Cannaregio
Venice, Italy
Imagine how disappointing it is to be in one of the most unusual, romantic, bona fide beautiful places on the planet, and find yourself trudging along past Claire’s Accessories.
Cannaregio glow
A river of tourists floods down the drab high street from the railway station to Piazza San Marco.
Resist the flow by venturing down any fondamenta or calle to either side, and within a few meters, you’ll find charm, tranquillity and romance restored. If you’re lucky (or skilled with the map) you’ll emerge through a secret sotoportego onto a sneaky Grand Canal view, or find yourself under a modest colonnade on a quiet backwater, next to a quaint bridge leading to a single, rather smug front door.
Let’s face it, Venice can be utterly divine or hell on Earth, especially in high season (which, realistically, is much of the year). And it can flip flop from idyllic to tragic in a splash. So, it’s essential to adopt tourist-avoidance tactics.
Which is why I advocate you visit Cannaregio, and not Venice.
OK, Cannaregio is actually one of the six sestieri on Venice island. But it’s the one with the highest local population and lowest tourist count, spread over the second largest area. The numbers tell you a lot.
For starters (or perhaps I should say antipasti?), it’s great for the airport. Not quite a stone’s throw, but just one (long) stop on the vaporetto. There’s nothing quite like being whisked along in a speeding boat shortly after touching down, whizzing across the murky lagoon, under clear blue skies, past pastel-coloured Murano and the soulful cemetery. Being one of only two or three people alighting at Madonna dell’Orto pier enhances that crest of a wave feeling.
Why hardly anyone gets off here is a mystery to me, but it’s a secret the locals are more than happy to keep.
Cannaregio began life as a swampy backwater. It may or may not have been named after the ‘canna’ or reeds that grew to the north of the Canal Grando. The area was drained and developed in the fourteenth century, but, spiritually, remains a backwater and outlier. There are still gondola repair yards, menus in Italian and places that don’t serve Aperol, (although not many of those).
The numbers tell you a lot
The spritz is, of course, as vital to daily life in Venice as bacari, traghetti and spaghetti. Long before the evening glow slants down the canals, tables glisten with that distinctive luminous orange gleam. Although, if you’re selective about your spritz, you’ll make it a Select. Created in Venice in 1920, the Select spritz has thirty years head start on Aperol. It’s less synthetic-sweet tasting and a little more complex and bitter, albeit less challenging than Milan’s (and my) spritz of choice, Campari.
From inside looking out
Speaking of bitter, the Jews were shunted to Cannaregio by Doge’s decree in 1516. The Ghetto was a single compact island, reached by just one bridge, bolted and locked every evening in the interests of segregation - for which read degradation. Whilst the Jews offered useful financial services by day, it was deemed best to not let them muddy the waters with the good people of Venice at all other times.
Nowadays, the ghetto is welcoming and open, but still has faint and profoundly thought-provoking ripples of its former atmosphere. I actually enjoyed a terrific pizza there, amid the buzzy conviviality of trendy people at Strazzaria. The irony wasn't lost on me.
A ‘strazzaria’, incidentally, used to be a humble shop or marketplace selling second hand clothes.
The sestiere’s other main claim to fame is as birthplace, home and final resting place of Tintoretto. His works hang alongside the family grave in the evocative Chiese della Madonna dell’Orto. Although, as with all Venetian churches, the real attraction, on such a congested and commercialised island, is the privileged atmosphere of soaring spaces, historic integrity, calm composure and religious intensity. The cool 5 degree temperature drop is always welcome too!
Having rattled off Cannaregio’s two big sights, we can now concentrate on the important bit; playing the Moocher of Venice. Three props will help you pull off the part; cappuccino, cicchetti and Campari. Although each offers a good reason to stop, the best reason of all is to take things in beyond food and drink. The key to any decent dally is to simply tread water and appreciate where you are, rather than worry where you’re going next. And for the serious moocher, Cannaregio offers plenty to assimilate and savour.
Shafts of sunlight pierce deep shadows, illuminating intensely coloured slithers of canal. Always with a single brightly painted boat relishing its 15 minutes of fame in the sun’s spotlight.
The occasional gondola slithers by, languidly and silently. But not effortlessly. There’s actually a gondola school in Cannaregio, where you can try out your ‘premer’ and ‘stalia’, plus the myriad other strokes essential to this quietly deceptive art.
15 minutes in the spotlight
Reflections dance and dazzle before you, only to be cruelly dissipated by a passing motorboat’s wash. Several minutes later, if you’re lucky, the waters will settle, and the hypnotic dance will resume. Solid stone and stucco buildings tango and rhumba in mesmerising, ever-changing shapes.
Mesmerising rhumba
Capturing these reflections became a painter’s obsession for me, helped by liberal use of Venetian marbled paper, which is still created by hand using pigments floating on tanks of water. I’d love to recommend a real life demonstration, but I’m afraid YouTube may be your best bet.
Although less romantic, equally absorbing are the logistics of daily life and essential services. Everything we take for granted has to cope with being marooned in a lagoon, without roads, or much by the way of solid infrastructure. The daily collection of rubbish is achieved by a fleet of trolley carts and a flotilla of floating skips. If you need a skip for building work, that too must float in the canal. The local supermarket is restocked from an entire HGV craned onto a barge. There are boats that patrol around handing out fines to other illegally parked boats. And yes, speeding fines too (although in a sign of the times, automatic cameras are being installed).
And if you’re ‘lucky’ enough to witness an ambulance doing the blues and twos, that will also be a boat navigating the tiny canals at James Bond speed, with impressive wake and wash.
Speaking of supermarkets, Cannaregio’s Spar is a surprise local attraction in its own right. This utterly unremarkable modern-day supermarket is located in a remarkable, renovated Art Nouveau theatre, complete with stage, soaring ceilings and restored frescos. I wasn’t quite sure whether to applaud, recite my shopping list out loud, or purchase drinks for the interval.
While we’re talking minor curiosities, Cannaregio claims Venice’s narrowest street. At 53cm slim, Calli Varisco is something of a squeeze, especially if you happen to have a guilty conscience. Legend says its walls will close in on and crush those with impure souls. I gave it a wide berth.
Then there are the sculptures with iron noses. Try Googling that one.
On the subject of dance, I paid Igor Stravinsky a visit. Well, it was spring and I felt it was my rite. His digs are in the Cimitero di San Michele. The cemetery occupies every square inch of its own island in the lagoon, between Cannaregio and Murano. As you’re dropped off there, you experience an intense otherworldly feeling. The remaining vaporetto passengers are all on their way to the tourist magnet of Murano, clutching credit cards and selfie-sticks. You alight alone, a little unsure if any returning boats will ever stop to pick you up.
Archi con graffiti
Isola di San Michele is eery and majestic, composed and ramshackle, levelling and elevating. There’s a wonderful, 15th century cloistered church fighting a defiant battle against the waves and an encyclopaedia of graves, housing Venice’s rich and famous.
An open and shut place
It’s easy to tell the rich from the famous, by the way: Igor’s plot is a distinctly modest affair in a so so neighbourhood. His music may have caused a splash, but elsewhere it’s money that makes waves. The posh tombs form impressive structures in their own right. (I gather if your family don’t continue to pay for a lease extension, then after 12 years, you get dug up and cremated with the plot recycled and resold).
But forget finance, it’s ambiance you came for. Just pop the Adagietto from Mahler’s 5th on your headphones, dive in and stroll.
If you really want to celebrity spot, there’s Peggy Guggenheim, whose gallery is the single best reason to leave Cannaregio, and Christian Doppler, whose effect is noticeable every time an ambulance whizzes by (whether on the water or by road). Gondoliers, incidentally, are automatically entitled to a burial in their own bespoke section.
Murano is, on balance, a ‘no’ for me. You might feel you have to see it, but that’s the curse of modern tourism at work. Yes, you’ll find beautiful glasswork, but no, you can’t afford it.
Burano is a far better bet: much further away, more colourful, and a little less ‘done’. It used to be where Venetians went to escape Venice. Allegedly the houses were painted in their saturated colours to help returning fisherman find their way home through heavy lagoon mist. Sadly, nowadays they’re more a beacon for day-trippers (myself included). For my tastes, the paintwork is a little too fresh and synthetic, but the chromatic hit warrants the trip. And lunch at stalwart Trattoria al Gatto Nero certainly seals the deal.
Now we’re onto food, and it all drips off the tongue. Some of the typical dishes you need to enjoy include; fritto misto di mare, thousands of little fishies in a little dishy; sarde in saor, unusually featuring preserved sardines and possibly better named ‘in sour’; bigoli in salsa, pasta and anchovy perfection; anything al nero di sepia, the lagoon's black gold; seppioline, particularly good if you’re offered seppioline di porto or baby cuttlefish.
Chromatic hit
I’m told pizza is never great in Venice, as proper wood-fired ovens aren’t allowed. My experience is that Venetian pizza holds its own with anywhere else in Italy. Clearly a high bar. Maybe it’s because simply being in Venice seems to make everything taste better?
Then of course there are cicchetti, Venice’s version of tapas. These are designed to be washed down with a drink, and you’ll find yourself going in for more of both. Funnily enough, the name is derived from the Latin for ‘nothing’, which figures as no matter how many cicchetti you consume (they come in so many varieties), you’ll always have room for a couple more. Individually they may be inexpensive, but if you’re hungry, cicchetti could easily bankrupt you. Beware!
Another word of warning: if you’re at all polenta-sceptic, be prepared to have your preconceptions challenged in Venice. You’ll find it on many authentic dishes and may even end up appreciating it. I did.
One thing I really hadn’t appreciated was how cut-throat the canals can be. We typically picture them as placid, serene and chocolate-box perfect. A myth I was dramatically disabused of while painting at an exquisite intersection; bridges, porticos, palaces, churches, gondolas, reflections, the full picture-postcard. One sudden gust of wind lifted copious sheets of my hand-made collage paper and unceremoniously deposited them in the murky waters. From there, hidden undercurrents did their worst, sweeping pieces away at staggering pace and submerging others, never to be seen again. Within seconds the feeding frenzy had consumed all traces of my art materials.
Grand and unusually still
I subsequently noticed that gondoliers exclusively take the canal in the direction of that imperceptible, but unforgiving current.
Which reveals the dilemma for the dedicated dallier in Venice. Occasionally it pays to go with the flow. But most of the time, avoiding the tidal pull and seeking out the backwaters is the way to experience La Serenissima at its watery, romantic best.
A Few Links and Practicalities
(Just sharing the love. I absolutely don’t get paid for these.)
Hotel Heureka. www.hotel-heureka.com
If you can afford it, this hotel is insanely nice. Summed up by their slogan “Heureka, I’ve found it”. I found they have one single room, which I could just stretch to. It’s miniscule, but as you have the run of the whole palazzo, you feel a million dollars. Particularly over their exquisite breakfast in the garden.
Ca’ Longo, Palace Damasco. Via agents the Red House Company or Airbnb.
I loved staying in this loft style apartment right in the heart of Cannaregio’s eating, drinking and socialising action. Not cheap, but no more than many anonymous or overly baroque hotel rooms.
Madama Garden Retreat. www.madamavenice.it/en
I didn't stay in this place, but walked past their fabulously located garden every day wishing I did!
Osteria Paradiso Perduto.
www.instagram.com/osteriaparadisoperduto
On Cannaregio’s cool drag, Rio della Misericordia, this place is so popular it doesn’t need a website. Ring to reserve or pop by in person a day or so ahead, they don’t bite. (Better still, book your return visit at the end of your first meal). On the day, you’ll find your name and time-slot Sellotaped onto your table. Atmosphere: inn crowd. Food: outstanding.
Osteria Alla Frasca. www.instagram.com/osteriaallafrasca or book direct from Google Maps.
There’s no way you’d just happen across this place. I love its middle-of-nowhere-yet-strolling-distance-from-everywhere location. They really love their food and you will too.
Trattoria al Gatto Nero. www.gattonero.com
Traditional, credit card denting canal-side local in Burano. Although likely to bring on a bad case of Debt in Venice, you must go, and you must book. I have friends who’ve organised trips months in advance around a booking secured here.
Osteria Ai Promessi Sposi.
www.facebook.com/AiPromessiSposi
Nothing flashy or fancy, but just righty. Locals hanging out is always a good sign.
Oficina Ormesini. www.oficinaormesini.com
Venice was where Italy's first coffee landed. This place on Rio della Misericordia does the most theatrical cappuccino you’ll ever encounter in your life. Likewise, its cicchetti are more art form than source of nutrition.
Cantine del Vino già Schiavi. www.cantinaschiavi.com
If you happen to find yourself in the Dorsodouro, towards Academia, this is the place for cicchetti and a glass or two. Cozy, canal-side, crammed with bottles and people too. Pile in and get busy.
Vino Vero. Rio della Misericordia. Drop-ins only.
The wine bar in Cannaregio. They have a real love of good wine and an authentic disdain for spritz. Always busy. Always friendly.
Row Venice. www.rowvenice.org
Learn to slip along like a true gondolier. Or at least, learn why it’s not that easy!
Getting there.
From the airport, follow the signs to water transportation. The Alilaguna ticket office is at the far end, after all the fancy taxi boats. Take the Linea Arancio. Madonna Dell’Orto is the first stop. The Orange Line boats are fairly small, so if there’s already a fearsome queue, you might be better off taking a blue or red line to Fondamenta Nove (second stop, after Murano), from where it’s only a slightly longer walk.
Getting around.
Your own two feet are by far your best asset.
Other than the airport, vaparettos are useful only for venturing further afield, saving tired legs and experiencing the Grand Canal. They’re an insane €9.50 per single journey, but a week’s pass at €65 offers better value, letting you hop on the odd ride without breaking sweat. Lines 1 and 2 are effectively the Central Line, ploughing down the Grand Canal, but they get crazy busy. From Cannaregio, the ‘Circle Line’ route 5.1 / 5.2 is really useful for whizzing around the outside instead. The 4.1 / 4.2 will drop you at the Cemetery (and most importantly, pick you up again). And 12 is for Burano. Head there early.
Don’t miss;
Venice is dripping with ‘must not miss’ destinations. I strongly advise you do miss many of the set piece ones, particularly in high season, certainly if you’re a returning visitor.
Here are a few places other than Piazza San Marco to explore.
For what it’s worth, Sotoportego Widmann, is my single favourite small stretch of canal. (It’s where the video on my home page was captured). It’s nothing special, just perfect in every way.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection. www.guggenheim-venice.it/en
The single best reason for taking a No. 1 vaporetto (to Accademia).
If you’re in that neck of the woods, Ca' Rezzonico makes a great visit. For the Palazzo and art equally.
www.carezzonico.visitmuve.it/en
Aqua Alta bookshop. So much more than just a shop selling books. It's down a narrow lane from my second favourite spot in town; Palazzo Tetta, in what was once the red-light district, its name translates as ‘Booby Palace’, naturally. If you’re there, stop by Enoiteca Mascareta (also seems to be called Al Mascaron) for a spot of lunch.
Venice Biennale.
The island's every-other-year art and culture jamboree needs a write up of its own and takes a whole post-graduate degree's worth of research to figure out.
The bottom line is, the set-piece art venues at Giardini and Arsenale are worth visiting, but mostly to say you’ve done them. A lot of the art is conceptual (think darkened space with a pile of something indescribable the corner, and the sound of whales having sex gently wafting around). But imagine the reward when you actually hit on something you like!
The real bonus of the Biennale is the number of venues open for free across the city. The contents are equally miss or hit (in that order), but you get to visit palazzos and churches whose doors would otherwise be firmly shut.
If your bag is other art forms; cinema, dance, music, theatre, then Biennale has plenty for you too. Good luck finding it! Time for that Masters in groundwork I referred to.
Rialto Market. Whilst Rialto Bridge must be avoided like the plague, the nearby market still has integrity and charm. Many locals and restauranteurs still frequent it, for lagoon-fresh fish in particular.
Traghettos.
While most gondola rides are somewhat tragic, a traghetto gives you maximum bang for your tourist buck.
Known as the Grand Canal’s ‘fifth bridge’, €2 gets you to the other side in style. (Although you may have to stand, which is entertaining when you encounter full vaporetto wash). Whilst not all seem to be running and the piers are hard to track down, the Traghettos themselves are highly distinctive in having gondolieri front and back.
There’s a convenient stop right next to Rialto market.
Calle del Traghetto, Cannaregio. Search for 45°26'31.9"N 12°19'52.0"E
There’s no longer any traghetti here, but at the end is my third favourite spot in Venice. It takes a little finding, but the sotoportego opens onto your own ‘undiscovered’ view of the Canal Grando.
Despar Theatro. The supermarket in a theatre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFy41dBVmnk
Do Miss
Pretty much anything the guidebooks describe as ‘don't miss’.