Jonathan Buckley - Pocket Rough Guide Venice

This second edition published February 2014 by

Rough Guides Ltd

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A Penguin Random House Company

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Jonathan Buckley 2014

Maps Rough Guides

No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information in Pocket Rough Guide Venice, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.

ISBN: 9781409345930

This digital edition published 2014.
eISBN: 9781409354901

ROUGH GUIDES CREDITSEditors: Alice Park and Andy Turner Layout: Anita Singh and Pradeep Thapliyal Photography: Michelle Grant, James McConnachie and Martin Richardson Cartography: Ed Wright, Simonetta Giori and Katie Bennett Picture editors: Sarah Cummins and Marta Bescos Proofreader: Samantha Cook Production: Linda Dare Cover design: Wilf Matos

DIGITAL PRODUCTION TEAMSenior Digital Producer: Linda Zacharia Head of Technical Development: Roz Hitchcock Head of Digital Media, Delhi: Manjari Hooda Sr. Editorial Manager: Lakshmi Rao Producer: Rahul Kumar Editors: Suruchi Kakkar, Patpreet Kaur Assistant Editor: Etika Kapil Senior Software Engineer: Ravi Yadav Software Engineers: Rajesh Pandey, Paranpreet Singh Digital Assets Coordinator: Rakesh Kumar Assistant Graphic Designers: Rahul Rai, Rohit Rojal Operations Coordinator: Jalaj Bansal

The Author

Jonathan Buckley is the author of the Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto and is co-author of Rough Guides to Italy, Tuscany & Umbria and Florence. He is an Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, and has written eight novels

Photo credits

All photos by Michelle Grant, James McConnachie and Martin Richardson Rough Guides exceptthe following:

Busy shopping street Ian Dagnall/ Alamy

Campo San Bartolomeo Alamy/Ian Dagnall

Carnival mask Getty Images/AWL Images RM

Christ in the House of Levi, 1573 (oil on canvas), Veronese (152888), Galleria dellAccademia Cameraphoto Arte Venezia/ The Bridgeman Art Library

Exterior of Punta della Dogana courtesy of Punta della Dogana

Gondolas Robert Harding Picture Library/Sergio Pitamitz

Harry's Dolci courtesy of Harry's Dolci

Il Caff Alamy/Hemis

La Fenice Alamy/Maurice Joseph

Osteria Santa Marina courtesy of Osteria Santa Marina

Room 1, courtesy of Punta della Dogana

Santa Maria Assunta church, Torcello Luke Daniek/Istock

Side street with a small caf Travelshots.com/Alamy

The Last Supper, 1594 (oil on canvas), Tintoretto (15601635) (attr.), San Giorgio Maggiore Cameraphoto Arte Venezia/The Bridgeman Art Library

The Miracle of the Cross on San Lorenzo Bridge, 1500 (oil on canvas), Bellini (c.14291507), Galleria dell Accademia Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library

The Presentation of the Virgin, 1552 (oil on canvas), Tintoretto (151894), Madonna dellOrto Cameraphoto Arte Venezia/The Bridgeman Art Library

Torre dell'Orologio Alamy/funkyfood London/Paul Williams

View from the Giardini Pubblici Elliot Nichol/Alamy

Virgin with Child (tempera on panel with gold, fourteenth century) Galleria dell' Accademia The Bridgeman Art Library

Front cover Ponte Storto Alamy/RoryMcDonald

Help us update

Weve gone to a lot of effort to ensure that the second edition of the Pocket Rough Guide Venice is accurate and up-to-date. However, things change places get discovered, opening hours are notoriously fickle, restaurants and rooms raise prices or lower standards. If you feel weve got it wrong or left something out, wed like to know, and if you can remember the address, the price, the hours, the phone number, so much the better.

Please send your comments with the subject line Pocket Rough Guide Venice Update to . Well credit all contributions and send a copy of the next edition (or any other Rough Guide if you prefer) for the very best emails.

Find more travel information, connect with fellow travellers and book your trip on www.roughguides.com

Introduction to Venice

Founded 1500 years ago on a cluster of mudflats in the centre of the lagoon, Venice rose to become Europes main trading post between the West and the East, and at its height controlled an empire that extended from the Dolomites to Cyprus. The fabric of the present-day city, astonishingly well-preserved, bears testimony to Venices former grandeur in virtually every square and street.

The Campanile and Basilica di San Marco

In the heyday of the Venetian Republic, some 200,000 people lived in Venice, three times its present population. Merchants from Europe and western Asia maintained warehouses here; transactions in the banks and bazaars of the Rialto dictated the value of commodities all over the continent; in the dockyards of the Arsenale the workforce was so vast that a warship could be built and fitted out in a single day; and the Piazza San Marco was thronged with people here to set up deals or report to the Republics government. Nowadays its no longer a buzzing metropolis but rather the embodiment of a fabulous past, dependent for its survival largely on the people who come to marvel at its relics.