For those wishing to experience an authentic slice of Venice, the city's Castello district is the ideal place where to start. Castello is situated on the eastern side of the city, bordering the districts of Cannaregio and San Marco. Bereft of the ostentatiously ornamental palaces which characterise many of Venice's streets, Castello is, rather, home to a great number of slightly more humble yet just as fascinating, 17th century dwellings. The district is named after the 13th century fortress which was built on the island of St Pietro.
Our tour of this, the largest of Venice's districts, commences with a visit to the Gardens of the Biennale. The exhibitions held here are subdivided in six disciplines: music, cinema, visual arts, theatre, architecture, and dance. Venice's Biennale, one of the world's most important cultural institutions, was inaugurated in 1895. Here, the visitor soon forgets the canals, the narrow streets, and the bridges of the city; immersed rather in the green of the secular trees and a garden which leads as far as the Campo S. Giuseppe and the Church of the same name. Having traversed the wooden Quintavalle bridge, we come to the Basilica of S. Pietro with its immense 54 meter high dome. The church, which until 1897 served as the Cathedral of Venice, was reconstructed in the 17th century following the designs of the great Palladio.
In the immediate vicinity, lies the 16th century Palazzo Patriarcale and Mauro Coducci's bell tower, the only one in the city to have been constructed entirely in Istria stone. Following the narrow streets of the old working class quarters of Venice, we find ourselves in Via Garibaldi which, with its proliferation of fashionable bars, restaurants, and shops, forms the pulsating heart of modern day Castello.
Once beyond Campo S-Biagio, before arriving at the Riva degli Schiavoni, we come to the Arsenale: guarded by two imposing watch towers and a gigantic winged Lion. Founded in 1104, the Arsenale of Venice was one of the most important shipyards in Europe which, in the height of its activity, employed some 16.000 people; an immense work force capable of building two vessels a day.
After the S. Biagio Bridge, two enormous anchors mark the entrance to the Naval History Museum, built in 1958 in buildings which once served as Venice's wheat stores. Among the fascinating exhibits we find Betty Guggenheim's private gondola and a copy of the Bucintoro, the gold covered launch used to transport the Doge in occasion of the procession of the Ascension.
Close by, we find the Campo Bandiera e Moro where, in the Church of S. Giovanni, Vivaldi was baptised. In the same area, there is the Church of San Giorgio dei Greci, with its curious leaning bell tower. Walking along the Riva degli Schiavoni, which takes its name from the Merchants of Dalmazia who used to sell dried meat and fish from their boats here, we come to the Benedictine Convent and the gothic church of San Zaccaria.
Before leaving the district of Castello we take time to visit the Campo Santa Maria Formosa and its church of the same name, designed by Mauro Coducci in 1492. A little further on we find the Church of San Giovanni and Paolo, where the tombs of 25 doges are conserved. In the same piazza there is the former Scuola Grande of San Marco, a 15th century edifice intricately embellished with marble columns and arches, and now used as the city's Civil Hospital. Beyond a maze of little streets and canals we have the occasion to stroll through the colourful stalls of the market place, filled with the pungent scents of exotic spices.
