Venice’s Grand Canal, a major tourist destination in its own right, is also a vital link to many other tourist sites. It’s Venice’s main thoroughfare, curving back in a reverse S through the city’s center, as well as its bustling marketplace, packed with traffic including anything from gondolas to barges transporting vegetables.
Anyone of importance in Venice had to have a palace overlooking the Grand Canal, and palazzi from all throughout the city exhibit many architectural styles, including those from the 12th to early 18th centuries.
To view and appreciate all the magnificent palaces properly, the best approach is from the canal itself, since their facades are turned toward the water. One of the best things to do in Venice at night is taking in the opulence of these palaces when the lights are turned on. Starting at San Marco, these sites are organized by the order you’ll view them as you go from Ponte Della Costituzione (the opposite end of the Grand Canal) to the Rialto Bridge. You won’t miss a single thing while navigating the Grand Canal with our helpful guide.
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Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Ca’ Venier dei Leoni, a modern structure built on older foundations, lies just outside Santa Maria della Salute. The Vernier castle, which wasn’t finished until 1749, was eventually turned into an art museum in 1949, and the museum has works by American artist Peggy Guggenheim. The palace was the location of her collection of cubist, abstract, and surrealist paintings and sculptures.
The body of works included in the collection consists of a number of pieces by Max Ernst, who was Peggy Guggenheim’s husband, as well as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, Paul Klee, Rene Magritte, Piet Mondrian, Marc Chagall, and Jackson Pollock.
Your boat may pass the equestrian statue Angel of the City on the terrace as you go by. Use Santa Maria della Salute or the vaporetto Accademia to reach the museum, the Guggenheim is approximately halfway between the two.
Boat tour on the Grand Canal
You may travel on the Vaporetto, Venice’s public water taxi system, from San Marco to Porta Roma on the Grand Canal. Please avoid the faster express train and opt for the normal train, which goes directly to the palaces, missing the rest of the stops. In addition to walking tours, you may enjoy tours on motorboats, which have guides who can slow down to provide you a better perspective of the palaces you pass.
You may choose from many choices. The 1-hour trip on the Venice Grand Canal covers the major sights and ports of call, but also passes via smaller canals to show passengers sites such as Santa Maria Formosa and San Giovanni e Paolo. The two-hour Grand Canal and Secret Canals Small-Group Tour by Boat, which features a luxury motor launch, takes passengers to more secluded regions of Venice.
Ponte dell’Accademia and the Academy of Fine Arts
Venice’s lone bridge across the Grand Canal, Ponte di Rialto, was in use for centuries until the Austrians who controlled the city from 1815 to 1854 built a smaller iron bridge linking San Marco to Dorsoduro. Venice had a wooden bridge installed as a temporary replacement in 1932, but its popularity with Venetians meant that a stone replacement never happened as planned.
One of Venice’s greatest museums, the Accademia, is located at the Dorsoduro end of the Grand Canal in the old 16th-century Monastery of Santa Maria della Carità . The Uffizi is the art museum of Florence, but Venice has its own premier art museum at the Piazza San Marco. Though the Piazza has a vast collection of works by Venetians, its finest pieces are not restricted to Venetian artists. Famous pieces by artists like as Titian, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, the Bellinis, Canaletto, Carpaccio, and Tiepolo are on display at the museum.
For art enthusiasts, the Accademia station on the vaporetto provides a double treat, giving them access to two of Venice’s most significant sites.
Palazzo Corner della Ca’ Grande
The Palazzo Corner della Ca’ Grande is one of the greatest examples of high-renaissance architecture in Venice just opposite the Guggenheim. The Ca’ Grande, which translates to “Big House” in the Venetian vernacular, was constructed in 1545 by Italian architect and artist Jacopo Sansovino. The Cornaro family commissioned it as their home. One of Sansivino’s first projects in Venice was this church.
Just like these palazzi, Ca’ Grande was built to dazzle, with the first level sporting majestic Ionic columns and the second-floor boasting Corinthian columns.
Santa Maria della Salute
The Baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute was erected in gratitude for the end of the plague of 1630, and you will see it as you depart from the San Marco station on your Vaporetto as it crosses the opening of the Grand Canal. To hold up the weight of the lagoon, Baldassare Longhena had to use more than a million-floor timbers.
St. Mark’s Basilica is a beautiful building that can be seen from San Marco across the Grand Canal, and this splendor continues upon entry, with your eye instantly attracted to its magnificent dome. Do not miss the Sacristy, since it has several noteworthy paintings, including Tintoretto’s Marriage at Cana. It’s directly next to the church.