JillDavis

My husband and I will be going to Venice at the beginning of July and will be staying 4 nights. I was wondering your thoughts on what to do, see, and experience. We are not big on museums. We do like strolling through charming areas and soaking up all the beautiful architecture and scenery that you can't get here in Florida. We also love being active and are open to outdoor adventures. I have read the Fodors book and from what I have gathered I think I might enjoy the Castello district, Dorsoduro, and of course San Marco. (we are staying at the Westin) If you can provide some information and vibe of the districts, that would be great. Maybe I am missing something? I don't like tacky touristy areas - just seems chessy to me. No, I do not want to see the Murano glassblowing.

I do plan on wandering aimlessly and getting lost in Venice as I hear that is an adventure in itself. Also, I plan on doing a private gondola ride. I do plan on doing the Basicila and the Rialto bridge. I guess what I am asking for are perhaps some other ideas of what to do and experience in Venice. Also, some insight on the different areas. Thanks so much everyone!

primeranoche

It's kind of hard to know what to say if you don't like museums are already committed to wandering aimlessly and getting lost. Most people, if they don't like museums and they are in Venice, just wander and get lost!

Venice is actually a very small place. You can walk to all the places you mentioned in two days tops. In July though, you will want some breaks from the heat and humidity. San Marco may be the most "tacky touristy" for all the mask shops. I think Dorsoduro is a great place if you like modern art galleries and high end antique shopping. But you can decide for yourself because I think you are going to end up wandering aimlessly into all of them!

You might like a boat trip out to Torcello, because at least it's got greenery if you yearn for something outdoorsy. You might also like a trip to Verona. It's a pretty, lively town. And nothing at all like Florida. Parts of Venice, like the Lido, might remind you of Florida, But give Venice the original credit.

After you've been wandering around for awhile, you might get interested to go into at least some of the museums that show you the inside of the palazzi. How people (rich people) lived inside.

JillDavis

Dorsoduro sounds very cool. What is San Polo, Santa Croce, and Cannaregio like? Are there any spots to avoid?

primeranoche

There are some spots you may not be able to get into. Sometimes around San Marco and the Rialto, the tourists are so thick and the alleys are so narrow, its a bottle neck. You have to inch along the walls. LOL! But everywhere is safe. Except there are pickpockets in Venice, so don't carry anything important in a shoulder bag.

If you get tired of all the crowds, if you walk over toward the Arsenale, it gets emptier. I've never been to the cemetery, but some people escape there. (It's on an island nearby.)

JillDavis

What are your thoughts on San Polo, Santa Croce, and Cannaregio>

Lexma90

I think that for most of us visitors, the different sestieres (Venetian dialect word for neighborhood or district) will look the same, except for the museums or other sights of interest that may be in that sestiere. That's not a bad thing - each of them is beautiful, with still canals and lovely ancient buildings. In each of them, the further you get from San Marco, the fewer tourists there will be.

Many guidebooks have self-guided walking tours of the various areas. They are fun to use, and may help you notice features of buildings that you might not otherwise notice. Several times, I have taken the walks described in J.G. Links' book "Venice for Pleasure." He doesn't describe the inside of places, but has great, conversational descriptions of streets, buildings and the people who lived in them. The book also includes pictures of paintings of various points on the walks, so you can compare how they look today to how they looked long ago (in most cases, very similar).

Also, there are a lot of churches in Venice, and most have beautiful interiors and art inside; you may want to step inside some of those (if only to escape the heat).

Peter_S_Aus

We spent a while in Venice, and I wrote a sort of trip report cum guide book. It's a bit short on hard info, but might give you something of a flavour for Venice.

I'd endorse a trip to Torcello, and we stayed in Dorsoduro. Campo San Margerita is fun and lively.

Trip report is here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...st-verbose.cfm

zoecat

<<What are your thoughts on San Polo, Santa Croce, and Cannaregio>>>

All of those areas are worth exploring and less crowded.

I like using the Access guidebooks-

"Arranged by neighborhood and featuring color-coded entire keyed to easy-to-read maps, ACCESS guides are designed to help you explore a neighborhood or an entire city in depth."

http://www.amazon.com/Access-Florenc.../dp/0062772228

ellenem

San Polo, Santa Croce, and Cannaregio are all worth exploring . . . another taste of the same thing. Aside from large palazzos concentrated mostly along the Grand Canal, the buildings are of a similar size and nature. The "vibe" in Venice does not differ that greatly from area to area except for "crowded with tourists" or "uncrowded." If you take a map and point to any area that is furthest from the train station AND furthest from San Marco, you have the best chance of seeing locals. Venice is really a very small place. You will wander from one sestiere to another without even realizing it, and you could walk across Venice from the train station to San Marco in 40 minutes.

The most touristy areas of Venice are the main pathways between Rialto and San Marco (Mercerie) and the market area of Rialto. Pedestrian traffic can really bottleneck in those areas. There are also a plethora of tacky shops (though no bottlenecks) on the Lista di Spagna, the first street on the left out of the train station. Other tacky shops appear throughout town, but not in the same concentration. There's so much more do and see that it is very easy to avoid those particular routes. Once you leave these main drags, the streets can be relatively empty.

I plan my mornings and afternoons by choosing a neighborhood/sestiere to visit and then choosing one sight in particular to visit in that area. I meander my way to that sight, exploring along the way. Taking into consideration that you are not big on museums, I would choose these sights and favorite campos:

San Polo--The Frari Church via Campo San Polo
Santa Croce--Campo San Giacomo Dell'Orio and any church with an open door
Cannaregio--Campo Ghetto Nuovo and then wander to Fondamenta Nuove to catch a boat to Burano and Torcello
Dorsoduro--Santa Maria della Salute and Campo Santa Margherita
Castello-- Arsenale gate and walk to Sant Elena

(I have many more favorites than this, but based this list solely on your disinterest in museums.)

Tiggy22

San Polo and Santa Croce are much "less traveled" and are more residential though the Campo San Polo has some wonderful restaurants in it. I like staying in that area as it is usually quieter yet is easy access. Cannareggio is where you will find a great deal of the residents Venice. It is a bustling area of shops and restaurants and also includes the historic Jewish ghetto. One of the most beautiful churches - the Miracoli - is located in Cannaregio.

There is much to do in Venice and within the Veneto. If you are going to St Marks - especially the Doge's palace, might I suggest the Secret Itinerary tour. I believe you can book it through Select Italy. It is a fascinating "behind the scenes tour" of the workings of the Palace and the old prisons. Padova is a 30 minute train ride away and there you will find the Scrovegni Chapel with the masterpiece frescos from Giotto which are considered some of the best in Europe - as well as St Anthony's Basilica. A little farther on the train route is Vicenza which is a beautiful town designed by Palladio with the fabulous Teatro Olimpico, which you may have seen in many motion pictures. It is a beautiful and romantic city.

The suggestion of taking a ACTV to Torcello is wonderful - stop at Burano as well. The famous lace-making island with the rainbow-colored houses is a fairy-tale come to life - while you are there take lunch at the Trattoria al Gatto Nero.

Might I also suggest checking out Context Tours. They provide very small tours (6-8 ppl) in Venice with very interesting topics. I took a few of these and they were amazing - After Hours St Marks Basilica (there were only 4 of us in St Marks after it was closed - an experience I will never forget), a Wines of the Veneto Tasting (went on a walk to 3-4 different wine bars tasting wine and chicetti - Venetian appetizers - and the sommelier who led the tour was great!), a Secrets of the Lagoon Tour (4 hour tour of the lagooon in a boat where the "sinking" of Venice" was explained to us - superb!). www.contexttravel.com/venice

JillDavis

Lots of great information! Thanks so much!
Which do you prefer - Torcello or Burano?

primeranoche

Torcello.

Peter_S_Aus

You go to Torcello via Burano. The ferry stops at Burano, and then you get off and take another ferry to Torcello. We visited on a sunny day in the middle of winter. As I wrote,

Torcello boasts the oldest building in the lagoon, from aboout 550 AD, and at one time had a population of some 50,000, its own Bishop and Council, not unlike the Grand Council of Venice. The mosaics in the cathedral there are quite stunning, and the campanile is clouded with scaffolding, so work is being done. It is rather depopulated now, with residents numbering thirty souls, but with one of Venice’s more exclusive hotels, the Locanda Cipriani, which has housed QEII and other notables. Maybe security is easier there – half a dozen guys with shot guns could protect the entire establishment. It is pretty quiet there this time of year, and nothing is open. Which is nice – it seemed like a day in the country, walking around on un-paved ground, seeing fields where artichokes have been harvested. The guys restoring the Ponte Diavolo, the Devils Bridge, took the traghetto back to Burano for lunch – it’s only a five minute trip, and these men expect a glass of something to be served with lunch – they don’t do a thermos of tea and sandwiches.

The house numbering on Torcello follows the Venetian practice of sequential numbers, but not numbering every door. The highest number we sighted was 34, a coincidence as we live at No 34, in Melbourne.

Peter_S_Aus

The Ghetto is worth visiting.

I sighted some sobering monuments in Canneragio, in the Ghetto, a sequence, a story.
Monument No 1. A tablet, let into the wall, generally detailing the things that Jews were allowed to do in Venice, and providing for a reward for anyone denouncing people (i.e. Jews) for blasphemy. The reward to be funded from the property of the blasphemer, punishment fully detailed, secret denunciations invited. It is dated 26 September 1704, but I find it hard to believe that such persecution was still happening at that time, but two hundred ant thirty years later it certainly was. Every Jewish child in the Ghetto would have understood fully the significance of that tablet on the wall. The restrictions on Jews only ceased in 1797, with the arrival of Napoleon, barely two centuries ago. The Lion of Venice has been hammered off this tablet, and I can imagine the enthusiasm with which this little piece of civic vandalism was conducted.

Monument No 2. A tablet, listing the names of Venetian Jews who died in the 1915-18 war, patriotic Italians, who happened to be Jewish, and supported Italy in spite of Monument No 1.

Monument No 3. A tablet, immediately opposite No 2, erected by the remnants of the Venetian Jewish community, abhorring the deaths of 200 Venetian Jews, 8000 Italian Jews and six million European Jews in the Holocaust. The Venetian Jews branded as undesirables, in spite of the patriots named on Monument No 2.

Monument No 4. An apology by the Mayor of Venice, in Hebrew, Italian and English, to the 200 Venetian Jews who were carted out of Venice on the fifth of December, 1943, and the seventeenth of August, 1944. Signed by the Mayor, Mario Rigo, I believe in 1979, well after the erection of Monument No 3, but an apology none the less.

Monument No 5. A structure made of horizontal timber boards, bound with vertical steel straps. The names of the 200 Venetian Jewish victims are engraved on the boards. The whole effect is of a cattle truck, and is most profound - I spent a time reading the names, Elena Serini, aged 14, Scandiani Diena, aged 81. I have no idea what their story is, and possibly this is the only monument they will ever have.

Monument No 6 is not meant to be a monument at all, but I can’t help but see it in the sequence. It is a small kiosk in the Ghetto, to contain the three or four security guards on duty there all the time. That’s a monument to intolerance, and can too easily lead one back to Monument No 1.

rhkkmk

wander, wander, eat, wander, drink, wander, wander....

4 days will be filled very quickly....just wander from one area to another....make sure to ride boat #1 from one end of the grand canal to another----its more expensive than some of the others, but is classic...

Tiggy22

I conur with Peter about Burano and Torcello. They go hand in hand.

primeranoche

DId Peter do anything except switch boats at Burano? I got the impression he didn't go there.

Nelson

Based on my three nights in Venice (now I'm an expert!) I think you've got it figured out already: have a basic game plan, then wander aimlessly.

Taking into consideration that you aren't into museums, I'll strongly recommend that you visit Scuola di San Rocco to see the Tintoretto paintings, an absolute mind blower. Use the mirrors provided to examine the ceiling.

My wife and I put our salsa lessons to use and danced a few at San Marco late one evening (10:00 PM, late for us), under a full moon no less. Squeeze that one in if you can, great fun, highly memorable, and free!

Peter_S_Aus

We spent a while wandering around Burano. The houses, painted in vivid colours, are fun.

“Sono, sei, siamo Veneziano” (sung to the tune “I am, you are, we are Australian”). But we went to Burano, and they’d never claim to be Venetian – they remain proudly Buranese. Burano is, of course, famous for lace, and the legend is that the women of Burano made lace in imitation of their men-folk who were making fishing nets. I find this a bit far-fetched – the intricacy of the lace makes your average purse sein or drift net look most basic. We saw a lace museum, lace made in Belgium in the 16th century, christening gowns, first communion dresses, Buranese lace. And there was an incomplete work, a sampler, showing the different knots used in Buranese lace – 16 different knots, from memory. Each lace maker specialises in only a couple of knots, and so a piece of work with many different knots will be passed from hand to hand, a community effort. It is not cheap – a fine piece, say A5 plus a bit, will cost about one thousand Euro. We saw such a piece being created, by a woman who must have been about 80, wearing glasses as thick as a milk bottle. The work is slow, and there must be hundreds of hours of work in that A5 piece, which possibly explains the quite hard sell that we experienced, having us in mind of the handbag (Gucci, guaranteed) sellers.

Burano is like a country town, tiny houses, painted brightly, so that fishermen could find their way home through the fog, so I am told, and not a fur clad woman to be seen. The dogs on Burano seem a tougher breed than their Venetian counterparts, as they go about their business without the benefit of coats in Burberry pattern. Lagoon sized fishing boats abound, fully kitted for dredging shellfish, an ingenious drum screen on board, electrically driven, to reject both oversized and undersized shell fish, which would explain why the clams that we buy are so regular in size. Fishing nets strung up, being dried and mended, floats, buoys, styrene boxes, rope, all the marine paraphernalia one could imagine. A “Service Station” beside the canal sells diesel fuel oil at 1.15 per litre, unleaded 1.18.

The inclination to the south on the San Martino Vescovo campanile rivals the tower at Pisa, and when it falls, it will surely put the adjacent soccer pitch out of action for months. One can only hope there is not a game in progress at the time. Doubtless Buranese mothers have been warning their sons of the danger of the falling campanile for several centuries. Buranese males, like Buranese dogs, being of an independent streak, will have been ignoring the warnings for the same period.

One could imagine that Venice hangs as a pendulum from the rail bridge, the Ponte della Liberta from Mestre, suspended in the lagoon, surrounded by Murano, the Lido and Giudecca, with Burano and Torcello away in the lower 40, and not much else. There are many other islands, some inhabited, others not. The ferry to Burano takes one close to Polviera, a tiny island, or two islands, one containing just a heap of bricks, the other a three story building, mostly ruined, that covers almost the entire island. None of the guide books I’ve found recounts its history, and one can’t help but wonder what its story has been. Away off in the northern lagoon is Sant’ Ariano, once a thriving community and suburb of Torcello, which in its day was bigger than Venice. It is now a bone house, an Osseria, as the bones from San’ Michelle would be taken there once their allotted time was up, a practice dating from 1575 and finishing in the 1950’s. I’m not all that keen to go there.

pjsparlor536

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