The Grand Canal, Rialto Market and Artistic Dorsoduro

For centuries the Grand Canal (Canal Grande) was the main ceremonial boulevard of Venice: every noble family built the front door of its palace (ca', short for casa) directly onto the water so guests could step from gondola to marble atrium. The simplest way to read that architectural timeline is to ride ACTV Vaporetto Line 1 from Ferrovia or Piazzale Roma all the way to Vallaresso (San Marco), watching pointed Venetian-Gothic tracery at the 15th-century Ca' d'Oro give way to high-Renaissance stone at Palazzo Grimani and Baroque theatricality at Ca' Rezzonico.

Rialto Bridge and the Morning Markets

At the tightest bend of the Grand Canal stands the Ponte di Rialto, completed in 1591 in white Istrian stone to replace earlier wooden bridges that burned or collapsed under crowds. Cross its central stepped passage early in the morning before the souvenir stalls open, descending onto the San Polo side where Venice's commercial heart has beat since 1097:

• Mercato di Rialto (Erberia and Pescheria): Tuesday to Saturday mornings, barges tie up along the Grand Canal to unload crates of seasonal lagoon vegetables (violet artichokes in spring, white asparagus and tardivo radicchio in winter) alongside the neo-Gothic loggia of the Pescheria (Fish Market), stacked with Adriatic sole, mantis shrimp, octopus and spider crabs.
• Fondaco dei Tedeschi area and Campo San Giacometto: right behind the vegetable stalls sit some of Venice's oldest standing wine bars (bacari), where market porters and office workers stop at 11:00 for a glass of prosecco and a warm meatball (polpetta).

San Polo to Dorsoduro: Frari, San Rocco and the Accademia

From the Rialto Market, follow the twisting lanes south-west through the sestiere of San Polo into Dorsoduro, passing two of the greatest art interiors in Italy before you even reach the Accademia Bridge:

• Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari: a vast brick Franciscan church holding Titian's soaring, flame-gold Assumption of the Virgin over the high altar, Giovanni Bellini's serene Pesaro Triptych in the sacristy and the sculpted tombs of Titian and Antonio Canova.
• Scuola Grande di San Rocco: immediately behind the Frari, this 16th-century charitable confraternity hired Jacopo Tintoretto over twenty-three years to cover its ceilings and walls with more than fifty dark, lightning-lit biblical canvases; pick up one of the hand-held mirrors provided at the entrance to study the upper ceiling panels without straining your neck.
• Dorsoduro, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Zattere: continue south to Campo Santa Margherita for lunch, cross toward the wooden Ponte dell'Accademia for the iconic view toward the dome of Santa Maria della Salute, visit either the Gallerie dell'Accademia or Peggy Guggenheim's modern-art villa on the Grand Canal, and walk the sunny southern quayside of the Zattere with a chocolate gianduiotto ice cream over the Giudecca Canal.