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Overview
Venice rewards the walker who ignores the Rialto and San Marco. In Dorsoduro, Cannaregio, and Castello, there are campielli — small squares — where washing hangs between buildings, cats sleep in doorways, and the only sound is the slosh of water against the foundations. There are palazzos whose entrance halls are open to the sky, decorated with frescoes that tourists pass without noticing, and campos that belong entirely to the people who live in them. This is Venice for those who have seen the main sights and want to understand what the city actually feels like.
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Discover the best spots in this carefully curated guide. Each location has been personally visited and vetted to ensure an authentic and memorable experience.
Campo Santa Margherita
Campo Santa Margherita is the largest campo in Dorsoduro and one of the most genuinely local squares in Venice — no tourists on its benches at 8am, children going to school, the daily life of the university district playing out in the morning light. The campo takes its name from the church at its northern end, but the real character comes from the buildings surrounding it: a mix of Gothic and Renaissance that has been accumulated over centuries without a plan, which makes it more interesting than any of Venice's grander squares.
Palazzo Grimani
Palazzo Grimani on the Rialto side is one of the most beautiful Renaissance palaces in Venice, famous for its frescoed courtyard. The building's entrance hall — a cavernous vaulted space decorated with polychrome stucco work — is one of the most extraordinary rooms in the city and is frequently empty of visitors. The owner's family occupied the palace until the 20th century, and the house retains its domestic feeling in a way that the museum-palaces do not.
Fondamenta dei Mori
The Fondamenta dei Mori in Cannaregio is named for the Moorish merchants who settled here in the medieval period, and the buildings along this canal stretch have a different character from the rest of Venice — darker, more mysterious. The façades are decorated with mysterious stone heads carved into the capitals, and the small campo at the end of the fondamenta is one of the most atmospheric in the city, especially at dusk when the canal reflects the last light and the neighbourhood cats begin to emerge.
Palazzo Cini
Palazzo Cini on the Grande Canal in San Vio is now a museum of decorative arts, but the building itself — a 16th-century palace with an interior courtyard that has been preserved intact — is as remarkable as the collection inside. The courtyard's staircase, with its carved stone newel posts, is one of the finest examples of Venetian Gothic staircase architecture in the city, and is visible from the campo outside the entrance without going into the museum.
Campiello dei Meloni
Campiello dei Meloni takes its name from the melon sellers who occupied this small square in the medieval period. Today it is one of the most peaceful campielli in San Polo — barely a hundred square metres, enclosed by buildings on three sides and opening onto a narrow canal on the fourth. A well in the centre dates from the 16th century, and the stone surround is carved with the faces of the four seasons. On a quiet afternoon, with the light falling at an angle, it feels like a stage set.
Santa Maria della Visitazione
The church of Santa Maria della Visitazione in Dorsoduro is one of the few churches in Venice that is genuinely quiet — its entrance is unmarked, the door frequently closed, and the small campo in front of it empty of tourists. The interior contains a remarkable altarpiece by Tiepolo, and the church's garden — a small patch of green behind the apse — is occasionally open to visitors during the summer concerts that are held here.
Palazzo Zabbrusia
Palazzo Zabbrusia on the Rio di San Polo is notable for its courtyard garden — one of the few private gardens in Venice that is visible from the canal, through a grille of wrought iron that allows you to see the lemon trees and climbing roses inside. The garden is not open to the public, but the view through the grille, especially in the early morning when the light is soft, is one of the most romantic in Venice.
Palazzo Da Lezze
Palazzo Da Lezze in Cannaregio is now part of the Ca' d'Oro gallery complex, but the building's courtyard — an enclosed Renaissance space with a wellhead carved in the Venetian-Byzantine style — is its most beautiful feature and is often empty. The courtyard is accessible during gallery hours and provides a remarkable contrast to the ornate canal façade: here, stripped of pretension, the architecture speaks purely through proportion and light.
Campo San Giacomo dall'Orio
Campo San Giacomo dall'Orio in Santa Croce is one of the largest campos in Venice, and one of the most locally alive. On weekday mornings, a neighbourhood market sets up in the square: fresh produce, flowers, a repair stall. The church at its edge — San Giacomo — has a nave of unusual simplicity, and the campo's wellhead is one of the oldest in Venice, dating from the 14th century. In the evening, the local children use the campo as a football pitch.
Palazzo Querini
Palazzo Querini in Castello is now a cultural centre with rotating exhibitions and a garden that is open to the public on weekday afternoons. The palace's entrance hall is frescoed with 18th-century scenes of Venetian life, and the garden — an enclosed space of lawns and camellia trees behind the palace — is one of the most peaceful spots in Venice, particularly in spring when the camellias are in bloom.
Palazzo Giovanelli
Palazzo Giovanelli on the Grand Canal in Santa Sofia is one of the most beautiful of Venice's Renaissance palaces and is less visited than its neighbours because it is slightly away from the main tourist routes. The palazzo's private garden — the only canal-side garden in this stretch of the Grand Canal — is open to the public and filled with lemon trees and climbing roses. The palace also houses one of Venice's most interesting antiquarian bookshops in its ground floor.
Palazzo Tron
Palazzo Tron on the Rio di San Polo was controversially rebuilt in the 19th century using elements from demolished medieval buildings, creating a palazzo that is part original, part reconstruction, and all Venice. The courtyard contains a remarkable collection of architectural fragments — columns, capitals, carved stones — assembled from buildings across the city, and is occasionally open during the Venice Biennale for special exhibitions.
Campo San Samuele
Campo San Samuele is a small campo in Dorsoduro that most tourists pass without noticing, tucked behind the Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal. The campo has a wellhead from the 14th century and is surrounded on three sides by buildings whose Gothic windows and Byzantine details are remarkably well preserved. In the evenings, the campo is used by local young people, and the sound of their conversations and music carries across the water.
Palazzo Battaglia
Palazzo Battaglia on the Rio di San Marco is now a private hotel, but the building's ground-floor arcade — a vaulted space open to the street — is one of the most beautifully preserved in Venice. The stone columns date from the 15th century and the capitals are carved with acanthus leaves of remarkable detail. Walk through the arcade at any time of day and the quality of the light — reflected off the canal water onto the stone — is extraordinary.
Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni
The Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni is one of the most beautiful scuole in Venice — the community halls built by the city's foreign resident communities. The building's interior is painted with a remarkable sequence of canvases by Vittorio Carpaccio depicting the life of Saint George, completed in 1502, and widely considered among the finest narrative painting cycles in Venice. The building is rarely crowded and opens for a few hours each morning.
Palazzo Erizzo
Palazzo Erizzo in Castello near the Arsenale is notable for its facade of Istrian stone, which has survived eight centuries of salt air remarkably well. The courtyard — accessible through the main entrance — contains a wellhead carved with the Erizzo family coat of arms, and the frescoed walls of the stairwell are in remarkably good condition. The palace is now split into apartments, and the entrance hall is accessible during the Biennale open studios that take place in September.
Palazzo Contarini
Palazzo Contarini on the Rio di San Vio has one of the shortest facades on the Grand Canal — barely ten metres wide — and one of the most refined. The palace is notable for the slender columns of its ground-floor arcade, which show the transition from Byzantine to Gothic that marks the architecture of this period. The campo in front of the palace is one of the quietest on the tourist route, with a good view of the Dorsoduro waterfront.
Palazzo Giustinian Pesaro
Palazzo Giustinian Pesaro in Santa Pola is now the museum of music, but the building's courtyard garden — which occupies an entire city block — is one of the most remarkable green spaces in Venice. The garden, which belongs to the Fondazione Levi, contains mature lemon trees, camellias, and a fountain, and is occasionally open during cultural events. The smell of lemon blossom in the garden carries into the campo outside on spring mornings.
Campo San Trovaso
Campo San Trovaso in Dorsoduro is famous for its Venetian glass workshop — Abate Zanetti, the school of glassmaking — at the edge of the campo. You can watch the glassblowers at work through the workshop window, and the campo itself is one of the most peaceful in the Dorsoduro student district. The wellhead is from the 16th century, and the campo's unusual shape — wider than it is deep — is the result of the church of San Trovaso being set at an angle to the street grid.
Fondaco dei Tedeschi Rooftop
The Fondaco dei Tedeschi — the former German trading house on the Grand Canal — is now a department store, but its rooftop terrace offers one of the finest views in Venice: a 360-degree panorama of the city's rooftops, domes, and bell towers that is entirely different from the canal-level experience. The terrace is accessible by lift and free with a shopping purchase, but the view is worth a purchase even if you don't need anything. Arrive at opening to avoid queues.
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