Venice Travel 05: Walking the Grand Canal, Climbing the Tower Opposite, 235 Shots in Burano

The first thing I saw in Venice was four people seen from behind, sitting side by side on the water's edge. They were all just looking at the Grand Canal.

Part 4 put both of my Milan visits together. This post is the two days in Venice in between. From the afternoon of April 10 to the evening of the next day, I walked along the water. The first day was clear and the second was cloudy. On the second day I crossed to two more islands.

The route in this post

Date	Where	In a line
Apr 10, afternoon	Across from San Simeone Piccolo → side canals → Rialto Bridge	Four people by the water, gold at 6 p.m.
Apr 10, night	A bell tower	9:48 p.m., a streak of light
Apr 11, early morning	Cannaregio → Grand Canal → Accademia Bridge → Gesuati	Cloudy green, wisteria, the Salute dome
Apr 11, late morning	San Giorgio Maggiore church and bell tower	The main island from 63 m, a maze garden, a gull
Apr 11, afternoon	Murano → Burano	A leaning tower, laundry, a glass shop, a green bench

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April 10: Four people sitting by the water

The first scene is the waterfront across from San Simeone Piccolo. The steps were packed with people sitting, while water taxis and gondolas passed in front of them at the same time. If you're choosing where to see the Grand Canal for the first time, I'd suggest this spot: there's somewhere to sit, and boats never stop going by.

One canal in from the Grand Canal

Step one canal in from the Grand Canal and the waterways are as narrow as alleys. A wooden boat slips out of one, leaving a white wake, and at the far end Ca' Pesaro, across the Grand Canal, hangs like a picture in a frame. The walls have lost their paint from the waterline up, exposing the brick.

A little farther on, three gondolas glided into one canal at once. There's no footpath, so wooden boards have been fitted outside the doors, and the sky ripples on the water. I spent longer in these narrow waterways than on the Grand Canal itself.

6 p.m. on the Rialto Bridge

Stand on the Rialto Bridge around 6 p.m. and you finally get the whole Grand Canal laid out below you. People on a wooden boat were holding up their phones to take pictures. The low sun lit only the buildings on the right in gold. If I had to pick one scene from these two days, it would be this one. Go to the Rialto in the evening, when the sun is low.

The first day ended with a bell tower at 9:48 p.m. A streak of light caught in the lens runs up into the sky.

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April 11, morning: Same water, different face

At 7:44 the next morning, the deep blue sky of the day before was gone, replaced by low cloud. On a canal in Cannaregio stood a red awning and a newspaper kiosk. It looked more like a neighborhood where people live than a tourist sight.

Later in the morning I met the Grand Canal again, this time at water level. Up close on a cloudy day the water is deep green, and behind polished wooden boats and blue mooring poles, purple wisteria spills over a garden wall.

The Accademia Bridge is wooden all the way, steps and railings included. From the top, the dome of Santa Maria della Salute sits right at the end of the Grand Canal. If you want the canal and the dome in a single shot, this bridge is the surest place. Come down to the waterside and the same dome retreats to the far right, and in the middle stands a Gothic palace hung with black-and-white LEE MILLER · MAN RAY banners between its windows. Just note that it's a bridge with steps, so crossing with a big suitcase is a hassle.

Walk past the Gesuati church to the waterfront and the view suddenly opens up, wide water stretching all the way across to Giudecca. Rippled clouds covered the sky.

From a green seat at the back of a vaporetto, the church I'd only seen side-on from the alleys appeared whole across the water, façade and all. In Venice, it's worth seeing a building once on foot and once from a boat.

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April 11, late morning: San Giorgio Maggiore, the island across the water

Climb St Mark's Campanile and St Mark's Campanile won't be in your photos. So that morning I crossed to the small island that faces it head-on: San Giorgio Maggiore. It's a separate island opposite the main one, so you take vaporetto line 2 and get off at San Giorgio. A long white wake trails behind the boat.

At the altar of the church stand a large dark painting and marble columns with a wave-like grain. The wall above has paint peeling here and there, and in front of it sit two angels holding palm fronds.

The bell tower in its current form dates from 1791 and stands 63 meters tall. You go up by elevator. The top level is pierced with windows framed in brick and white stone, so each window frame becomes a picture frame. I stood in one with my small camera and shot toward the water.

Directly below is the church's grey dome. On top stands a bronze figure holding a spear. Behind it, Giudecca stretches away in a long curve.

This window is why I crossed over. Across jade water, the face of the main island unrolls sideways, from the Dogana at the far left to the red brick St Mark's Campanile and the white-lace Doge's Palace. At 98.6 meters, St Mark's Campanile is taller than this tower. The waterfront in front of the Doge's Palace looks like a black band, probably a line of people.

The window on the other side looks out on green. A maze garden of clipped boxwood, rows of cypress, a cloister courtyard ringed with arches, and beyond them woods and lines of mooring posts in the lagoon. You can see the dense main island and this green side just one window apart. That's why I recommend this viewpoint.

Back down, the floor catches your eye: cubes pieced together from red, black and white marble, so the flat floor looks three-dimensional. Behind the altar is the choir. Dark wooden stalls thick with carvings curve in a semicircle, and inside a red rope a geometric floor spreads out.

Outside, a small white lighthouse with a pavilion-like top stands at the tip of the island, and a yacht named Istria, with PULA written on it, was tied up beside it. On a waterside rock sat a young gull still speckled with brown, with St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace blurred behind it.

Back on the main island's waterfront, I turned around. The tower I'd been standing in a moment ago looked small across the water, a gondolier passed in front of it, and a circular halo hung in the sky over the island. You get both the view from the top and the view from across the water. That's this viewpoint's biggest plus.

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April 11, afternoon: Through Murano to Burano, 235 shots in two hours

In Burano I took 250 photos that still have location data, and 235 of them between 4 and 6 p.m. It's a village where the color changes with every house.

Before Burano, I stopped in Murano. Shops under ANTICA MURANO awnings line the water, and a crane stands behind a brick bridge. The houses are a calm pink and orange. If you have the time, I'd pair the two islands.

Walk into the square in Burano and the first thing you see isn't color but a leaning bell tower. It belongs to the church of San Martino, and even when you level the photo, the tower alone tilts. Below it run red, blue and yellow houses, with dresses set out in front of the EMILIA shop. The square isn't large; most of what there is to see is along the lanes and canals.

Along the canal, every house is a different color. Next to a magenta house is a deep blue one, and next to that a russet one, so finding two neighbors in the same color is the harder task. The story goes that fishermen painted their houses so they could find home even in fog. It's only a legend.

From the bridge, the wall on the left has peeled into layers of pink, orange and grey, lime houses and clothes shops line the right, and the leaning tower reappears at the end of the canal. I found the tower worked better shot like this from a bridge, with the houses, than from the square.

White sheets hang on a wall of red, lilac and deep blue houses. The walls tourists line up to photograph are homes where someone hangs out their washing. To me this house is the most Burano of all. You'll be taking a lot of photos in front of walls, so be careful not to block anyone's front door.

Each door has a striped curtain. A pink-striped one over the coral house's entrance, deep green next door, bright yellow after that. Don't just look at the walls; look at the door curtains as well.

There's also a glass shop with sky-blue shutters thrown wide, the left panel listing glass color names like Nero and Rosato, and inside it's me, picking through pieces of glass in a basket. The sign reads Vetro di Murano, €2.50 each, or a bundle of six for €10 or €14. An old bicycle is parked below the window.

Three people crouched side by side in front of a lilac house, each hiding their face behind a phone or camera. The light blue hood on the far right is me. Instead of standing in front of a wall, try a shot like this.

Last is the green bench in front of a magenta house. An Easter wreath woven with eggs hangs on the door and a pot of bright pink flowers sits in the window. It was April, around Easter. Even sitting on that bench, I was photographing something with my phone.

That same night I also climbed St Mark's Campanile across the water, but that's not in this post. The next day I went back to Milan and spent the night at San Siro (previous post), and the day after that I headed down to Florence.

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Visiting info

📍 Grand Canal walk (San Simeone Piccolo → Rialto → Accademia)

• 👀 First look: The waterfront across from San Simeone Piccolo. There's somewhere to sit and boats pass constantly.
• 🌇 Rialto Bridge: The light on the buildings was best in the evening as the sun dropped, around 6 p.m. going by my photos.
• 🗺️ Map: Rialto Bridge · Accademia Bridge

📍 San Giorgio Maggiore church and bell tower · The island opposite St Mark's Square

• ⛴️ Getting there: Vaporetto line 2, San Giorgio stop.
• 🎟️ Price and hours: The church is free; the tower goes up by elevator and costs €6–8 depending on the source. Hours also vary between sources, so check the official information.
• 🗺️ Map: Open in Google Maps

📍 Murano · Burano · Northern Venetian Lagoon

• ⛴️ Getting there: Vaporetto line 12, Burano stop. Check boat times and fares with ACTV.
• 🚶 The village: No entry fee, and no cars.
• 🗺️ Map: Burano · Murano

How to get lost a little less

• 🛬 Leave your arrival day free to wander the Grand Canal with no plan. Just following the water is plenty.
• 🧳 The Accademia is a wooden bridge with steps. Dragging a big suitcase over it is a hassle.
• 🔭 After the San Giorgio Maggiore tower, cross back to the main island's waterfront and get a shot looking back at the island.
• 🏠 Burano's walls are real homes. Keep doorways clear when you shoot.

Jayden's verdict

I saw Venice once on foot, once from a boat and once from the tower across the water. I want to go to Italy again.

• Highlight: the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge at 6 p.m., St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace from the San Giorgio Maggiore tower, and Burano's colored houses
• Would I go back?: Yes. Italy is the country I want to go back to.
• Tip: for the main island with St Mark's Campanile in it, go up the San Giorgio Maggiore tower across the water. Pair Burano with Murano.

The next part starts in Florence on April 13: the Duomo and Piazzale Michelangelo, then Pompeii and Positano in the rain three days later.

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19 Days After Quitting series

1. The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay
2. The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub
3. France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence
4. Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro
5. Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano (you are here)
6. Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano
7. Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh
8. Rome again: Italian food and the way home