Walks · Italy
Real places, told on your phone by someone who was there, as you walk to them.
Free · GPS-guided · works offline · your own pace
Venice · 98 min · 3.3 km · 10 stops
Told by Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
Venice's view-painter
A Venetian view-painter walks you from the fish market to the water's edge.
Ponte di Rialto
St Mark's Basilica
Doge's Palace
Bridge of Sighs
La Fenice
Gallerie dell'Accademia
“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…”
Ponte di RialtoSt Mark's BasilicaGallerie dell'Accademia
When to go: 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.
Venice rewards a walker more than almost any city: the Rialto Market still trades under open arcades, the single-span Rialto Bridge crosses the Grand Canal, and Piazza San Marco opens onto the doge's own basilica and palace. A bus cannot follow these narrow lanes, and a boat only skims the surface — the things to do in Venice on foot are the things that made the city, from a carved stone recording a filled-in canal to the enclosed white span of the Bridge of Sighs.
Walk & Tell's self-guided audio walk here is narrated by Canaletto, the eighteenth-century view-painter who sold Venice to foreigners one picture at a time. GPS carries the story as you move, the walk runs about 98 minutes over 3.3 km, and it's free to try and downloadable for offline use. It suits a first visit, a spare morning before the crowds thicken, or anyone happy walking alone or as a couple from market to water's edge.
Walk & Tell is a self-guided audio walking-tour app. Walks are free to try; download one for offline before you set out. All cities