Walking
tours
Walks
Inside Venice (telephone number: (041) 524 1706) organises comprehensive
English-speaking tours around the city. The company caters for small
groups of up to 15 people and charges €57 by the hour most
of the tours are three hours long. Sights visited depend on the
tour taken and include the Bridge of Sighs, the
Doges’ Palace and the largely unspoilt Cannaregio
District. Tours usually depart from the hotel in which
the client stays or from St Mark’s Square.
Other cultural, historic and artistic tours can also be booked at
tourist information offices. The tourist office has an excellent
range of free brochures outlining suggested walking routes.
Those preferring to explore by themselves can hire an audio guide
from D’Point Venice, Campanile San Marco, Loggia del Sansovino
(tel: (055) 873 4527, fax: (055) 873 2219; e-mail: dpoint.venice01@duwas.com)
daily 0900 hrs-2000 hrs. Alternatively, pick up one of the walking
itineraries titled Venezia Beyond St Mark’s that are freely
available at the tourist offices and include maps.
Boat
Tours
Venice Walks & Tours, Via Villanova 27 (telephone
number: (041) 296 0282 or 520 8616 to book; fax number: (041) 241
0256; e-mail: info@venice-day-tours.com)
offers a boat tour of the Grand Canal, although
this may seem unnecessary, seeing as the local ferry network is
the most efficient and cheapest way of getting out and about on
the water. However, no local ferry will include a glass of sparkling
wine while taking its passengers down some lesser known canals in
a luxurious motor launch. The 70-minute tour departs Monday-Saturday
1630 hrs (April-October) and costs €40 per person (with a minimum
of four and a maximum of eight people per ride).
Excursions
for half day
Padova
Due to its location, about 35 km (21 miles) west of Venice, Padua
is often overlooked as just a cheap place to bed down while enjoying
the delights of its more famous neighbour. Padua is a thriving town,
singled out by her ancient university (second only to Bologna in
age) and the remarkable Cappella di Scrovegni,
home of Giotto’s groundbreaking frescoes. Nicknamed La Dotta
(‘the Learned’), Padua nurtured the great minds of Livy,
Petrarch, Dante and Galileo and later became home to one of the
chief medical schools in Europe – as witnessed by its crude
Anatomical Theatre, the gruesome highlight of any university tour.
Despite serious bomb damage during World War II, the arcaded streets
surrounding the market squares (Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della
Frutta) belong to the Middle Ages, when Shakespeare had set his
play, Taming of the Shrew, here.
The market itself is a treat not to be missed, crammed with herbs,
vegetables and flowers from the bountiful plains of the Veneto and
divided by the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua’s ancient law
courts, whose loggia shelters the purveyors of local cheese, hams
and bread.
The Basilica of San Antonio echoes the Byzantine influence of St
Mark’s and is a popular spot for pilgrims who come to venerate
the body of St Anthony. This building is something of an architectural
elephant, lacking the delicate motifs of its Venetian counterpart,
its interior gaudily daubed with mock Byzantine paint work. But
the high altar by Donatello, as well as his majestic horseman, Gattamelata
(whose statue fronts the church), are well worth visiting.
Visitors come to Padua for just one attraction. The Scrovegni
Chapel, sometimes called the Madonna dell’Arena,
was commissioned by the moneylender, Scrovegni,
as his passport to heaven. It may not have done him much good (the
church denied him a Christian burial) but it has enriched the world
of art. Giotto executed the chapel at the height of his fame and
these resplendent frescoes echo his genius. The walls of the tiny
chapel are painted a cerulean blue and vividly depict the Lives
of Christ and the Virgin. Bold brushstrokes, a dramatic narrative
and a revolutionary perspective combine to form one of Italy’s
greatest masterpieces. Tickets include entrance to the city’s
art gallery and cost €5.
Padua is just 20 minutes by train from Venice. The APT
tourist information office, Riviera Mugnai 8 (telephone number:
(049) 876 7911; fax number: (049) 650 794; e-mail: apt@padovanet.it),
is open Monday to Saturday 0915 hrs-1745 hrsand Sunday 0900 hrs-1200
hrs.
For a Whole Day
Verona
Walking around the romantic streets, wistfully swooning past the
balcony where Romeo wooed Juliet, visiting the home of the strapping
young Montague and finishing with an emotional visit to the tomb
where the tragedy of the young lovers reached its fatal conclusion,
it is easy to get caught up in the drama of the world’s most
famous lovers.
On any given day in Verona, tourists can be seen openly crying with
the emotion of it all. Strange then that Shakespeare never even
visited the city and that the lovers were entirely fictional and
something that many visitors do not seem to be aware of. It is a
tribute to Verona’s beauty, however, that the romance still
shines through, even when one is aware that its leitmotif is a myth.
Today the city offers a spectacular opera season, in addition to
the romance and grand passion of its rose-tinted setting. Dominating
Piazza Bra, the Arena was built in the first century AD and is considered
the best-preserved amphitheatre in Italy, after Rome’s Colosseum.
Partially damaged by an earthquake, its pretty pink and white stone
belie the brutal sport that it was built for. Today, it is the home
to the famous outdoor opera festival, offering performances throughout
July and August.
A wander through the city of Verona offers an abundance of bridges,
piazzas and Romanesque churches. San Zeno is the king of Veronese
churches, with its zebra-striped bell tower climbing out of the
rosy rooftops and marking the spot where King Pepin the Short is
buried. The façade is dominated by a 12th-century rose window
depicting the Wheel of Fortune, a finely carved porch and a set
of bronze doors that retell the biblical stories with such intensity
that they have been nicknamed the ‘poor man’s bible’.
Inside, standing on the altar, is Mantegna’s triptych –
a dramatic painting created for the church, using the play of light
from the window on the right-hand side.
Verona is located about 100km (62miles) west of Venice. The main
tourist office, situated at Via dell’Alpini 11, Piazza Bra,
near the Arena (telephone number:(045) 806 8680; fax number: (045)
800 3638; e-mail: info@tourism.verona.it),
is open all year (Tuesday to Saturday 0900 hrs-1900 hrs, Monday
and Sunday 0900 hrs-1500 hrs). Situated between Milan and Venice,
Verona can be reached by a one-hour 45 minute train journey from
Santa Lucia in Venice. |
