Discovering an alternative Venice
Are you looking for an alternative way to experience Venice that is unique and able to provide you with new thrills? Here are a few suggestions for stepping off the beaten track and exploring the less-travelled paths, where you can encounter unexpected wonders far from the more traditional places.
Venice at its greenest
Although you wouldn’t think so, Venice is a very green city.
In fact, the entire centre is punctuated by small urban parks that can be enjoyed freely, such as:
- i Giardini di Castello (the Castle Gardens)
- il Parco Savorgnan (the Savorgnan Park)
- il Parco Groggia (the Groggia Park)
- la pineta di Sant’Elena (the St Helena pine forest)
- i Giardini Papadopoli (the Papadopolis Gardens)
There are also more than five hundred gardens and vegetable gardens hidden behind the façades of historical buildings such as:
- il Giardino Mistico dei Frati Carmelitani Scalzi (the Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelite Friars)
- il giardino di Ca’ Rezzonico (the garden of Ca’ Rezzonico) – Museo del Settecento Veneziano (18th-century Venetian Museum)
- the labyrinth garden dedicated to the Argentine writer Borges at the Giorgio Cini Foundation
- the Carlo Scarpa garden at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia
- il giardino storico di Palazzo Soranzo-Cappello (the historical garden of Palazzo Soranzo-Cappello).
The Venice of flavour
For those who love to discover the aromas and flavours linked to the local area, a tour dedicated to the lagoon’s food and wine tradition is not to be missed.
A tour of the bacari will take you on a journey of discovery of traditional dishes such as baccalà, which in Venice is not salted cod but stockfish, or castraure, the first tender violet artichokes grown on the island of Sant’Erasmo, available for only 15 days a year.
In Rialto, the oldest part of the city where the Market can be found, you can find all the fresh produce from the gardens, the lagoon and the sea every day.
The Venice of the islands
If you wish to leave the city and find a completely different and unexpected landscape, a tour of the islands is a must.
Accessible by any means (on foot, by bicycle or by boat), the islands offer walks through ancient villages, visits to interesting museums, small churches and lagoon hermitages or archaeological itineraries that tell of the origins of the Serenissima and its thousand-year history.
Here is a short list of the most impressive:
- the island of St Erasmus
- the island of Torcello
- the island of Mazzorbo
- the island of Vignole
Venice without barriers
As there are more than 400 bridges connecting the different sestieri and islands in Venice, it might seem a difficult city to navigate not only for people with disabilities, but also for people arriving with suitcases, parents with prams or the elderly.
On the other hand, thanks to the expansion of public transport and the creation of specially designed tours, most areas of the city can be reached by vaporetto or thanks to a facilitated bridge, which makes more than 70% of the historic city accessible.
Now we’ve given you some ideas for organising your next weekend to an alternative Venice, what are you waiting for? Find the nearest ATVO stop, take a bus to Venice and enjoy the ride!
