From the Rialto Market take the Ruga Rialto, the road that leads from the market to Campo San Polo, and enjoy the shops of clothes and shoes, the restaurants and the beauty of the architecture, until you arrive at the house of Goldoni, the home of the famous playwright Venetian that is now a museum.
Continue towards Campo San Tomà and enjoy a good cicchetto and a glass of wine at the Basegò then reach and visit the wonderful Frari Church in the homonymous campo. The Church holds numerous works of art such as the famous Assunta del Tiziano, the altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini, the table of Sant’Ambrogio by Alvise Vivarini. Admire the majestic wooden choir and the monuments dedicated to Canova, Tiziano, Doge Nicolò Tron and Doge Francesco Foscari.
From the Frari continue to the patisserie Da Tonolo, one of the oldest in Venice and taste the sweets and the pastry, then head to Campo Santa Margherita, where you can find all the Venetian youth, cross it to the PONTE DEI PUGNI..
Above the bridge there are 4 Istrian stone footprints: In ancient Venice was inhabited by two distinct factions the Castellani of sestieri of Castello, San Marco and Dorsoduro, and the Nicolotti of San Polo, Santa Croce and Cannaregio. This bridge had no railings and was a “boundary” between the two opposing sides.
From September until Christmas they challenged punches over the aforementioned bridge. To win The team had to drop the largest number of opponents in the water. On the day of the clash, the contenders (also three hundred per side) sided at the ends of the bridge. The real clash was preceded by a challenge involving the champions of the two teams, each of which placed their feet above two of the footprints present on the surface of the pavement. Soon, the other contenders were also in the clash.
The winner team could have placed its insignia on the bridge: Logically, it was not perpetual and this allowed the claiming of ownership of the other deployment to take place a new clash. Often the public was also involved. Since the clashes were often able to last several hours, at nightfall the gendarmerie intervened to make them cease.
In 1705, when the punches passed to the knives, this kind of contention was forbidden. To give people other possibilities of outburst, another game was established, said of the forces of Hercules: the highest human pyramid, built during the carnival of Venice in St. Mark’s Square, was awarded by the Doge himself. The bridge was rebuilt around 1870: The iron railings were added.
Cross the ponte dei pugni and go to the campo dell’Accademia where you will find the homonym galleries, a museum which collects the best collection of Venetian and Venetian art between the XIV to the XVIII century.
Among the major artists represented include Tintoretto, Tiziano, Canaletto, Giorgione and Giovanni Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio and Veronese, there are also other forms of art such as sculptures and drawings, among which the famous man Vitruvian by Leonardo da Vinci (Exposed only on special occasions).
In campo dell”Accademia you can also admire the second bridge that crosses the grand Canal. It was built in 1800 during the Austrian domination, then due to structural problems it was provisionally rebuilt in wood by Eugenio Miozzi in just 37 days. It was opened to the public on February 15, 1933, and was no longer replaced. At the time of the inauguration, it was the largest wooden arch bridge in Europe.
Do not cross the bridge but continue until you take the Calle to Campo San Vio always go ahead until you arrive at the Peggy Guggenheim collection, once also its private dwelling and now a museum that houses a collection of works European and American Art of the twentieth century: Cubist, surrealist and abstract expressionism works. If you go to visit it in addition to the beautiful works do not fail to enjoy the magnificent view on the grand Canal from the terrace that you will find inside the palace that houses the collection.
If you continue a little further through the calli you will arrive, after a sotoportico and a wooden bridge to the church of Madonna della Salute, follow the path along the shore to the extreme point from which you can admire the whole basin San Marco on one side and on the other the Giudecca and the island of San Giorgio.
Punta della Dogana takes its name from the seventeenth century building, which at the time of the Republic of Venice, because of its central position between the basin of San Marco and the entrance of the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, was used as a customs seat of naval trade. It has a tower overstated by the Palla d’oro, gilded bronze sphere supported by two atlastes, to depict the world on which the statue called “Occasio” is based. This statue represents the rotating fortune to indicate the direction of the wind and, symbolically, the changeability of the fortune itself.
Important restoration work allowed in the 2009 the realization within the complex of the Dogana da Mar of a contemporary art Centre on commission of François Pinault, owner of Palazzo Grassi and collector of contemporary art.
