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Grand Canal
From: Venice's Top 11 Free Sights
ABOVE: A crowded No. 1 vaporetto on the Grand Canal.
The Canale Grande, known to English-speaking visitors as the Grand Canal, is the main aquatic thoroughfare in central Venice. The S-shaped waterway follows an ancient riverbed from the Tronchetto parking island, the Piazzale Roma transit center, and the Santa Lucia railroad station station to Piazza San Marco and St. Mark's Basin. The canal is about 4 km or 2.5 miles long, with a width that varies from 30 to 70 meters (98 to 230 feet).
The
best way to see the canal, if you don't mind spending money, is to ride the No. 1 vaporetto from the
Piazzale Roma or the railroad station in the direction of San Marco. Try to do
this in the evening, when the daytrippers have gone home and the palazzi
along the
canal are floodlit or illuminated from within. If you're on one of the older
boats with an open bow, sit up front; otherwise, grab a seat in the covered
open-air section at the boat's stern, beyond the doors at the rear of the
vaporetto's enclosed passenger compartment.
As
the water bus zigzags between stops on both sides of the canal during its
40-minute journey from the Piazzale Roma to San Zaccaria , you'll pass under
three bridges and see dozens of palaces that were built from the 12th to 18th
Centuries.
Another
way to see the canal is from the bridges that cross it. The Ponte dei Scalzi is
just upstream from Venice
Santa Lucia Railroad Station; the Rialto Bridge is about halfway up the
canal, just after a sharp bend, while the Accademia Bridge is the last bridge
across the canal before St. Mark's Basin. (The newer Ponte della Constituzione,
which most Venetians call the "Ponte di Calatrava" or Calatrava Bridge after the
architect who designed it), crosses the Grand Canal between the
Piazzale Roma and Santa Lucia
Railroad Station.)
Go the top of any bridge, find a place at the railing, and watch the constant stream of vaporetti, barges, water taxis, police boats, ambulances, gondolas, and other boats.
Finally,
if you'd like to ride a
gondola but aren't willing to spend €80 or more for the privilege, you can
cross the Grand Canal in a traghetto
gondola ferry for the price of a coffee. Consult your map or follow the nearest
"traghetto" sign to a boat landing.
Related articles:
Rialto Bridge on our main site
Accademia Bridge on our main site
Ponte della Constituzione Bridge on our main site
Fisheye Venice: Grand Canal on our main site
Next page: Rialto Bridge
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