Walk the whole Giudecca waterfront from east to west: a charitable church for poor girls, an artist's 'three eyes' house, Palladio's plague church, a 9th-century parish, the 1960s sports island where Venetians swim, and the neo-Gothic mill.
Best time: Morning for the light on the Zattere across the canal; or the evening of the Redentore weekend
The route, stop by stop
- 1Zitelle (Santa Maria della Presentazione)
At the eastern tip of the Giudecca: a church and hospice where poor girls without a dowry (zitelle) learned sewing and lace so they could support themselves. Seventeenth-century sources credit Palladio; most scholars doubt it. 10 min.
- 2Casa dei Tre Oci
Built in 1912-1913 by the painter Mario de Maria: the three big windows ('oci', eyes) stand for the surviving family, the window above for the daughter he lost. A photography centre from the 2000s, sold in 2021 to the Berggruen Institute. Seen from the fondamenta. 5 min.
- 3Il Redentore
Palladio's votive church for the end of the 1575-1577 plague: first stone laid on 3 May 1577, consecrated 1592, run by Capuchin friars. Paintings by Tintoretto, Veronese and Francesco Bassano. On the third weekend of July the votive bridge lands on its steps. Part of Chorus Venezia. 25 min.
- 4Chiesa di Sant'Eufemia
One of the Giudecca's oldest churches, founded in the 9th century. The side facing the canal has a portico with Tuscan columns re-used in 1593 and a 14th-century Crucifixion in a lunette. 10 min.
- 5Sacca Fisola
A 1960s artificial island built on a salt marsh, joined to the Giudecca by the Ponte dei Lavraneri. Its sports centre with the municipal pool, tennis and five-a-side pitches is one of the very few in the centre and is busy with locals. 10 min.
- 6Molino Stucky
Giovanni Stucky's neo-Gothic flour mill and pasta factory, built 1884-1895 to designs by Ernst Wullekopf. After a fire on 15 April 2003 during conversion it reopened as the Hilton Molino Stucky. Back to town on line 2 from Palanca or Sacca Fisola. 10 min.
More walks in Venice
- Rialto market and bacaro crawl (food grazing walk)
- Dorsoduro: gondola yard, tramezzini and student squares
- Cannaregio evening: Ghetto to the Misericordia canals
- Castello: Arsenale, Via Garibaldi and the local east end
- San Marco classics without the queues
- Northern lagoon island hop: San Michele, Murano, Burano, Mazzorbo, Torcello
- Castello's far east: San Pietro to the Sant'Elena pines
- Cannaregio's lagoon edge: Tintoretto's parish to Fondamente Nove
- Dorsoduro's west end: the Nicolotti parish, Veronese and the bridge of fists
- Sant'Erasmo and Vignole: the lagoon's vegetable garden by boat and bike