Things to do in Venice
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Chiesa di San Vidal
Originally built by Doge Vitale Falier in the 11th century in honour of his own namesake saint, Chiesa di San Vidal was upgraded by Antonio Gaspari to celebrate Doge Francesco Morosoni’s triumph over Turkish foes in Morea, with a Palladian facade tacked on in 1706–14. The church has since been deconsecrated, and now serves as the chief venue and ticket point for Interpreti Veneziani. Inside is St Vitale on Horseback and Eight Saints, an uncharacteristically gore-free work by Vittore Carpaccio, featuring traces of his signature traffic-light red and a miniaturist’s attention to detail.
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All’Arco
Maestro Francesco and his son Matteo invent Venice's best cicheti daily with Rialto Market finds, and if you ask nicely and wait patiently, they'll invent a seasonal speciality for you. On Mondays when the Pescaria is closed, Francesco might wrap wild asparagus in rare roast beef with grainy mustard; when Saturday's seafood haul arrives, Matteo might create Sicilian tuna tartare with mint, Dolomite strawberries and aged balsamic. Even with copious prosecco, hardly any meal here tops €20 or falls short of five stars.
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Veneziastampa
Mornings are the best time to stop by to see the ancient blackened gears of the 1930s Heidelberg machine in action – but any time you stop by, you’ll smell printer’s ink drying and find fresh racks of etchings hot off the proverbial press. The stock here is a thrilling throwback to another time, when postcards were gorgeously lithographed, custom bookplates gently reminded book borrowers of their rightful owners and Casanovas invited dates upstairs to ‘look at my etchings’. Pick up original hand-stamped stationery with your choice of symbols – a meteor shower, a leaking faucet, a dandy – or invitation cards, menus and posters by local artists.
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Private Tour: Venice Gondola Ride with Serenade
by Viator
What could be more romantic than a private gondola ride for two in the most magical city in the world, Venice? As you float along in an authentic gondola, your…Not LP reviewed
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Chiesa di San Giorgio dei Greci
Greek Orthodox refugees who fled to Venice from Turkey with the rise of the Ottoman Empire built a church here in 1536, with the aid of a special dispensation from Venice to collect taxes on incoming Greek ships. Nicknamed ‘St George of the Greeks,’ the little church has an impressive iconostasis, plus a range of Byzantine icons and fine incense still in use at services. The separate, slender bell tower was completed in 1603 though it began to lean right from the start; these days, it seems poised to dive into the canal on which the church sits.
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Le Forcole di Saverio Pastor
Mick Jagger had his forcola made to measure here – and no, that’s not as naughty as it sounds. A forcola is a forked tongue of wood where the gondola oar rests, hand-carved from acacia and hard oak; each one must be made to match a gondolier’s exact height and weight so as not to upset the gondola’s delicate balance. Sounds like a job for Saverio Pastor, who makes forcole that twist and lean in perfect balance – ideal for budding gondoliers, or as a customised sculpture.
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Marina e Susanna Sent
Warned that women couldn’t handle working in molten glass, two sisters from Murano, trained as an architect and a jeweller, rose to the challenge – and created Murano’s bestselling line of hand-blown glass statement jewellery. Museum shops around Venice feature their work, including ice-blue waterfall necklaces, traffic-stopping red-dot collars, and signature ‘soap’ necklaces: woven clear glass bubbles that make the wearer look both stylish and freshly scrubbed. There’s also a branch at Ponte San Moisè in San Marco.
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Chiesa di San Zulian
Originally a modest church founded in 829, San Zulian got an Istrian stone makeover by Sansovino on a commission from the wealthy physician Tomasso Rangone, who made his fortune selling syphilis cures and a book revealing the secrets to living past 100 (he died at 84). The doctor is immortalised in bronze over the portal, holding sarsaparilla – apparently a key ingredient to his miracle cure for VD. Inside are works by Palma il Giovane and, on the right as you enter, Paolo Veronese’s The Dead Christ and Saints.
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Trattoria alla Madonna
A classic restaurant a stone’s throw from the Pescaria, with diners packed in like anchovies, waiters in white jackets and black tie expertly navigating narrow channels between tables, and a menu that hasn’t changed much since the restaurant opened in 1954. Traditional seafood offerings range from straightforward grilled fish through seasonal specialities like capelonghe (razor clams) in a white wine broth to the more obscure uova di seppia (cuttlefish eggs) which tastes like sturgeon caviar.
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Antiquariato Claudia Canestrelli
Hand-coloured lithographs of ‘prehistoric’ lagoon fish and 19th-century miniatures of cats dressed as generals are charming souvenirs of Venice’s past, but collector-artisan Claudia Canestrelli is bring- ing back bygone elegance with her repurposed antique earrings, including free-form baroque pearls dangling from tiny silver pigs.
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Caffè Quadri
Powdered wigs seem appropriate attire in this bodaciously baroque salon, a cafe since 1683 and Hapsburg hot spot during the 19th-century Austrian occupation. Venetians still veer instinctively towards Lavena or Florian, missing out on decadent desserts such as baked ice cream and the €16 hot chocolate service with panna (whipped cream) and Venetian cookies. Reserve ahead during Carnevale, when the Quadri is packed with costumed revellers partying like it’s 1699.
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Sigfrido Cipolato
Booty worthy of pirate royalty is displayed in this fishbowl-sized window display: a constellation of diamonds in star settings on a ring, a tiny enamelled green snake sinking its fangs into a pearl, and diamond drop earrings that end in enamelled gold skulls. Though they look like heirlooms, these small wonders were worked on the premises by master jeweller Sigfridio – and you’ll pay as little as half what you would at the high-end jewellery showrooms near San Marco that carry Cipolato’s work.
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Pasticceria Rizzardini
‘From 1742’ reads the modest storefront sign, and inside you’ll find irresistible cream puffs and doughnuts that have helped this little bakery survive many an acqua alta – in a peculiarly Venetian boast, samples of waters bailed from the store floor over the years are preserved in bottles on the top shelf. Troll the biscuit section in search of wagging lingue di suocere (mother-in-law’s tongues), suggestively sprinkled pallone di Casanova (Casanova’s balls), and other dolci tipici venexiani (typical Venetian sweets) – but act fast if you want that last slice of tiramisu.
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Dai Zemei
The zemei (twins) who run this corner joint are a blur of motion by 10am, preparing for the onslaught of regulars and the odd well-informed foodie tourist by 11.45am for the first crack at these small meals with outsized imagination: octopus salad with marinated rocket, duck breast drizzled with truffle oil, or crostini (toast) loaded with velvety tuna mousse. Arrive early, grab a stool and consult twin gourmet masterminds Giovanni and Franco for ideal DOC/IGT wine pairings – think past the usual prosecco, and wash it down with a floral Ribolla Gialla or sophisticated Refosco.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria del Giglio
Experience awe through the ages in this compact church with a 10th-century Byzantine layout, three intriguing masterpieces and a baroque facade featuring charmingly flawed maps of regions conquered by Venice c 1678. Standing tall among these possessions is a statue of Admiral Antonio Barbaro, who commissioned the reconstruction of the original 9th-century church by Giuseppe Sardi for the glory of the Virgin, Venice, and of course himself. This largely secular, self-glorifying architectural audacity enraged 19th-century architectural critic John Ruskin, who called it a ‘manifestation of insolent atheism’.
Inside, Veronese’s Madonna with Child hides behind the altar…
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Chiesa di Sant’Eufemia
Four women saints were crowded under the roof of the original AD 890 church here, but Sts Dorothy, Tecla and Erasma weren’t as big a draw as Byzantine Christian martyr Euphemia. She was thrown to hungry lions, but after biting off her hand, the lions refused to eat her holy virgin flesh. The simple Veneto-Byzantine structure you see today dates from the 14th century, with some capitals and columns inside preserved from the 11th century. The pleasing Doric portico attributed to Michele Sanmicheli was added c 1596. If you can’t get up a group of 20 other people, try attending Mass on Sundays at 11am.
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Do Farai
Hidden away on a calle (street), this neighbourhood restaurant packs Venetian regulars into a wood-panelled room hung with football championship scarves and fragrant with aromatic seafood: pasta with clams, mussels and sweet prawns; herb-laced, grilled sea bass; and Venetian tris di saor sarde, scampi e sogliole (sardines, prawns and sole in the tangy Venetian saor marinade). Service is leisurely; bide your time with a superior Negroni cocktail.
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Chiesa di San Lio
Giandomenico Tiepolo sure did know how to light up a room. If you find this church open, duck into the atmospheric gloom of its baroque interior and as your eyes adjust to the light, look up at Tiepolo’s magnificent ceiling fresco, The Glory of the Cross and St Leon IX. On your left by the main door is Titian’s Apostle James the Great, but this church is better known for yet another Venetian artist: the great vedutista (landscapist) Canaletto, who was baptised and buried in this, his parish church.
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Mulino Stucky
The striking neo-Gothic hulk of the best-known factory complex on the island, the Mulino Stucky, was built in the late 19th century and employed 1500 people. It shut in 1954, and languished along the lagoon until 2000, when it was narrowly saved from the wrecking ball by the Hilton Hotel chain. The Molino Stucky Hilton has 380 rooms, a conference centre and a fabulous lounge by the rooftop pool. The original facade has been preserved and it’s beautifully lit at night – who knew a factory could be so romantic?
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Dalla Marisa
Like a friend of the family, you'll be seated where there's room and get no menu. You'll have whatever Marisa's cooking, but you will be informed that the menu is meat- or fish-based when you book, and house wine is included in the price. Venetian regulars confess Marisa's fegato alla veneziana (Venetian calf's liver) is better than their grandmothers', while fish nights bring hauls of lagoon seafood grilled, fried and perched atop pasta and rocket.
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Mosaico!
Marta Bertaggia plies Venice’s ancient artisan trade with similar tools used for San Marco’s mosaics a millennium ago: a tiny hammer and rods of raw glass. The glass is gently tapped into square tesserae (small tiles) and painstakingly set into shimmering mosaic vases, mirror frames, a stunning masquerade mask, the lion of San Marco heraldic emblem and careful recreations of Egon Schiele paintings. Custom pieces can be commissioned here too, so you can capture your own mosaic memory of Venice.
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Nave De Oro
Wine is as important to life for Venetians as water and a fine take-home tradition persists in Venice for tipplers unable or unwilling to spend on big labels. These wine-stores are crammed with huge glass damigiane (demijohns). From these monsters, each containing a sea of modest Veneto table wine, you make a choice and have it poured into whatever you bring - used wine or mineral-water bottles, it's up to you. You will be charged per litre. There are many branches of this chain around.
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Cartè
Lagoon ripples mysteriously appear on marbled-paper necklaces and hand-bound portfolios thanks to the steady hands and restless imagination of carta marmorizzata (marbled paper) maestra Rosanna Corrò. After years restoring ancient Venetian manuscripts and books, Rosanna began creating original, bookish beauties: aquatic marbled-paper cocktail rings, hypnotically swirled statement necklaces, op-art jewellery boxes and surreal book-bound handbags featuring woodgrain patterns.
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Anice Stellato
If finding this obscure corner of Cannaregio seems like an adventure, wait until dinner arrives: herb-encrusted lamb chops, house-made ravioli and lightly fried moeche (soft-shelled crab) gobbled whole. Tin lamps and recycled paper place-mats on communal tables keep the focus on local food and local company – all memorable. Book ahead.
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Mistrà
Head here for authentically Venetian seafood, including generous plates of briny clam pasta and genuine Genovese pesto. The chef, who hails from Liguria, also recommends zuppa di pesce (soup thick with seafood) and ravioli stuffed with shrimp. Terrace seating in warm weather completes the picture. You won’t regret the calories in the homemade desserts.
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