Off the beaten track in Venice
Curiosities and lesser known sights
Venice is crowded with tourists. But it's surprising how they flock to two or three main streets - wander just a few blocks off the beaten track and you can find a few surprises. Even if you only have a day in Venice, take time off from the obligatory sights of the Rialto and San Marco to visit one or two of these places.
- The Squero San Trovaso is a traditional boatbuilding yard, nowadays mainly focused on building gondolas but also other traditional crafts such as the sandolo and gondolino. The buildings look like mountain huts - most of the boatbuilders apparently came from the north, not from Venice - and three or four boats are usually lined up outside with another couple being worked on in the shed. If the door's open you can look in and see the builders at work. Near the Accademia.
- Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo,
just off Campo Manin, has a famous open spiral staircase in the courtyard.
The architecture, as so often in Venice, has the delicacy of lace.
- The Scuola di San Giorgio di Schiavoni was the 'scuola' or charitable guild belonging to the Yugoslav community in Venice. It's a fine building, but the real interest lies inside - Carpaccio's paintings of the lives of St George and St Jerome. All dating from about 1500, they're full of detail - St Augustine's study is a fine sixteenth century Venetian interior, and we see Venetian buildings and even street musicians. Perhaps my favourite litle detail - while St Jerome has a fearsome lion, St Augustine has a cute little dog.
- Pasticceria Puppa - the best pastry shop in Venice. Go up the Calle del Spezier towards the Gesuiti and the Fondamente Nove, and you'll find this excellent shop. Make sure you have a budino (egg custard cake) or castagnaccio (soft chestnut cake) and buy some of Signor Puppa's wonderful chocolate treats or candied chestnuts to take away.
- The scuola dei Tiraori - the guild of the gold-beaters - had its own little chapel next to San Stae. This marvellous little building, dwarfed by the church next door, is as fine a little miniature as any jeweller could want, dressed in shining marble and with a definite rococo twist. You have no excuse - San Stae vaporetto stop will get you there, right on the Grand Canal.
- The Post Office is surprisingly beautiful with a tall, narrow arcaded courtyard four storeys high. It used to be the Fondaco dei Tedeschi - the trading house of the German merchants in Venice.
- Camels everywhere! There are camels in the mosaics in San Marco, even. But the most famous is just off Campo dei Mori in Cannaregio - a little marble relief set into a palace wall.
- Torcello is more frequented than it used to be. But the long boat trip you need to get puts many tourists off. Don't miss the remains of what might have been a city to rival Venice herself, with its fine cathedral and Byzantine mosaics. And if you fancy some solitude, wanders into the fields and marshes behind the cathedral for a different view of the Venetian lagoon.