Canaletto's Unfinished View: a self-guided walking tour of Venice with Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)

City walk · Venice · Italy

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)

1697–1768 · a real person

a working painter in his sixties: dry, practical about money, tender about light, quietly proud and a little tired of tourists

Read what Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal) says

I am Antonio Canal. In Venice they call me Canaletto, the little Canal, as if I were a ditch. For forty years I sold this city to foreigners, one view at a time, and I learned her by the hour of the day. Walk with me from the fish market to the far bank, and I will show you what I looked at and what I left out. Bring your eyes; that is all the equipment I ever needed.

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal) on one of the stops — in his own voice

98 min · 3.3 km · 10 stops · medium

You’re walking this one before anyone at Walk & Tell has. If something looks wrong, tap Report at any stop — we’ll fix it for everyone after you.

About 253 m of this route is by boat, not on foot — you’ll need a ticket and the boat’s timetable. The rest is walking.

Partly shadedBest time to walk: Early morning: the Rialto market works before 10am and closes by early afternoon, and Piazza San Marco has almost no shade at midday. Museums shut Mondays or open late; the outdoor stops work any day.

The walk

Venice told by the man who sold her likeness to strangers: Antonio Canal, called Canaletto. The line runs from the morning fish market at Rialto, over the great stone bridge, through Piazza San Marco and past the Doge's Palace, then west to the opera house, the Accademia and the low white palace on the Grand Canal. It is a walk about looking — light, water, stone and the business of turning them into pictures. No puzzles: just a painter talking while you walk.

Start here

Mercato del Pesce, Venezia-Murano-Burano

Walk with Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)

Where Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal) takes you10 stops

Best from stop 1 — the story is told in order. Tap Start here on any stop to begin there instead; the guide will catch you up.

1
Rialto Market
“The Fish Market at Rialto”
The working market that has fed Venice for nine centuries, still trading under open arcades each morning.
- 5 min with the guide here · add about 15 min if you go in
Start here
290 m · 4 min walk
Ponte di Rialto
“The Stone Bridge”
The single-span stone bridge of 1591, lined with shops, the oldest crossing of the Grand Canal.
- 4 min with the guide here
Start here
440 m · 7 min walk
3
Interramento Canale
“The Buried Canal”
A carved stone stele recording a canal filled in and a bridge demolished to open a new street in 1837.
- 4 min with the guide here
- Seen from outside
Start here
340 m · 5 min walk
St Mark's Basilica
“The Church of Gold”
The doge's own chapel, faced with plundered marble and columns, at the east end of Piazza San Marco.
- 5 min with the guide here · add about 20 min if you go in
Start here
150 m · 2 min walk
Doge's Palace
“The Palace of the Government”
The Gothic seat of the Venetian Republic — court, offices and the doge's residence — now a museum.
- 4 min with the guide here · add about 45 min if you go in
Start here
200 m · 3 min walk
Bridge of Sighs
“The Covered Bridge”
The enclosed white bridge carrying prisoners from the palace to the new prisons across the canal.
- 5 min with the guide here
- Seen from outside
Start here
430 m · 7 min walk
7
Caffè Florian
“Coffee Under the Arcades”
A coffee house open since 1720 under the arcades of the Procuratie Nuove, still serving on the square.
- 5 min with the guide here
Start here
450 m · 7 min walk
La Fenice
“The Phoenix Theatre”
Venice's opera house, opened 1792 and rebuilt after fires in 1836 and 1996, on Campo San Fantin.
- 5 min with the guide here
Start here
730 m · 11 min walk
Gallerie dell'Accademia
“The Academy”
The great gallery of Venetian painting, in the old Scuola and convent of Santa Maria della Carità.
- 5 min with the guide here
- Closed now · opens 08:15 · Tue–Sun 8:15–19:15 · Mon 8:15–14:00
Start here
310 m · 5 min walk
10
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
“The Unfinished Palace”
The low one-storey palace on the Grand Canal, never completed, now a modern art museum with a bronze rider at the water gate.
- 5 min with the guide here · add about 45 min if you go in
Start here

What’s nearby

If you have longer

The walk passes these without stopping. Add one and the route bends to take it in — the guide has nothing to say about them, so you are on your own there.

+1 min on the walk from stop 3 to 4
+1 min on the walk from stop 2 to 3
+1 min on the walk from stop 1 to 2
+1 min on the walk from stop 6 to 7
+1 min on the walk from stop 6 to 7
+1 min on the walk from stop 3 to 4
+1 min on the walk from stop 6 to 7
+1 min on the walk from stop 7 to 8
+3 min on the walk from stop 8 to 9
+10 min on the walk from stop 9 to 10
+10 min on the walk from stop 9 to 10