My Venice Walking Tour
Posted August 21, 2009 , trackbackWhat’s the secret to Venice? Comfortable shoes.
But please, this does not mean you should throw style out the window. Venice is a stylish city. Paved in marble. Actually, more correctly I think it’s Istrian stone from across the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. Whatever it is, it’s hard. Very tiring on the legs and feet. After a few days of negotiating the labyrinthine streets, you’ll just want a Bellini, a seat and a foot rub.
Before you collapse, might I recommend taking a guided walk through Venice? The city is such an enigma wrapped in a mystery that to have someone who knows the way around can open it up like no guidebook or, heaven help us all, map. I have never in my life seen so many people gazing in complete incomprehension at maps – even turning them upside down doesn’t help. Venice resists easy navigation – it’s part of her charm.
Catch a different side of Venice on a walking tour
Walking the streets and canals of Venice
I took the Hidden Venice walking tour, which promised to take us off the beaten track without getting lost. It delivered. We twisted and turned our way through the oldest districts of Venice, behind the Rialto market. Fast-moving locals cutting through these backstreets to avoid tourists looked at us with despair: would we now come and fill up even these secret throughways? They can rest assured in the knowledge we’ll never find our way back in here – or out again – without our trusty guide.
And she was fantastic. So knowledgeable and passionate about the city; she covered such a range of history and modern life, gossip, restaurants, art and essentials that everyone was enthralled.
We started on the top of the Rialto Bridge. Crowds milled around but we found each other easily. The view from there is great. So much water traffic churning up and down the Grand Canal. I know it’s only the main road of a busy modern city, but when the vehicles have propellers not wheels it’s suddenly so much more interesting to watch.
Where the streets are paved in gold…
Something I didn’t know was that the palazzos lining the Grand Canal were once highly decorated with painted frescoes on the outside. Right next to the Rialto Bridge, a huge building that was once the offices and warehouses for the Germanic traders was painted by Titian no less! And the famous palazzo Ca’ D’Oro (dating from 1421), which means House of Gold, was actually gold!
But it’s all faded, crumbled off, been painted over. Until only a hundred years ago, these buildings were not really valued so no attempt was made to retain their original magnificence until the 20th century. Palazzo Salviati further down the canal towards San Marco has a glass-tiled frescoed fa?ade and gives an impression of what a trip down the Grand Canal must have been like when all the buildings had that level of decoration.
Mind you, Ca’ D’Oro is not so bad to look at even without its gold – it’s the prime example of what Ruskin termed Oriental Gothic for its mixing of Western and Arabic architectural styles.
From fish markets to back streets
We walked through the market, saw the wall plaque giving minimum fish sizes, learnt to read the one-armed 24-hour clock, saw the first banks in Europe and the marble hunchback holding the podium from which new laws were read to the population. We also found out that Venice is built on thousands of tree trunks embedded into the mud and saved from rotting by the salty water; that Venice became rich from having a monopoly on import and therefore on the trade taxes, and that the Pope once excommunicated the Venetians for trading with the ‘Infidels’ of the east.
Walking the back alleys of Venice
But then, as now, the Venetians are nothing if not pragmatic and they don’t care who comes to their city as long as their purse is full.
And then we plunged into the back streets. Narrow, dark, winding streets dating from the 12th century. This is where the market traders keep their goods outside of trading hours. I saw laundries servicing the many restaurants of Venice, doctors’ surgeries, a dentist’s office. It was like getting a peak backstage; so Venice is not all carnival masks and spruiking gondoliers! Thank goodness!
Crossing the Ponte de la Tette, we learnt its English translation and its reputation: the bridge of breasts. This was the edge of the red light district, where the many prostitutes came to advertise their goods. In the 13th century, prostitution was so rife in this port city, that the Doge (leader) and his government decided to push it all into one area. They chose the houses of the Rampane family – I do not want to speculate why. Being the house of the Rampanes’ it was Ca’ Rampane, and to this day the Venetian word for prostitute is Carampane. Not a great family name to have inherited…
As we wove our way past the best restaurant in Venice, Da Fiore (Calle del Scaleter 2002 2202A and yes, it is hidden in a narrow back street and the fine waiters did not look too fondly at the gawking tour group) and the house of printer Aldo Manucia who invented the pocketsize book at the end of the 1400s and revolutionised reading forever, we all exclaimed how far we had walked and how lost we were. The guide laughed and explained we were about five minutes direct walk away from the Rialto where we had started – that’s if we could find our way there.
Venice nearly without its canals
I think the most frightening thing she told us was that in the 19th century, those in charge started filling in the canals of Venice. Fifty were filled to enable people to walk rather than relying on gondolas, which were considered old-fashioned (not to mention expensive). Every street called a Rio Terre was once a canal and it’s easy to recognise them once you know – they are slightly wider and curved, and the house facades fronting onto them are much nicer. Venetian houses always had their backs to the streets, turning their best face to the canals. Which is lucky when you consider the house at the end of the narrowest street, which is only shoulder-width - if not for the canal door on the other side, that house would have to be filled with the skinniest furniture ever made.
There was even a plan to fill in the Grand Canal to make way for cars! Luckily this did not happen. Though in 2007 bicycles were legalised in Venice. Although good luck trying to ride through those streets and over the 400 bridges. I
noticed on this visit many more ramps being built across the bridges: I thought they were for prams and wheelie-suitcases but perhaps they are actually for bicycles ridden by the newly-wheeled locals. Not that I saw one bicycle; perhaps in the off-season when the crowds are less dense.
Along the way, our guide greeted at least half a dozen people and pointed out that Venice is not a place to have an affair: everyone knows where everybody else is and with whom all the time! At the end of a week, even I began to recognise people I passed in the streets.
Our walking tour ended at the Frari Church. I had been there before but not with a guide. This church is filled with magnificent treasures and laden with history. Most importantly, the Titian painting of the Ascension above the altar; it signifies the beginning of modern art as Titian broke all the rules of his day, and also caused huge religious debate due to the depiction of Mary ascending to Heaven directly. In 1518 this was completely outrageous. The guide showed us the most important things before she had to head off, leaving us to explore the rest of the church on our own.
Venice walking tips
One tip: if you are interested in looking at churches and the abundance of art in the churches of Venice buy a Chorus pass at the first one you visit it. This gets you into the churches you have to pay to visit and is valid for one year. It’s 9 euro and each church is 3 euro so you recoup the value pretty fast.
Another tip. Our guide gave me a piece of invaluable advice: walk fast. The shorter time your feet have in contact with the stone streets, the less tiring it is. So that’s why you see all the busy Venetians rushing from place to place. And all the meandering tourists looking completely exhausted and in pain.
I tried it – it seemed to help. There were only two problems: the meandering tourists got in my way, and I had no idea where I was going. It’s not easy walking fast, avoiding people, reading a map, turning corners, crossing bridges, all in streets ten feet wide. I won’t be forgotten easily by the many I passed. The bruises might fade but the memories of the crazy, speedwalking Australian may last a little longer.
Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s Venice tours & things to do in Venice, from Venice walking tours to gondola rides & canal tours.
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