Occupying 117 islands in the azure waters of the Adriatic, this lagoon city is a watery maze of grand canals, 177 smaller canals, over 400 bridges and the world's most famous sandbar, the Lido. Though thoroughly walkable, getting around Venice is a mesmerizing experience aboard the city's variety of public transport boats, the vaporetti or smaller (and more expensive) motoscafi. The very expensive gondola ride is suggested more for a romantic interlude .

Venice's enticing, exotic beauty, typified by the Byzantine architecture , enormous stained glass windows rising along the Grand Canal andVenetian Carnival masks with their wry, knowing smiles - attest to the city's historic role as a great Eastern trader. Venice's legendary maritime heroes, such as Marco Polo, ploughed the Levantine trading routes. The entire Mediterranean flowed through the Venetian Republic, adorning the city in the splendors that illuminate it today.

Modern pleasures are not absent in Venice. Year round, first-rate art exhibitions pass through the city's ode to modernism - the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. Before the unfortunate fire that closed (with plans to rebuild) the Fenice Des Artiste Opera House, this venue was a must stop for the likes of Pavorotti and Placido Domingo. And the city's 70,000 inhabitants do much more than meditate upon the glories of Venice's past - you'll no doubt see them sitting beside you at the Cafe Florian, on San Marco Square, or selling leather goods, hand blown, Murano glass and Armani ties at the city's many fashionable boutiques.

City Areas

Venice is divided into six districts, known as 'Sestieri'. Each 'Sestiere' is subdivided into Parishes, the smallest administrative and social units of the city as early as the 11C (there were 70 then). They were reduced in number during the Napoleonic occupation, when religious orders were suppressed and churches and monasteries were demolished. Nevertheless, today there there are still over a hundred religious buildings distribuited over the 38 Parishes. Note that the numbering of the houses does not necessarily follow the streets, but is according to the 'Sestiere' (hence the hihg numbers).

Cannaregio:

Cannaregio is Venice's second largest sestiere, stretching across the north-west of the city from the station almost to the Rialto bridge. The name has two possible origins: it may derive from Canal Regio, i.e. the main canal for communicating with the mainland or else it may refer to the extensive reed beds found there in the past. Cannaregio was settled well before AD 1000, when the first dwellings were built on the islands of San Giovanni Crisostomo and Santi Apostoli, close to the Rialto. The areas adjacent to the Grand Canal were built up next. The urban sprawl proceeded northwards, engulfing the convents and monasteries (the Misericordia, the Madonna dell'Orto, the Servi, San'Alvise) on what were, until then, remote islands.
With the construction of the railway and road bridges to the mainland in the 19th century, the mainly residential and religious nature of the sestiere changed. But the sestiere contains treasures in its own right.

On this sestiere, special attention will be paed to number of palaces, dating from Byzantine period to the 18C, that are to be found in this sestiere together with the large 16C quarter of the Ghetto, and the churches and monasteries, which are numerous in this area too. We shall also encounter another of Venice's major town-planning schemes, the Strada Nuova, linking the city centre around Rialto with the railway station.

Santa Croce:

Santa Croce is in the north-east of the city and via Piazzale Roma it connects Venice to the mainland. All this area has been subject to many demolitions and transformations, starting in 1810 with the demolition of the church and monastery of Santa Croce, which gave their name to the district. The Papadopuli gardens were laid out in the area. The gardens were designed by bagnara in the likeness of English gardens. They are now open to the public but have been completely changed..

It extend over the southern part of the city, starting with Punta della Dogana that juts out into the San Marco basin like prow of a ship. The 'dogana da mar' (sea customs house) of the Venetian Republic was built in the seventeenth century and consists of many warehouses that are hidden behind the facade. It end with the square tower on top of which there are bronze statues that support the golden ball on which Fortune stands. The work is by Bernardo Falcone.
After the tower we find the beginning of the Zattere. This is a long jetty that goes as far as Santa Maria. It was built in 1516 to unload the timber which rafts (zattere) brought down the rivers from the Cadore area. Along the Zattere we find the old Ospedale degli Incurabili. This was built by the Venetian Republic in the sixteenth century to house those suffering from chronic infections illnesses in one wing whilst the other wing housed orphans. The Napoleonic edicts of 1806 turned the building over to the military

Dorsoduro:

Dorsoduro, the name of which (literally 'hard ridge') probably reflects the nature of the land in this area, slightly higher and more solid than the other portions of land that emerged from the lagoon. the old designation is still visible on the outside wall of the monastery next to the church of the Vistazione at the Zattere. Here, in an inscription placed above the hole in the wall where public denouncements could be 'posted', it is possible to read the words 'Osso Duro'. Today it is one of the most sought-after areas of the city and is especially popular with foreigners.

It extend over the southern part of the city, starting with Punta della Dogana that juts out into the San Marco basin like prow of a ship. The 'dogana da mar' (sea customs house) of the Venetian Republic was built in the seventeenth century and consists of many warehouses that are hidden behind the facade. It end with the square tower on top of which there are bronze statues that support the golden ball on which Fortune stands. The work is by Bernardo Falcone. After the tower we find the beginning of the Zattere.
This is a long jetty that goes as far as Santa Maria. It was built in 1516 to unload the timber which rafts (zattere) brought down the rivers from the Cadore area. Along the Zattere we find the old Ospedale degli Incurabili. This was built by the Venetian Republic in the sixteenth century to house those suffering from chronic infections illnesses in one wing whilst the other wing housed orphans. The Napoleonic edicts of 1806 turned the building over to the military.

Not to be missed
Chiesa di San Trovaso
Chiesa di San Sebastiano
Ca' Rezzonico (The Museum of 18th-C. Venice)
Guggenheim Collection
Galleria dell'Accademia
Galleria Cini
Santa Maria della Salute
Chiesa dei Gesuati
Scuola Grande dei Carmini
Palazzo Ariani
Palazzo Zenobio

San Polo

San Polo is the smallest area. In this district it was customery to 'live over the shop', i.e. dwellings and workplaces were often combined.
On the Rialto and everywhere else we find an old and noble Venetian vocation: that of good fare. The enjoyment of food is honoured here, even in its most simple and popular forms. And this enjoyment of food goes hand in hand with another Venetian tradition: conviviality.
All around the Venice region we find "osterie e bacari", taverns that also provide ready-made dishes including saòr, bigoi in salsa, tripe, liver alla veneziana, fish fries, as well as the typical "cicheto" (a morsel on a stick).
This sestiere runs to the east of the Rio di San Polo to tha Rialto.

San Polo has been the liveliest quarter of venice since the 11th century when it became the centre for the city's markets, when the market was moved here from Campo San Bartolomeo. The present layout of the market and adjacent buildings is the result of an overall reconstruction projet by Scarpagnino after a fire in 1514, which destroyed the whole area.
At the foot of the Rialto Bridge, where the tourist stalls are thick on the ground, stands - to the left - the Palazzo dei Dieci Savi, which housed the city's tax-inspectors, and - to the right - the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi, which housed the finance department. Beyond, the small church of San Giacomo di Rialto (known affectionately as San Giacometto) is generally agreed to be the first of the city's churches, tradition has it that it was founded in AD 421.

All around it stretch the markets, around which commercial and administrative buildings and areas of low-cost housing for the traders mushroomed after trade was shifted from the other side of the canal.
The larger streets and squares are named after the merchandise that is still sold there (Naranzeria - oranges; Casaria - cheese; Speziali - spices; Erberia - vegetables).

Not to be missed
Rialto Bridge
San Giacomo di Rialto
Palazzo dei Camerlenghi
Fabbriche Nuove
Chiesa di San Cassiano
Chiesa di Sant'Aponal
Campo San Polo
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Scuola Grande di San Rocco
Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista

San Marco

This sestiere is the heart of the city. But its sights are not confined to Piazza San Marco itself. Three mail thoroughfares link the key points of San Marco, forning a rough triangle: one from Piazza San Marco to the Rialto Bridge, one from the Rialto to the Accademia Bridge, and one from the Accademia to Piazza San Marco. Even in this busiest of 'sestieri', it is possible to stray into the centre of the triangle and feel as if you are off the beaten track.

from Piazza S. Marco to the Rialto Bridge
The 'drawing room of Europe', as Napoleon described Piazza San Marco, is the focus of venetian life. The elegant piazza is lined with historical cafés, where you'll have the most expensive cup of coffee in the city, but it will be well worth it.

Byzantine rubs shoulders with Gothic, Roman Classical, late Renaissance; it covers 1000 years of Venetian history. The vertically challenged emperor ontended to add to the furnishings of this open air drawing room with a statue of himself in the centre of the western wing. It was never erected: the Venetians have always kept the square clear of public monuments and statues. This is typical of Venice, where history is always communal rather then personal.
Piazza San Marco is linked to the Rialto by the busiest, richest and narrowest of shopping streets: the Mercerie. The name is plural, since it is divided into five parts: the Merceria dell'Orologio, di San Zulian, del Capitello,
di San Salvador and 'del 2 Aprile'. The name means "haberdashers", but we knowfrom John Evelyn's 1645 account of 'one of the most delicious streets in the world' that the luxury textile emporia were flanked by shops selling perfumes and medicines too.

Not to be missed
Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)
Basilica di San Marco (Saint Mark's Basilica)
Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark's Square)
Torre dell'Orologio (Clocktower)
Museo Archeologico (Archaelogical Museum)
Biblioteca Marciana/Libreria Sansoviniana
Museo Correr (Correr Museum)
La Zecca

from the Rialto to the Accademia Bridge

The route from the Rialto to the Accademia passes through a series of ever larger squares. from cosily cramped Campo San Bartolomeo, the well marked path leads to Campo San Luca with its bars and cakeshops. Beyond this is Campo Manin, leader of the 1848 uprising against the Austrians. An alley to left of this campo will lead you to the Scala del Bovolo, a striking Renaissance spiral staircase. Back on the main drag, the busy Calle della Mendola takes you into broad Campo Sant'Angelo with its dramatic view of Santo Stefano's leaning tower; off Calle della Mendola to the right is the gothic Palazzo Fortuny, once home to the fashion designer Mariano Fortuny.
Just before the Accademia Bridge, Campo Santo Stefano is second only to Piazza San Marco in the sestiere size.
On the Grand Canal to the north-west of Campo Santo Stefano is Campo San Samuele, with a deconsacrated 11th century church and the vast Palazzo Grassi, now an exhibition centre.

from the Accademia to Piazza San Marco

The route from Santo Stefano back to Piazza San Marco zigzags at first, passing through small squares, including Campo Santa Maria del Giglio (aka Santa Maria Zobenigo) with the most boastful church-facade in Venice. It winds past banks and hotels, along with a few top-dollar antique shops, to end in wide Via XXII Marzo, with an intimidating view of freshly restored baroque statuary of San Moisè. To the left from here are the gutted remains of Venice's once-glorious opera house, La Fenice. Press on and you are ready for the greatest view in the world: Piazza San Marco from the west side.

Castello:

Castello is Venice's largest sestiere, extending from the Rialto to Sant'Elena at eastern trip of the city. Its name is believed to derive from a fortress on the island of San Pietro, one of the earliest inhabited sites in the lagoon. A sestiere of two very different halves, Castello's grander northern and western area, around Santi Giovanni e Paolo and San Zaccaria, was closely linked with the centres of power, while the districts around the Arsenale to the east were home to Venice's most important industries. This was one of the earliest parts of Venice to be sttled (5th to 6th centuries).

Northern part:
The Bridge of Sighs marks the border between the sestieri of San marco and Castello, so the quaint Museo Diocesano di Arte Sacra and stately San Zaccaria although closely associated with San marco, actually belong to Castello. But the true heart of northern adn western Castello lies inward from here: campo Santa Maria Formosa ('Shapely St Mary'), a large, bustling, irregular-shaped square on the road to just about everywhere. It has a fine church, a small market,a couple of bars and an undertaker's. Nearby is the quintessentially Venetian museum-cum-library of the Querini-Stampalia. Constantly buzzing with both Venetians and tourists, the square is surrounded by palazzi that range in style from the very grand to the very homely.It is, in fact, Castello in miniature.
For grandeur, head north-east from here towards campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo. This square is second only to Piazza San Marco in monumental magnificence.

Not to be missed
Monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni
Museo Querini-Stampalia
Museo Diocesano di Arte Sacra
San Francesco della Vigna
Santa Maria Formosa
Santi Giovanni e Paolo (San Zanipolo)
San Zaccaria
Scuola Grande di San Marco

Southern part:

If Venice's fair-tale charm is getting too much, head for eastern Castello. The low-rise, close-clustered buildings of this working-class area housed the employees of the Arsenale (Venice's Docklands) most of which now lies poignantly derelict.
Eastern Castello had its foreing communities, as local churches testify. There's San Giorgio dei Greci, with its adjoining museum of icons, and Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, with its captivating cycle of paintings by Vittorio Carpaccio. Indeed, the great promenade along the lagoon (the Riva degli Schiavoni) was named after the same community.
Inland from the Riva is the quaint Gothic church of San Giovanni in Bragora and, further back in the warren of streets, the curch of Sant'Antonin.
Back on the Riva degli Schiavoni is the church of La Pietà, where Vivaldi was choir master; it is now frequently used for concerts.