Canal Grande, Venice

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It happens that all my visits to Venice took place in winter or spring. That way, I always saw a rainy or grey town.

The balance between dusk and artificial lights allowed, in my last visit, this good picture of Rialto by my friend Paulo. It's interesting to see the face of town changing so deeply and quickly. And, no matter the weather, each direction you look or picture has its own beauty (if you forget degradation...).

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The Grand Canal is Venice's main thoroughfare. Water buses and water taxis are the main transportation to navigate Venice's central districts. Visitors usually explore the canal by hiring gondalas. The canal is around 3,800m in length and approximately 30-90m in width.

The main attractions on the Grand Canal are the many palaces and buildings that were built between the 1200s to 1700s. Wealth and art were big things in the former Republic of Venice and flaunted by the noble proud venetian families.

There are three bridges on the Grand Canal with the most famous and oldest one being the Rialto Bridge.

Every year the Canal hosts the Historical Regatta.

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The Grand Canal counts a number of palaces which belong to the 5* Luxe hotels.
On the left bank one finds the Gritti palace at the S.Maria del Giglio vaporetto stop, the Europa e Regina facing the Salute, the Bauer facing the Dogana to end with the most known Danieli on the basin of San Marco.

The most sumptuous from the exterior is the Palazzo Gritti from the 16th c (photo 1). I dreamed of staying in this Palazzo hotel until I read the comments on Trip Advisor:
141 comments of which 10 "terrible", 21 "poor", 18 "average", 25 "very good" and 66 "excellent".
I felt from my chair. How is it possible that a prestigious hotel like the Gritti gets 22% bad critics when guests pay between 500 and 900 €/night and only 62% of the guests recommend this hotel!

The Westin Europa & Regina (photo 2) gets a better score: on 420 comments are 20 "terrible", 34 "poor" that is 13% bad critics and 79% recommend. Prices are somewhat lower from 400 till 800 €/night.

Palazzo Bauer (photo 3) gets the best score from these 4 Luxe Palace hotels: on 359 comments 12 are "terrible", 19 "poor" that is 9% bad critics; 86% recommend. Prices between 500 and 1000 € (this is for the Palazzo on the Grand Canal, there are lower prices for the building in the back called Bauer hotel).

These 3 palace hotels have private terraces with restaurants directly on the Grand Canal and their own embarcadero for the water taxis.

For the most famous Danieli on 383 critics 29 are "terrible", 34 "poor" that is a total of 16% bad critics; 73% recommend. Price between 400 and 700€/night. As you can see from my photo the hotel occupies 3 buildings (photo 4). The ochre one in the middle has the monumental hall and staircase. The Danieli has no terrace on the water but on the roof. The entrance is on the very crowded quay with souvenir shops for tourists (photo 5).

The prices I mention are from Expedia, Westin and Bauer for the period of May 2011.
The lowest are for standard rooms (no view) the higher ones for de luxe rooms but not necessarily with a Canal or Lagoon view. The rooms with good views are generally suites with prices between 1000 and 2000 €/night.

What I find terrible is that 5* Luxe hotels in Venice are unable to obtain a minimum of 95% satisfaction from customers who pay such high prices. What is even more terrible when you read the critics of their guests are the many complaints about bad service!

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If I was a rich man I would buy this palace on the Grand Canal close to the Salute and facing the beautiful Palazzo Corner della Ca' Grande.
From my first visit to Venice in the 1970's my wife and I liked this palace with a façade covered with mosaics from Murano what makes it unique in Venice.

It was originally built in the 16th century but the mosaics were added in 1886 by the new owners who had a company producing glass art in Murano (Compagnia Venezia Murano now Pauly & C). The transformation with the mosaics was not appreciated by the neighbours of the palace who found this bad taste of "nouveaux riches".

It needs to be said that Palazzo Barbarigo is located on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro sestiere at the junction with the Rio San Vio.
Actually as discussed with MM212 there are several Palazzo Barbarigo in Venice.
Most confusing is Hotel Palazzo Barbarigo which was also called Barbarigo della Terrazza Palace located on the Grand Canal but in the Sestiere San Polo at the junction with the rio San Polo (near the S. Toma vaporetto stop).
There is also a Palazzo Barbarigo-Minotto on the other side of the Canal near the S. Maria del Giglio vaporetto stop where classical music including opera's is played.
To make it more confusing there is also a Palazzo Barbarigo Nani in the Dorsoduro sestiere near the campo di San Trovaso.

Palaces with the same family name are rather common in Venice. It's part of the game finding the right one. The Palazzo Barbarigo with the mosaics cannot be missed.

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Famous for the Murano glass mosaics covering its Grand Canal façade, Palazzo Barbarigo is one of the most unique in Venice. It was built in the 16th century, but its façade was not covered in mosaics until the 19th century. The owners of Palazzo Barbarigo had the mosaics custom made at their family's very own glass factory on Murano Island.

NOTE: the Palazzo Barbarigo I describe is NOT the same as the hotel with the same name. For information about the hotel, go to their website at: www.palazzobarbarigo.it.

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Venice's Grand Canal is the main "water road" running through the heart of the city. From Piazza San Marco to the Santa Lucia train station, the S-shaped canal covers a distance of about 3.8 km. Because of the heavy water traffic, building on the Grand Canal was a way for Venitian citizens and parishes to show off their wealth and importance - for this reason, the canal is bordered on both sides by beautiful palazzi and some of the city's nicest churches. A really great way to see these colourful buildings is to take one of the vaporetto lines that goes up the Grand Canal (see my transportation tips). Apart from the Rialto Bridge, there are three more bridges crossing the Grand Canal: the Ponte degli Scalzi, the Ponte dell'Accademia, and the Ponte della Constituzione. The latter is the most recent of the bridges - it was built in 2008 to connect the bus station to the train station, and its design is surprisingly modern and therefore rarely appreciated by visitors and locals alike. Other than this "sore thumb" feature, however, the Grand Canal and its surrounding architecture greatly contribute to making Venice one of the most beautiful cities in the world!

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In my first visit to Venice, I was impressed by... a funeral. A boat with a coffin in the middle, surrounded by flowers, crossed the canal. Natural... It's main street. But it's strange, the way the water separates things, and at the same time joins them, in a different way.

No visit to Venice is complete without a trip in Grand canal.

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On my last visit to Venice my perception of the Grand Canal was different from the previous visits where I had been, sitting at the bow of the vaporetto, admiring the palaces appearing one after another in my field of view.
This time as I could see the Mercado-market from where I was staying and got interested in the Grand Canal as the main economical arterial road of Venice. Indeed each morning I saw cargo boats unloading their polystyrene foam boxes with fish and other sea food as well as ice for the stalls (photo 1).

Studies were made of the boat traffic on the 150 canals. The delivery of goods ands services account for 46%, public transport including water taxis is 40%, private or "sport" boats take 10% and gondola 4%.
Cargo traffic varies most from low to high tourist season. There is consistent congestion at the landings what is easy to observe at the Rialto (photo 2). You have to realize that most of the hotels, restaurants and shops get goods from the cargo boats. These goods have to be unloaded and transported by handcarts over the steps of the many bridges.
The gondola contribute heavily to traffic congestion (photo 3) but produce no pollution while all the motor boats pollute the air, are noisy and contribute most to the wake pollution effects on the buildings called "moto ondoso".
What is amazing with all that traffic on the canals is that I never saw an accident or incident. All of them are virtuosos of maneuvering their boats.
I put here a video from two vaporetto's in the turn of the Rialto Bridge and another of a vaporetto passing through a group of gondola.
Funny and rather exceptional was that sort of Kayak (photo 4) on the Grand Canal. It is a fact that unlike cars in a city, private transport is a minority in Venice.