Tips 1 - 10 of 16 Venice Things to Do
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Castello area: Naval History Museum - Museo Storico Navale
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The main building (15th century) was once the granary of Venice.
The ground floor and the first two floors present the exploits and equipment of the Navy of Venice and of the Italian naval Fleet. The museum is owned by the Italian Navy so that the 19th and 20th century, with the commando raids by human torpedo's, are more represented than the Navy of the Venetian Republic itself.
On the first floor a room is dedicated to the Bucintoro, the ceremonial barge of the Dodge from which every year on Ascension Day he would throw a ring into the lagoon, symbolizing the marriage of Venice to the sea. There are also models of ancient ships as well as a small ceremonial galley. In other rooms are shown models of commercial ships of the 20th century.
The third floor contains models and objects from gondolas, fishing boats and other vessels from the Venetian lagoon.
A room shows models of oriental junks; another one is dedicated to the Swedish navy and finally a room contains a collection of shells. These rooms, obviously, have nothing to do with the "Serenissima"!
Besides the main building the Ship Pavilion houses some Venetian boats among which a parade galley of 18 oars the "Scalea Reale".
Actually this museum disappoints the visitors who came for the navy of Venice, a navy which from the 12th to the 16th century dominated the Adriatic and the Oriental Mediterranean Sea. The navy of the Serenissima and its maritime power is finally not much represented.
It is disappointing all the more as at the time of its glory Venice maintained permanently a hundred galleys plus the merchant ships.
The museum does not show much of this. No battle galley was preserved, you do not find here historic vessels as the "Mary Rose" or "Victory" in Portsmouth, nor a replica like in the Netherlands with the commercial vessel "Amsterdam" of the VOC exposed at the maritime museum of Amsterdam.
The amateur who wants to see galleys will even see more impressive ones in the maritime museums of Barcelona or Lisbon-Belem.
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Address: Museo Storico Navale - Castello 2148
Directions: 50 m from the Arsenale boat stop
Website: www.marina.difesa.it/venezia
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Art Museums: Ca' d'Oro the most beautiful palace.
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It is the most beautiful palace in the Venetian floral gothic style. During numerous years the facade was hidden by the works of restoration. So that it is a pleasure to see, after the turn of the Grand Canal at the Rialto bridge, the presently white façade of the Ca' d' Oro called "golden house" due to the gilt and polychrome external decorations which once adorned its walls.
Some comments here mention a "Moorish influence" or "Islamic architectural influence", this is wrong; it is a style of Byzantine inspiration. When the Ca' d'Oro Palazzo was built in 1430 for the Contarini family, Constantinople had not been taken over by the Turks yet.
Inside the collection Franchetti is certainly estimable but can not be compared with the collections of the Accademia or the museum Correr.
The visit justifies itself more by the beauty of the inner courtyard, the portico onto the Grand Canal and by the enclosed balcony of the principal salon on the "piano nobile". The columns and arches of this balcony have capitals which in turn support a row of quatrefoil windows of great delicacy; above this balcony is another enclosed balcony or loggia of a similar yet even lighter design.
One has a magnificent view, through the beautiful arches, on the Grand Canal, the "Pescheria", the "Fabriche Nuove" and the "Fabriche Vecchie" of the Rialto.
The movement of Vaporetti, Motoscafi, barges of all kind supplying the Mercato, water taxis and gondolas is a spectacle worthwhile by itself to visit the Ca' d'Oro.
The entrance is by the narrow alley which connects the pontoon Ca'd' Oro with Strada Nova.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 08.15 to 19.15h. On Monday 08.15 - 14.00h.
Last entrance 30 min. before closing time.
Closed 25 December, 1 January and 1 May. Bookings tel. 0415200345
Prices:
Normal price: € 5 + reservation € 1
Price reduced: € 2.50 + reservation € 1 for students between 18 and 25 years old.
E.U. citizens free under 18 and over 65;
Citizens of other countries free under 12 years
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Address: Ca' d'Oro, Cannaregio
Directions: Vaporetto linea 1, Ca'd'Oro.
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Churches: S. Maria della Salute is a landmark.
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Santa Maria della Salute is my favoured church in Venice, more than San Marco for a very practical reason: during my last two visits to Venice the queue at San Marco was so long that I abandoned any hope of getting inside, while at the "Salute" there was no queue and I could sit quietly on the steps of the square in front of the basilica with a splendid view on the Bacino di San Marco. Even better, there are no pigeons here.
The architectural reason for liking this church is obvious. In 1630 the architect Baldassare Longhena ((1598-1682)), then only 32 years old, was selected to design a new church dedicated to the Virgin Mary after Venice was delivered from the plague that had killed about a third of its population.
Longhena realized a work of a great beauty and homogeneity only completed in 1687, after his death. Santa Maria della Salute achieves perfection in the baroque style which is equalled by no other church of Venice.
The technical exploit is stunning, 1.106.657 piles of oak, alder and larch were needed for the foundations. On top of these 4 m long piles was build a platform called "zatterone" of oak and larch beams fixed together on which the actual stone construction could start.
The centrepiece of the structure is the church's great altar. The altar is sculpted with images of the Virgin and Child saving Venice from horrors of the plague epidemic of 1630.
The structure of the church is based on an octagonal space with six chapels radiating from the ambulatory. The floors in Santa Maria della Salute are decorated with beautiful ceramic tiles. To preserve these tiles people are not admitted in the central space.
S. Maria della Salute is a landmark of Venice and has often been represented in paintings by Canaletto and Guardi (XVIIIth), and later Turner, Monet, Boudin, Pissaro, Sargent from the Grand Canal side or from de Bacino di San Marco.
Open daily: 9 -12 and 15 - 18h. Times may be subject to variation depending on services.
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Address: Dorsoduro, Vaporetto 1, Salute stop.
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Churches: San Giorgio Maggiore - Grandiose views.
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If you want to escape the jostling of San Marco take the motoscafo 82 in S. Zaccharia and cross the Bacino of San Marco. There is, in my opinion, nothing more grandiose in Venice than the square of San Giorgio Maggiore with the gleaming white Renaissance facade and the incomparable view on the Piazza, Ducal Palace, the Dogana and S. Maria della Salute.
The present church was built on the plans of Andrea Palladio between 1566 and 1610.
San Giorgio is typical of the late Renaissance. It is well lit, airy, and symmetrical. Thermal, clerestory windows bring light to the side chapels and to the nave.
The main attraction of San-Giorgio is the campanile 75 m high. (Entrance left of the choir). The present campanile was built in 1791; the previous one from 1467 tumbled down in 1774. The one of San Marco tumbled down in 1902.
During a previous visit, ten years ago, we found that the elevator was very slow and somewhat shaky but the price was only 1000 LIT (= 0, 50 €). Nowadays it is fast but costs 3€ (inflation in Venice is far ahead from any other town!).
Most of the time there is no queue, what is a marked advantage over San Marco's campanile.
The landscape in all directions is amazing: the whole of Venice, the lagoon with its green waters, all the islands of which the biggest, the Lido, in the south and beyond the Adriatic Sea.
In the Northwest: the airport, Mestre and the industries of Marghera. We were able, on an exceptionally clear day, to perceive the line of the Dolomites in the distance!
At the feet of the bell tower extends the monastery in a green environment.
Down from the bell tower one can admire the beautiful stalls in walnut of the choir of the church.
Open: May to September 9.30-12.30 & 14.30-18.30 h.
October to April 9.30-12.30, & 14.30-16.30 h.
Free entrance to the church.
Campanile 3€.
Outside, on the left of the church there is a small harbour for sailboats with a nice hexagonal lighthouse at the entrance and further a little bar. It could be a great place for a restaurant with terrace but there is none.
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Address: Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore.
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A good opportunity to visit the Isola di San Michele, the cemetery of Venice, is on returning from a "tourist trap" visit to a Murano glass factory offered by your hotel with a commission for them on your purchases of glass.
The island is surrounded with a red-brick wall and a line of tall cypress trees rising high behind it. The pontoon gives access directly to the entrance of the cemetery.
In fact two islands, the one containing the convent and the other one uninhabited, were joined by decision of Napoleon's occupying forces who told the Venetians to start hauling their dead across the water instead of burying them all over town.
Only a few large monuments exist here. The cemetery is divided into sections by plain pale walls, or walls of burial niches. It is a romantic place which alternates cypress, flowers, monuments, graves, and columbarium. The church San Michele built by Coducci from 1469 till 1478 is one of the first religious buildings of the Renaissance built in Venice.
The part of the cemetery most visited by the tourists is the section with the tombs of composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and the founder of the "Russian Ballets" Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929). He created with Stravinsky the "Rite of the Spring". Visitors deposit small pebbles on their graves by way of homage.
This orthodox "Greek" section where rest also some noble Russian families has an atmosphere of rustic decay in contrast to the formal and beautifully tended Catholic gardens of graves.
Other moving place is the row of children's graves. Stillborn children, very young dead children plunge the guest into the fragility of the existence.
The San Michele Cemetery is crowded and the dead are left to rest just twelve years, after which the family must pay to remove what remains to small metal boxes for permanent storage, otherwise the bones will be tossed into a common bone yard.
But let us go back to Venice and its animation of the alive.
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Address: Isola di San MicheleCanareggio - 30121, Venezia
Directions: Take from Murano ( or in the other direction from Fondamente Nove) the linea 41 or 42 which are the only ones to stop at S. Michele. Open from April to September 7.30am to 6pm; from October to March 7.30am to 4pm 25 December and 1 January 7.30am to 12am
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The Doges Palace is the most outstanding civilian monument of Venice but it is also a monument of which the architecture is extraordinary in Europe by its originality.
Indeed when we approach by the lagoon, the best way for a first contact, we are struck by what the architects call an "inversion of masses".
The bottom of the southern facade of the 15th century, overlooking St. Mark’s Basin, with the open arches of the portico, the fine columns of the loggia in late Gothic style with delicate carvings, is lighter than the upper part formed by a wall of white and pink marble panels with the balcony and only six windows.
This inversion of the masses surprises the amateur of the Gothic style as used in the civil architecture of the countries of the North of Europe. See for example the city halls of Brussels, Leuven or Oudenaarde in Belgium.
Here according to a classic Gothic tradition of construction the buildings are lighter at the upper part.
The magnificent western facade which looks onto the Piazzetta is in the same late or flowery Gothic style and is based on the same architectural principle: more openings in the lower part than in the upper part of the facade.
Notice on the left side the two fine red marble columns of the loggia: it is there that were proclaimed the judgments of persons condemned to death.
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C'est le monument civil le plus marquant de Venise mais c'est aussi un monument dont l'architecture, par son originalité, est extraordinaire en Europe.
En effet lorsqu'on approche par la lagune, la meilleure façon pour un premier contact, on est frappé par ce que les architectes appellent une "inversion des masses". La partie inférieure de la façade du XVe siècle, qui donne sur le bassin de St Marc, avec les arcades du portique, les fines colonnes de la loggia aux dentelles de pierre de style gothique tardif, est plus légère que la partie haute constitué d'une muraille de panneaux en marbre blanc et rose avec le balcon et seulement six fenêtres.
Cette inversion des masses surprend l'amateur de style gothique habitué à l'architecture civile des pays du Nord. Voyez par exemple les hôtels de ville de Bruxelles, Leuven ou Oudenaarde en Belgique dont les masses s'allègent de la base vers le toit selon une tradition gothique classique.
Le style gothique tardif ou fleuri se retrouve dans la magnifique façade occidentale qui donne sur la Piazzetta. Elle est basée sur le même principe architectural: les vides l'emportent dans le bas contrairement à la construction traditionnelle.
Remarquez, à gauche, les deux fines colonnes en marbre rouge de la loggia: c'est là qu'étaient proclamées les sentences de mort des condamnés.
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On every visit of the doge's palace I was surprised by the contrast between the brightness, the clear colours and the elegance of the outside facades and the rather dark decoration from the inside of the Doges Palace.
The sculptured and gilded wooden ceilings, the paintings of the masters Tintoret, Veronese, Bassano, Palma the Young and others do not really cheer up the somewhat ponderous decoration, essentially of the end of the 16th century.
I believe that this serious, sometimes dark decoration resulted from the function of this palace. It is not here the palace of a sovereign but a building dedicated to the meetings of the various councils and assemblies of the oligarchy governing the republic of Venice. The Doge, elected leader of this oligarchy, occupies, as a tenant, the rather modest private apartments. What a contrast with Versailles under Louis XIV!
The Palazzo Ducale is essentially a building in with each organ of public administration and government is housed within its own specific premises.
The functions of government, justice and administration explain probably that serious and dark decoration. No place here for fantasy.
What a tremendous contrast between the interior of the Palazzo and the cheerfulness of Venice and the festive mood of the Venetians especially in the period of Carnival which in the 18th century would last several months.
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Address: Palazzo Ducale
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A chaque visite au palais des doges j'ai été frappé par le contraste entre la clarté, les coloris clairs et la grâce des façades extérieures et la décoration plutôt sombre de l'intérieur. Il y a une opposition entre l'élégance et la légèreté de l'extérieur et le sérieux du décor intérieur. Les plafonds en bois sculpté et doré, les tableaux des grand maîtres Tintoret, Véronèse, Bassano, Palma le Jeune et autres n'égayent pas vraiment le décor, essentiellement de la fin du XVIe siècle.
Je crois que ce décor sérieux, parfois sombre résulté de la fonctionnalité même de ce palais.
Il ne s'agit pas ici du palais d'un souverain mais bien d'un bâtiment consacré aux réunions des différents conseils et assemblées de cette oligarchie qu'est la république de Venise. Oligarchie dont le chef élu le doge occupe à titre de locataire des appartements privés plutôt modestes.
Quel contraste avec Versailles sous Louis XIV!
Le Palazzo Ducale est essentiellement un bâtiment à fonction de gouvernement, justice et administration ce qui explique probablement un décor sérieux et sombre en rapport avec la fonction.
Le contraste entre ce décor intérieur et la gaieté de Venise et des Vénitiens est encore plus saisissant en période de Carnaval qui au XVIIIe siècle durait plusieurs mois.
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Bridges: RIALTO BRIDGE - in the crowd.
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There are 3 ways of crossing the steep up and down Rialto Bridge:
1° The central walkway between the shops is used by the Venetians and those tourists who just want to join Canaregio or San Marco to San Polo and San Croce without looking at the Grand Canal. All my sympathies go to the Venetians who each day have to fight their way through the crowd on this bridge. I hate this bridge because each time I had to cross the Ponte di Rialto my wife put me in front of her in order to open the path like a bulldozer or tank.
2° The smaller southern walkway with the view on the Grand Canal towards San Marco.
This is the most crowded part. Views are great if you are able to reach and maintain yourself at the parapet.
I have a tip which I hope will be rated as very useful by VT members. Climb the stairs by the larger central walkway, between the souvenir shops, at the summit of the bridge turn left in the opening portico between the shops and push with your elbows until you reach the parapet. The balustrade in stone is strong and high enough to keep tourists from falling in the Grand Canal.
3° The small northern walkway is less crowded because the Grand Canal bends here so that the view is limited and less nice than on the other side. This side is nevertheless interesting from a navigational point of view because the vaporetto's are not able to pass each other in the bend of the Canal under the bridge. No navigation incident happened during my walk on the bridge.
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Destinations near Venice- La Giudecca, 0.78 km / 0.48 miles
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 Comments for breughel about Venice | | | | |
Nemorino Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:11 UTC
Me again, coming back to read the interesting updates that you have added to this page in the past year. Glad to hear that the beautiful Ca' d' Oro has now been restored. And I still like the picture of Giacomo Casanova on your Venice intro page! | hunterV Sun Jan 18, 2009 18:35 UTC
Great stories, thanx! Discoveries never end! | globetrekker_airen Tue Nov 6, 2007 12:11 UTC
Nice Venice travel page :) cheers :) | scottishvisitor Fri Sep 28, 2007 17:45 UTC
I see you encountered blue skies and many tourists in Venice :) I smiled at the thought of a bulldozer or tank crossing the crowded bridge = enjoyed my virtual tour |
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