Canal Grande (Grand Canal)
The Grand Canal is Venice's breathtaking main street. From the train station to the Ducal Palace, the Grand Canal flows by a series of highly ornamented palaces, past the 16th-century Rialto Bridge, packed with shops and shoppers, and continues under the bridge at the Accademia to arrive at the Ducal Palace. Here the intersection of canals, called the Bacino, is marked by the fabulous palace and its accompanying piazzetta San Marco, while across the water are the magnificent churches of Santa Maria della Salute and San Giórgio Maggiore standing like sentinels on each side of the Giudecca Canal, marking the original entrance from the sea.No amount of repeated travel on the canal can diminish the pleasure of this architectural parade. With the lagoons serving as Venice's defense works, the palazzi could be free of fortifications, with their arcaded first floors open to receive boats and cooling breezes.
Each trip across the canal on a traghetto, or up and down on a vaporetto, reveals new details of the more than 100 palazzi built during Venice's centuries of glory. If you are so lucky as to get a seat at the front of a No. 1 vaporetto, you'll find it difficult to disembark at your stop.
Address:
Venice
Italy