Viator Viator Travel Blog

A Gondola Ride in Venice

If you can, arrive in Venice by boat. I caught the ferry from Croatia. And watching the flat coastline fade into sandy beaches that appear out of the sea, passing through the entrance to the lagoon and slipping past island after island before finally seeing the churches of central Venice rise up — it’s like a beautiful dream.

I have always arrived by train before and it’s functional, easy, but far less magical. And Venice is all about the magic. The light on the water (which my friend Linda calls ‘the dirty blood of Venice’), the colours of the buildings, the crazy angles and structures of the houses and palazzos, makeshift balconies and decks perched on rooftops, the narrow streets where two people can barely pass.

This is my first visit in summer and I’m glad to be staying in the district of Santa Croce. I have rented an apartment for a week and it’s just off the Grand Canal, across the water from the main train station, Ferrovia. Less central and I’m sure less fashionable than the San Marco area and therefore away from the madding crowds.

I haven’t yet decided whether the tourists or the bird-size mosquitoes outnumber each other here in summer, but both can be a little annoying. And I say that knowing that I, too, am a tourist. (Previously I have been here in October, and in May. October was getting cold, May was wet and the duckboards were out over the floods in St Mark’s Square. Yet the queues were far less and it was possible to wander around without feeling like you were constantly in peak hour at Grand Central Station.)

My favourite thing to do in Venice is to just wander and look up and around me at the buildings, the rooftops and the flower boxes, and the religious icons that pop up around so many corners. Stop and wander into churches, randomly turn down narrow side alleys, sit next to small canal for a while. Then you can see and hear and, yes, smell Venice properly. Church bells, gondoliers yelling and elegantly pushing off buildings and other boats with one foot, rubbish floating down the canals (because despite the government’s best efforts, people still throw rubbish into the water), graffiti (one of my favourites: a municipal sign I found yesterday, “no pic nic, no dirty, no sit, thank you”.)

Rush hour in Venice

Getting off the main thoroughfares is wonderful. Suddenly emerging into a small square where kids are kicking a football, women are gossiping and washing is flapping in the breeze makes me feel more like Venice is still a real city, not just a theme park. And while it feels very easy to get lost – the most confusing thing to read in Venice is a map - Venice is really very small and there are signs painted on walls everywhere pointing the way: Alle San Marco, Alle Rialto, Alle Ferrovia, Alle Piazzale Roma. And once you make your way to any of these places, you are found again.

For me, Venice is all about the details. I need a day just in Piazza San Marco alone, preferably when it is less filled with crowds feeding pigeons – which are revered and protected here, by the way – just to look closely at the buildings, the small details, to see the centuries of history. Reading up on Venice before arriving is a great thing to do because it makes the place echo with history and stories everywhere you turn.

For example, I love knowing that a revolution in 1310 was stopped by a curious housewife accidentally dropping a mortar on the leader’s head as they entered San Marco. And that condemned prisoners were given a chance to win back their life by circling the third column on the front of the Ducal Palace, blindfolded, without falling off the low base stone – no one achieved it, they were all hanged. And that there should be three columns beside the basilica but that one fell into the lagoon when it was being unloaded; they were brought back from Acri as spoils of war around 1256 and displayed as a warning not to cross the Venetians. And that is just a tiny start on the stories for San Marco.

Venice has such a long and affluent history as a centre of international trade that there are incredible artworks to be found in so many of the churches. Titians, Tintorettos, Veroneses. But there are over 100 churches in the city, most but not all of them still in use, so you would be forgiven for not seeing them all. The Frari is a must for all the paintings by Titian and for giving a sense of the money spent on commissioning art in churches for family glory. (Viator has private walking tour that includes the Frari; it’s also covered in the Venice walking tour and gondola ride.)

Another of my favourites is the Chiesa di Santa Maria Formosa with its16th-century Byzantine icon, Santa Maria di Lepanto - eyes closed against the sparkling of the gold tiles and plastic flowers around her, she glows in her bliss.

And when you get tired from all the walking, either aimlessly catch a vaparetto and find the boatyards, the cemetery, the parks; or follow the lead of Hemingway and Lord Byron and have an expensive cocktail at Harry’s Bar, claimed to be the birthplace of the Bellini; nearly everyone in there is clutching one. Or, even more decadent, a hot chocolate in one of the small, narrow cafés. I had my best-ever hot chocolate on a day of teeming rain and steaming wet clothes, in a little family-run place down Calle delle Rasse, near San Marco. The spoon literally stood up in the liquid and the taste and texture of that drink has stayed in the front of my memory for years. I went back and had another one this visit – still just as good. Worth crossing borders for.

Nice to look at — but eat someplace else

Beware though of eating and drinking too close to San Marco – and especially in St Mark’s Square itself. The ambiance is unmatched anywhere is the world, so are the prices. We decided it was necessary to at least once sit outside one of the elegant cafes and watch the world go by. We were wrong. 10 euro got us a terrible lukewarm hot chocolate, a tiny table soon shared by others and the feeling we were sitting on the freeway edge. Go to the side streets: 3 euro and all the ambiance you could hope for.

My two recommended books on Venice: Venice by Jan Morris, and Venetian Legends and Ghost Stories by Alberto Toso Fei (if you like ghosts also check out the Venice Ghost Walking Tour!). Follow the itineraries and find the small brick heart embedded above an arch commemorating lovers Orio and Melusina, a fisherman and a mermaid. Not only will it make you feel you’re really finding the soul of Venice, touching it promises you true love forever.

–Philippa Burne

Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s tours and things to do in Venice, from gondola rides to walking tours to day trips from Venice. When in Italy… also check out things to do in Rome and Florence.