Page 63 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

VENICE AREA B Y AREA  61

A VIEW OF THE
GRAND CANAL

Known to the Venetians as the Canalazzo, with crews in traditional costumes,
the Grand Canal sweeps through the heart followed by exciting boat and gondola
of Venice, following the course of an ancient races down the Grand Canal.
riverbed. Since the founding days of the The parade of palaces bordering the
empire it has served as the city’s main winding waterway, built over a span of
thoroughfare. Once used by great galleys around 500 years, presents some of the
or trading vessels making their stately way finest architecture of the Republic.
to the Rialto, it now teems with vaporetti, Historically it is like a rollcall of the old
launches, barges and gondolas. Glimpses of Venetian aristocracy, with almost every
its glorious past, however, are never far palazzo bearing the name of a once-grand
away. The annual re-enactment of historic family. Bright frescoes may have faded,
pageants, preserving the traditions of the precious marbles worn, and foundations
Venetian Republic, brings a blaze of colour frayed with the tides, but the Grand Canal
to the canal. The most spectacular is the is still, to quote Charles VIII of France’s
Regata Storica held in September (see p39), ambassador in 1495, “the most beautiful
a huge procession of historic craft packed street in the world”.

See pages 64–5

See pages 62–3
See pages 66–7

See pages 68–9

See pages 70–71

See pages 74–5
See pages 72–3

0 metres 250
0 yards 250

The Basilica Santa Maria della Salute seen from across the Grand Canal

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