The walk can start from the main Rialto square called san Giacometto the best place where to talk about the merchants of Venice and the days when the city was the main hub in Europe where to buy oriental goods, such as spices, silk, precious stones, perfumes.
Rialto is also a typical Venetian quarter and one of the oldest in town made of narrow alleys, ancient warehouses and tall Medieval apartment buildings
As we continue our walk we’ll cross the second broadest space in town Campo San Polo, once upon a time it was a place where Venetians celebrated several events and now one of the favorite playgrounds for local kids.
We’ll soon approach the huge Franciscan Frari Church and well worth a visit, some world class art masterpieces are housed there. The most important features are the two altarpieces produced by Titian and the one by Bellini. But is not just that: the Frari church is the perfect place were to talk about the wealthiest Venetian families and the art they promoted.
And we enter now Dorsoduro. After passing by the seat of Venice University we enter a broad campo (square) called after St Margaret now a favorite gathering place for university students and locals alike.
There are numerous cafes, bars and restaurants, that give the wide space a cheerful and easy going atmosphere.
Not far away according to your preferences and time we can either have a glance at the gardens and lower floor of the grand Rezzonico palace, one of the largest and most imposing in Venice or visit the entire building. This is one of the few palaces open to the public in Venice and decorated with original items of the 18th century giving visitors the feeling as the place is still inhabited by a noble Venetian family of the past.
The walk in Dorsoduro won’t be complete without reaching the Zattere, a long and wide sidewalk along the largest channel in Venice called Giudecca, the waterway that gives access to the present port.
We are reaching now one of the latest yards where gondolas are built and maintained, the wooden hut where the activity take place and the building nearby remind how most buildings looked like in early Venice.
After passing by the Accademia Galleries, seat of the most important collection of Venetian painting, we enter the last part of the district. In front of Peggy Guggenheim’s home we’ll talk about her life, how she brought up her collection and the days she was living in Venice.
Our attention goes now to the most flamboyant building in Venice, the ‘Salute’ Church dedicated to Our Lady of Health and built as a thanksgiving for the end of the terrible plague of 1630. Finally we get to very end of Dorsoduro where the two largest channels merge at the Custom House Point the most panoramic in Venice at one single glance you can see the entire basin of san Marco, the largest water area.
