Your first visit to Venice – a suggested itinerary Part 3

Your first visit to Venice - Part 1 Monday (day of arrival)
Your first visit to Venice - Part 2 Tuesday

Part 3/ Day 3 - WEDNESDAY

Again, as it’s the middle of the week, I recommend that you use today to visit Venice’s busiest art museums – the Accademia Gallery, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Punta della Dogana.

Accademia Gallery

I would start with the historic picture collection of the Accademia Gallery to view the world’s foremost collection of Venetian art.  

When Napoleon captured Venice in 1797, he suppressed its churches, convents and monasteries and much of these institutions’ artworks fortunately wound up here, in the Accademia. 

Even the buildings housing the Accademia were originally the church of Santa Maria della Carità, the Convento dei Canonici Laterenensi and the Scuola della Carità.

As you walk around, it’s fascinating to read the labels and find out where each of the works were originally located in Venice.  Photography is prohibited within the gallery, so I can't show you any images.  Some highlights are:

•  Veronese’s enormous Christ in the House of Levi (originally from the refectory of the church of SS Giovanni e Paolo – the church still exists, but the refectory is now part of the city’s hospital)
• Tintoretto’s St Mark Freeing a Slave from the Scuola di San Marco (also now part of the city’s hospital)
•  Carpaccio’s Story of St Ursula, painted for the Scuola di Sant’ Orsola 
• Lovely fragments of a ceiling that the 18^th-century painter Giambattista Tiepolo painted for the Scalzi church, which was bombed by Austrians in 1915.  The restored church still stands near the railway station.
• The cycle of the Miracle of the True Cross painted from 1494-1501 for the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista (this scuola still exists and you’ll get to see it later in the week).

One of the few works in this collection that is still exhibited in the place for which it was painted is Titian’s Presentation of the Virgin (1539), on the wall above the door of the former albergo of the scuola.

Next stop is lunch, and I highly recommend a little bar called Da Gino which is on the main drag toward the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. 

Lunch at Da Gino

Please order a tramezzino sandwich.  You’ll never forget your first taste of a tonno e ouva tramezzino from Da Gino.  I always love to bring friends and family here, order them this tramezzino and then watch their faces as they take their first bite. 

Wash it down with a glass of Prosecco.  Finish it off with a restorative espresso or macchiato.

Feeling refreshed?  Great.  Let’s set off for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Peggy moved to Venice 1949 and lived here at the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni until her death in 1979.  She brought to Venice her wonderful collection of 20^th century art including works by Picasso, Braque, Chagall, Pollock, Giacometti, Magritte and her husband, Max Ernst.  It’s a small but wonderful collection, and a delightful museum.  I’ve written about the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in other posts in this blog, and you can find links to past articles here:

Please say hello to Marino Marini’s wonderful Angel of the Citadel for me.  Please lean against the balustrade of the balcony and please say hello to that view of the Grand Canal for me.

Angel of the Citadel, Marino Marini at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

Then, please step into the cafe and enjoy a coffee or another prosecco for me, and then visit the gift shop and support the museum with several purchases.

Punta della Dogana

Now, race over to the Punta della Dogana (the former customs house), which since 2009 has been Francois Pinault’s Centro d’Arte Contemporanea, a gorgeous exhibition space created by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and showcasing a rotating range of terrific exhibitions of contemporary work.  Pinault also owns the fabulous Palazzo Grassi, also an exhibition space for contemporary work, which is located on the other side of the Grand Canal near the San Samuele vaporetto stop.

If you haven’t yet seen the inside the Salute, you should also take the opportunity to do this now.

Exterior of the Salute 

The Zattere/ Gesuati

Continue along the Zattere – a wide, long scenic walk along the edge of the sestiere of Dorsoduro with views across the wide Giudecca canal to the islands of the Giudecca and San Giorgio Maggiore.  Your first stop along the Zattere  is the Gesuati church to see Tiepolo’s magnificent ceiling panel, Scenes from the life of St Dominic.

There are some nice bars along the way to stop and have a drink or Gelateria Nico is famous for its gelato and gianduia ice cream.  Not far away is the scenic squero di San Trovaso, the oldest gondola yard still in operation.  Nearby is the bar, Cantinone Storico, famous for its wines and cichetti (delicious tit bits to be consumed with a small tipple of local wine).

La Giudecca

From here, walk back to the Zattere to catch a vaporetto across to the Giudecca.  It’s only a short hop away.  Take a walk around this largely residential area.  The city’s wealthiest nobles used to build their villas here, until the Brenta River became prestigious in the 17^th-century.  From the 19^th-century, many areas of the Giudecca were transformed by industry including an asphalt factory, a distillery, the Junghans clock and watch factory, Fortuny’s textile factory (which still operates here), and the enormous and imposing neo-Gothic Mulino Stucky flour mill, which closed in 1954 and became the Molino Stucky Hilton in 2003.  It has the city’s only rooftop pool and a great roof-top bar with excellent views.

Once on the Giudecca, poke your head into that grand Palladian church, Il Redentore.  I love the serenity and elegance of its interior. 

You could have dinner at La Palanca, to enjoy the view across to the Zattere, and then a night-cap at the roof top bar of the Hilton.

Click here to read 'Your first visit to Venice - a suggested itinerary Part 4/Day 4'

Your first visit to Venice – a suggested week-long itinerary - Part 1 - Day 1

A colleague at work recently departed for her first visit to Venice.  Of the two of us, I can’t tell who was more excited – possibly me!  I put together a suggested itinerary for her trip, and I’m eagerly awaiting her return to hear about her experience of Venice.

So I’ve been doing (even more than usual) dreaming about my own ‘ideal’ week in Venice for a first-time in visitor (you know, on the train to work, walking to work, at work, coming home from work, as I’m cooking dinner, as I’m washing up etc).

So here we go: I invite you to come along with me on my ‘ideal first time trip to Venice’:

To anyone visiting Venice for the first time, I would recommend arriving on Monday afternoon, and staying for at least six nights.  I know, that probably sounds like a lot of time to you, but for me, even this is scarcely enough to see Venice, but it would be sufficient to at least see the major monuments and experience the city. 

What follows isn’t a guided tour of Venice – there are many fine guidebooks that do the job nicely.  What I’m proposing below is a suggested itinerary for your week-long stay in Venice to help you get the most of the city’s major sights and activities for your first-time visit.

Note:

This of course, assumes that neither the architecture nor visual arts biennales are in session – in which case, I’d ideally add on another two days to see as many of the exhibition spaces in the Giardini della Biennale and external sites as possible. 

Nor does this itinerary take into consideration major exhibitions or events that might be held during your visit.

Day 1 - ARRIVE MONDAY AFTERNOON

Travelling from Australia, I’ve always flown into Venice from a connecting European city.  I’m sure there are cheaper ways to arrive in Venice, but for me, it takes 24-hours just to reach Europe from Sydney, and I’m always anxious to maximise my visiting time in Venice.

I also love, I love, I love the experience of flying into Venice...that precise moment when the magical, enchanting jewel comes into view far below.  Seeing Venice from the air is truly a wonderful and it always catches my breath and squeezes my heart to see Venice again.

Inside arrivals hall at Marco Polo airport, purchase your 7-day vaporetto ticket and your return transfer to Venice.

Catch the Alilaguna boat to Venice

Check-in to your hotel or your apartment

Get out into the city to feel Venice under your feet, in front of your eyes and surrounding all your senses.

Go to the Accademia bridge, climb up to the top and take in the view of the Grand Canal looking toward the Salute. 

Walk down to the Basilica della Salute and if it’s still open, step inside quietly to enjoy its baroque elegance and serenity.  I always feel like walking into the Salute is like walking into a motherly hug.  This beautiful space has a warmth and a welcome that is hard to imagine until you’ve actually experienced it.

It will be difficult to tear yourself away from the cosy atmosphere off the Salute, but when you’ve had your fill, walk a short distance to the Punta della Dogana and breathe in and enjoy another classic Venetian view across to the Piazza San Marco, to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore across the Giudecca canal, and watch the vaporetti and water taxis motor past. 

You really are in Venice!

As evening falls, walk back to the Salute to catch the vaporetto down the Grand Canal.  Marvel as the palazzi and churches lining the Grand Canal slip quietly past you.

The Grand Canal from a vaporetto as the sun begins to fade

Descend at Rialto to enjoy cichetti (aperitifs with delicious little titbits) or an early dinner at one of the restaurants in the bend of the Rialto – I love the view of the Grand Canal and Antonio da Ponte’s 1588 bridge from this spot, nestled into the ‘S’ bend of the Grand Canal.

Then, enjoy a post-prandial stroll across the Rialto bridge and follow the amply-signed tourist route towards Piazza San Marco.  You will walk to the Piazza past Campo San Teodoro, through Campo Manin.

At Campo Manin, you could take a small detour and follow the signs to the ‘Scala del Bovolo’ – to see that much photographed house in Venice with an outdoor staircase in the form of a snail shell.  You can’t get inside, you can only stand at the gates and observe.

A detail of the Scala del Bovolo

Onward to Campo Sant’ Angelo, Campo Santo Stefano, Campo San Maurizio, past Santa Maria del Giglio, and Campo San Moise to finally end up in the Piazza San Marco. 

And look, up ahead of you – there is it – the Basilica di San Marco! 

And there’s the Doge’s Palace!

And the campanile! And the clock-tower!

When you’ve had a chance to recover, look around the rest of the buildings. 

Feel the size, space and shape of the Piazza all around you. Imagine all the lives, famous, infamous and anonymous, that have passed around you over the centuries. 

Draw a breath.  Walk down to the piazzetta to savour the view across the Bacino di San Marco to the Salute and Punta della Dogana on the other side of the Grand Canal, to San Giorgio Maggiore and the look down the Riva degli Schiavoni.

Walk back toward CaffeFlorian, and depending on the weather and your preference, sit down inside one of the ornate rooms or outside in the open-air with the band. 

Enjoy a hot chocolate, an elaborate tea service or a glass of Prosecco or a Bellini.

As you stroll home, listen to the sound of your footseps and your voice echoing around the dark, winding, silent streets.  Hear the soft sound of the water lapping against the sides of the canals all around you. 

Sleep tight - you’re going to wake up in Venice!

Click here to read Your first visit to Venice - Part 2/ Day 2