Campo Santa Margherita
The
Campo Santa Margherita
is one of our favorite squares in Venice, for several reasons:
-
It's attractive, with a
streetscape that includes trees, a small water fountain, small
shops, and human-scaled buildings that are historic without being
imposing or pretentious. (You'll also find flower stalls, produce
stands, and a fish market on the square.)
-
It's nearly always busy: During the day, the Campo
Santa Margherita is occupied by tourists, grocery shoppers, elderly
people with their dogs, mothers with babies, children kicking soccer
balls or riding small bicycles, and students from the
Istituto Venezia
language school enjoying coffee or fresh air during their morning
break.
-
At night, university students and other young adults
congregate outside the many small bars that line the campo's
periphery--often with their dogs. (Sometimes the crowds get too
large for noise-sensitive neighborhood residents, but that's more of
a problem for locals than for visitors.)
-
The Campo Santa Margherita is a great place for
street food: Pizza al Volo does a steady business
in slices and made-to-order pizzas from midday until late evening,
while the kebab shop under the
covered passage on the west side of the square may have the best
Döner Kebab in Venice. We're also partial to the gelato di
limone at Il Doge near the
southeastern corner of the campo.
In the first satellite image below, you can see the
Campo Santa Margherita as a grey
patch in the middle of the photo. (Look for the name of the square along
its left side.) The
Piazzale Roma is in the upper left corner of the frame, the
cruise port's San Basilio pier is on the
lower left, and the Grand Canal
wraps around a portion of the San Marco
district (including the Campo San
Stefano) on the right.
The lower photo shows the Campo Santa Margherita in
close-up. You can see awnings over the fruit, vegetable, and fish
stalls, trees, red park benches, and (on the right side) restaurant
umbrellas. Note the deconsecrated church at the top of the frame: Its
tower was chopped off for safety reasons in 1808, and the church itself
was shut down in 1810. Today, the former Chiesa di Santa Margherita is
an auditorium for the Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and its tower is
a private house.
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