to a landing with a domed roof and continued up to the Sala Superiore on the second floor. This upper hall was used primarily for religious events and meetings of the full confraternity. The second floor also housed the Sala dell'Albergo, a small room where the officers of the confraternity met in private.

Both Pietro Bon and his successor fell out with the confraternity. In 1527, Antonio

Scarpagnino took over the reins and continued working on the building until his death in

1549. He completed the facade, the grand staircase, and the Sala dell'Albergo. Construction was finally completed in 1560 under Giangiacomo dei Grigi, the fourth architect to supervise a project that took 47 years to finish.

In order to select an artist to decorate the building's vast interior, the confraternity

held a competition. They asked five artists, including Tintoretto, to submit a sketch

showing how they would portray St Roch entering heaven. Tintoretto, who by now was 46

years old and a well-established presence in Venice, trumped the others by turning in a full-

sized painting on a wood panel, which he clandestinely inserted into the ceiling frame of

the Sala dell'Albergo. In addition, he presented it as a gift to the confraternity and offered to paint the rest of the ceiling free of charge. Tintoretto's bold move secured him the

commission, and, along with it, immortality for himself and the building. Intent on creating his own version of the Sistine Chapel—decorated in resplendent fashion by Michelangelo

almost a century earlier—Tintoretto labored over the San Rocco project for the better part

of two decades. He carried out most of the work in three great flourishes between 1565 and 1588, completing more than 50 individual paintings spread across both floors of the building.

Tintoretto dedicated the ground floor Sala Terra almost entirely to the Blessed

Virgin, and chronological scenes from her life start just inside the front door with The

Annunciation and continue through The Assumption. The metaphorical journey also

includes The Adoration of the Magi, the Flight into Egypt, and the Massacre of the Innocents.

These works were among the last that Tintoretto completed at San Rocco (during 1583 to 1587).

Scarpagnino's virtuoso stairwell leads past two large paintings of the plague that

ravaged Venice in 1630 and were added long after Tintoretto had finished work. The

second floor opens onto the awe-inspiring splendor of the Sala Superiore. Scenes from the Old Testament cover the ceiling, while images of the New Testament radiate from the

alcoves around the walls. Together they form another visual journey, this time from the fall

of Adam and Eve to the resurrection of Christ. Once described as the Renaissance version of a graphic novel, the room features many of the most celebrated biblical stories: God

appears to Moses, Jonah Emerges From the Whale, Jacob's Ladder, the Sacrifice of Isaac, the

Baptism of Christ, the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, the Temptation of Christ, The Last

Supper, and many more.

The small, dark Sala dell'Albergo off the Sala Superiore was the first room that

Tintoretto worked on. St Roch in Glory, the painting that gained him the commission, is surrounded by scenes from the Stations of the Cross, including Christ Before Pilate, the

Crowning with Thorns, and The Way to Calvary. The sequence reaches a climax in the

spectacular Crucifixion (1565), an epic masterpiece with multiple stories playing out around the Cross, perhaps the most vivid version of Christ's death ever rendered.

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (Campo dei Frari, tel. 041-2728611)

Around the death of St Francis of Assisi in 1226, a group of his disciples arrived in Venice

with the intention of establishing a local presence in the city. The doge granted them a plot of land in San Polo to build a church, which the order later replaced with a second, larger

one, and then the current edifice. More than a century in the making, the basilica was finally consecrated in 1492. Dedicated to the miraculous passage of the Virgin Mary to heaven at the end of her life, the church towers over the small Campo dei Frari and the Rio del Frari

that runs down to the Grand Canal. It's famous for having the only rood screen still existing in Venice and as the last resting place of the great Venetian painter Titian, who died 1576 and who, during his lifetime, helped adorn the basilica's flamboyant interior.

The Frari's plain exterior, dominated by a large rose window over the entrance, is a

classic example of what could be called Franciscan Gothic. Devoid of gargoyles and flying

buttresses and built using terracotta and other materials that exude harmony, beauty, and simplicity of line, it reflects the Franciscan Order's emphasis on austerity and humble

demeanor. But that simplicity disappears the moment one walks through the massive doors into a nave decorated with vibrant paintings and elaborate mausoleums.

Facing each other across the nave are the tomb of the 17th–18th-century

Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova and Titian's massive funerary monument. Canova's

pyramid-shaped tomb is based on his design for a monument to Titian that was never built due to lack of funds. The tomb houses the sculptor's heart, his body having been buried in Possagno, the town of his birth. Titian's marble monument was designed by Canova's

students and erected in 1852, nearly 300 years after the artist's death. Consisting of a

Venetian winged lion poised above the figure of Titian ensconced on a throne, it is situated over the spot where people believe he was buried. Farther along on the right side, a

remarkably robust statue of St Jerome by Alessandro Vittoria looms in front of Giuseppe Nogari's painting St Joseph of Cupertino in Ecstasy.

With doubt, the nave's crowing glory is the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro, which Titian

painted over seven years between 1519 and 1526. Dominating the chapel of the 16th-

century Pesaro family, the masterpiece shows papal admiral Jacopo Pesaro and his brother kneeling before the Blessed Virgin and Christ Child, who for the first time in Renaissance

painting are not situated in the center of the composition. Titian allegedly used his wife as the model for Mary. An elaborate rood screen separates the basilica's nave and chancel.

Completed in 1475, the screen's marble figures were chiseled by Bartolomeo Bon and

Pietro Lombardo. Just beyond is the Monk's Choir, three tiers of wooden seats decorated with carvings of various saints and Venetian scenes. Very rare in any church, the choir is flanked by two organs.

Santa Maria Gloriosa reaches a stunning climax in the apse, where the main altar is

surrounded by more masterpieces than most art museums can boast. Out-doing them all is Titian's towering altarpiece, the Assumption of the Virgin, painted between 1416 and 1418.

This was the artist's first major commission in Venice and the work cast him as both an

artistic maverick and superstar. Titian crafted an image that literally and figuratively soars

toward the heavens, a melange of bold colors and animated figures that broke with existing Renaissance style. Viewing the painting for the first time centuries later, the young Oscar Wilde was inspired to call it "certainly the best picture in Italy." Titian's tour de force

overwhelms the large, elaborate tombs of Doge Francesco Foscari (1373–1457), who

bankrupted Venice during his tenure, and Doge Nicolò Tron (c. 1399–1473) on either side.

Titian's Assumption of the Virgin

Small choir chapels to the right of the main alter safeguard other masterworks,

including Donatello's statue John the Baptist, the artist's first and only remaining work in Venice. At 55 inches high, the wooden figure is smaller than the saintly figures arrayed around it. And not nearly as decorous: Dressed in animal skins and sporting a straggly beard, Donatello's tired-looking Baptist is an eraly example of Renaissance realism.

Restoration of the statue in the early 1970s revealed that it had been repainted twice over the centuries, as well as the date "1438," which is not regarded as the year that Donatello completed the figure.

John the Baptist by Donatello

The nearby Bernardo Chapel revolves around St Mark Enthroned and Sts John the

Baptist, Jerome, Peter, and Nicholas, an altarpiece painted by Bartolomeo Vivarini in 1482.

An adjacent door leads to the sacristy and Giovanni Bellini's moving Frari Triptych.

Completed in 1488, the monumental work depicts the Madonna and Child flanked by St Peter and St Nicholas of Bari (on the left) and St Mark and St Benedict (on the right),

everything placed with an elaborate wooden frame that Bellini most likely designed

himself. The triptych illustrates Bellini's traditional Renaissance style, in contrast to the

innovative approach of his pupil Titian elsewhere in the church. Henry James quipped that Bellini's triptych "is as solemn as it is gorgeous." Composer Richard Wagner was equally

moved and later claimed that its "extraordinary loftiness gave me an aesthetic thrill" that inspired him to create the epic opera Die Meistersinger von NĂźrnberg.

Roaming left from the main altar, you soon come upon a choir chapel that contains

the tomb of Claudio Monteverdi, one of the greatest 17th-century composers. Although

born in Lombardy, Monteverdi spent much of his life in Venice as conductor at the Basilica San Marco and later as a Roman Catholic priest. The baptismal font in the adjacent Corner Chapel is adorned with a slighted damaged rendering of St John the Baptist (1554) by Venetian sculptor and architect extraordinaire Jacopo Sansovino. The chapel also showcases Vivarini's Triptych of St Mark—Pala di San Marco (1474).

The cloisters attached to Santa Maria Gloriosa have evolved from a Franciscan

monastery that once housed 300 monks, and barracks for Napoleon's troops, into the

Archivio di Stato di Venezia (Venice State Archives). Called the Convento dei Frari (or the

Ca' Granda dei Frari), the sprawling complex now houses a large collection of irreplaceable documents covering more than a thousand years from the 8th-century AD founding of the

Venetian Republic through the Napoleonic occupation, the Austrian period, Italian

independence, and the 20th century. Most of the collection is kept in former monks' cells

arranged around the cloisters, and among the parchments, papers, maps, and drawings are reports from Venetian diplomats posted in Istria, Dalmatia, Cyprus, the Levant and other parts of the Republic's empire.

The larger of the two cloisters, Il Chiostro della TrinitĂ , was designed by Andrea

Palladio. Open to the public, its grand arcade comprises 44 columns and supporting arches hewn from white Istrian stone. In the center is Giovanni Trognon's ostentatious waterwell

canopy depicting the Holy Trinity, St Paul, and St Peter. Designed by Sansovino, the second cloister, il Chiostro di Sant'Antonio, is closed to the public.

Rialto markets "Now, what news on the Rialto?" asks Solanio in William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.

In the heyday of the Republic, when Venice controlled a vast trading empire, merchants

from east and west would gather at the Rialto to trade in all manner of exotic goods, such as silks and spices, and exchange updates on shipping ventures. Not surprisingly, some of the

world's earliest private banks began here, such as Banco Giro (now a wine bar), founded in 1157.

Rialto Bridge Venice's commercial hub—indeed one of the city's earliest sites—grew up on the

Rivoaltus, or high land, on the banks of the Grand Canal. In medieval times—as illustrated

in Vittorio Carpaccio's 1494 painting The Miracle of the Relic of the True Cross on the Rialto in the Gallerie dell'Accademia—the Rialto Bridge was a wooden construction with a

drawbridge to let sailing ships with tall masts pass through. After fire had destroyed the

original, in the 16th century a competition was held for a bridge to be built in stone. The

resulting structure, with a double row of shops the whole way across, by Antonio Da Ponte still spans the Grand Canal. Until the mid-1800s, it was the only bridge across the canal.

Most of the buildings around the bridge are from the 1500s, replacements for wooden structures also destroyed by fire.

Nowadays the Rialto is synonymous with the bridge itself, which links the San

Marco and San Polo districts, and with the bustling produce markets on the San Polo side.

From the top of the bridge and side balustrades you can enjoy superb views of the Grand Canal and its water traffic in both directions. A broad flight of stone steps leads down to

rows of souvenir stalls replacing what used to be an excellent cheese market. Beyond, on

the water's edge, are the age-old, outdoor and covered markets where the Venetians have

shopped for fresh fish, fruit, and vegetables for centuries. In the early mornings, boats bring in produce from out of town and from the garden island of Sant'Erasmo in the lagoon. Tray after tray is unloaded onto the stalls for sale alongside goods that are trundled in by handtrolley from nearby cold stores.

Market stalls by the Grand Canal The heart of the Rialto markets is undeniably the Pescheria (mornings, Tuesday to

Saturday) with marvellous displays of fish and seafood. Some stalls are set up under an

attractive porticoed building fronting the Grand Canal. Despite its historic appearance, this was built in 1907 though a fish market has occupied the site since the 14th century. Not that long ago, huge turtles could be seen on the stone serving slabs. These days pride of

place for size and effect goes to gleaming torpedo tuna and swordfish with their awesome blades displayed alongside. They appear in the market in springtime, when these species are caught in the waters off the coast of Sicily.

In late summer, the stalls are black with knobbly inkfish and their sepia-colored ink,

which Venetians use in a variety of dishes. Monstrous octopus are year-rounders, as are anglerfish, or monkfish, known here as coda di rospo (toad tail) and sold without their

enormous head. Anglerfish are a great favorite for their soft flesh and total lack of scales.

Wriggling eels from breeding farms on the River Po are often on offer. Autumn and winter bring pale mantis shrimps, known locally as canoce. At the opposite end of the size

spectrum are the minuscule anchovies, sold either slender, silver, and whole or gutted and butterflied, ready to be lightly battered and fried as a perfect accompaniment to a glass of wine in the local wine bars.

Once a customer has chosen a whole fish—such as seabass or gilt head—the

fishmonger takes it to a back table for scaling and filleting according to the customer's requirements. This inevitably attracts the attention of the resident seagulls and their

permanently ravenous offspring. From their precarious perches on the market awnings,

the noisy birds keep a constant lookout for gutted fish and offcuts. Crafty creatures, they even carry out raids on the stalls if a fishmonger inadvertently turns his back, causing thousands of euros of lost income.

Look out for the rectangular stone plaque fixed to a wall between the two market

buildings listing the types of fish on sale and their minimum lengths.

The range of vegetables and fruit on sale in the nearby Erberia (mornings, Monday

to Saturday) varies with the time of year as produce is strictly seasonal, guaranteeing

freshness. You can count on finding bundles of succulent asparagus, both green and white, in springtime, along with fresh peas in the pod. A surprising range of tomatoes from tiny date and cherry types to colossal cuore di bue (ox heart) varieties continue through the

summer months in the company of purple eggplant, either skinny and bitter or plump and sweet. Later on come the tiny, mauve, spiky artichokes grown on Sant'Erasmo, a real

delicacy. In contrast are the fat Roman artichokes that remain on sale for several months.

As these start going to seed, the resourceful Venetians pare them back to a fat, leaf-free

slice from the vegetable base and sell them in lemon-flavored water to prevent them

turning black. Winter sees crinkly Italian spinach and bitter chicory alongside crunchy cabbages in shades of white, green, yellow, and purple.

Late spring brings a harvest of fragrant strawberries, summer juicy peaches, pink or

yellow, and nectarines. Coral-colored melons are the perfect match for prosciutto crudo (cured Parma ham), while huge, red-fleshed watermelons are refreshing on hot days.

Autumn sees a host of crunchy apples from the hills on the mainland, and in winter blood oranges and sweet mandarins arrive from Sicily.

Set just back from the waterfront are alleyways with ancient covered arcades, such

as the Ruga degli Orefici (Way of the Goldsmiths). As its name suggests, it was once lined

with goldsmiths; these days it hosts but a handful. Nearby grocery shops do a brisk trade in homemade pasta, spices, coffee, and wines alongside butchers and specialist cheese shops.