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The Grand Canal
Cruising the Canale Grande (Grand Canal), the watery main street of Venice, Italy
Grand CanalSights nearby
***Accademia
***Piazza San Marco
***Palazzo Ducale
**Peggy Guggenheim
**Ca d'Oro
**Rialto Bridge
*Ca' Rezzonico
Ca' Pesaro
Santa Maria della Salute
Where to eat nearby
Vini da Pinto
Trattoria alla Madonna
Hotels on the Grand Canal
***Hotel Gritti Palace [splurge]
**Antica Locanda Sturion [moderate]
**Hotel San Cassiano Ca 'Favretto [moderate]
**Hotel Galleria [moderate]
Hotels on the Bacino San Marco
***Hotel Danieli [splurge]
*Hotel Metropole [premier]
» More hotels on the Grand Canal
ReidsItaly.com Venice Map
» View ENLARGED MAP with all listings
TOURS FROM OUR TRUSTED PARTNERS that include Venice
Intrepid Travel 2011 Italy trips
• Best of Italy
• Italy Uncovered
• Italy Experience
• Classic Italy
• Italy Family Adventure
• Highlights of Italy
• Umbrian Discovery
Not just Italy...
Paris to Venice
Venice to Istanbul
G Adventures 2011 Italy trips
• Ultimate Italy
• Italy Culture and History Explored (9 days)
• Venice to Rome Adventure
• Italy Family Adventure
iExplore Italy trips 2011
• Italy Experience (9 days)
• Italy in Style (9 days)
» THE VENICE BOOKSHELF
Gondoliers on the Grand Canal in Venice.The Grand Canal is Venice's main artery and primary boulevard, a two-mile ribbon of water plied by hundreds of ferries, gondolas, garbage scows, speedboats, and small commercial craft daily.
This inverted S-curve of a canal is lined with more than 200 of the most gorgeous Venetian palazzi (palaces), called home at times by a legion of ex-pats like Wagner, Byron, Robert Browning, Hemingway, Proust, Henry James, Ruskin, and James Fenimore Cooper.
The buildings and palaces fronting the Grand Canal range in style from early Byzantine-Romanesque—where pale green, creamy yellow, or blood-red plaster walls are hung with marble sills sporting pointy, eastern style windows—to proportionately precise Renaissance palaces and neoclassical temple-like mansions.
Best of all, you don't have to book an expensive gondola ride to do it. Just sit back on the no. 1 (local) or 2 (express) vaporetto line and take an excursion in observation from Piazza San Marco to the Ferrovia Santa Lucia (the train station)—or vice-versa.
Don't worry about which palazzo is which, rather open your eyes and your camera lens to search for the telling Venetian details—an old woman swathed in black leaning out her window; workmen replacing water-rotted wooden mooring piles by pounding in fresh-cut trunks; cats sleeping precariously on open windowsills; churches whose entrances lead up out of the canal, as if only the faithful with boats can attend; and private docks whose ancient marble stairs cling with algae as they disappear under the murky water.
Tips
- Planning your day: A leisurely vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal from Piazzale Roma to San Marco will take about 30 minutes on the express (line 2 to the San Marco-Vallaresso stop) or 45 minutes on the local (line 1 to the San Marco-S. Zaccaria stop). Between 6:21am and 10pm, there's a boat every 10 minutes, so factor that brief wait into your schedule.
- Vaporetto boats are open up at the prow with benches, so dash forward to grab an outdoor seat for the best views.
- Try a tour: If you want a longer Grand Canal ride 1 hour, 10 minutes) in a smaller boat shared by only 4–8 people—and an guide to provide commentary and context—you can book a private Venice Grand Canal Boat Tour from our partners at Viator.com.
Related pages
- Gondola rides
- Hotels on the Grand Canal
- The Ca' d'Oro - Grandest of the palazzi on the Grand Canal
- How the vaporetto system works
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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.
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