Venice, Bridge by Bridge (Expanded Edition 2021)

Venice, Bridge By Bridge

The bridges, in a nutshell

This book tells the story of how I photographed one hundred bridges in Venice in a single day. That’s all good, and I hope you enjoy following my journey.

However, since publishing the first edition, many readers have asked for a quick-and-easy guide to the bridges, without having to slog through all one hundred of those described in the book. Most people only stay in Venice for two or three days, or pay the city a visit that lasts a few hours. They’ll therefore only have time to visit the highlights among the bridges.

With that in mind, I’ve made various itinerary lists of the bridges worth seeing, if you’re on a short visit to Venice. In addition, I’ve now also created a Google Maps overlay that shows the positions of the bridges in question - see the section Where are the Bridges?.

1. Bridges to see on a day visit

You’ll probably spend most of your time between the rail and bus stations, or the boat terminal, and St. Mark’s Square. If so, these are the essential bridges to see:

Bridge Sixty-Six - Ponte della Costituzione

Bridge Forty-Two - Ponte dell'Accademia

Bridge Eighty-Six - Ponte di Rialto

Bridge Sixty-Nine - Ponte degli Scalzi

2. Bridges itineraries to choose from during a longer stay

The four bridges across the Grand Canal:

Bridge Sixty-Six - Ponte della Costituzione

Bridge Forty-Two - Ponte dell'Accademia

Bridge Eighty-Six - Ponte di Rialto

Bridge Sixty-Nine - Ponte degli Scalzi

Along the Grand Canal, from St Mark’s Square to the Giardini.

Start your walk at Bridge 21, near St Mark’s Square. Carry on walking along the waterside, following the bridges below:

Bridge Twenty-One - Ponte dell'Accademia dei Pittori

Bridge Five - Ponte della Paglia

Bridge Four - Ponte del Vin

Bridge Three - Ponte San Biasio o delle Catene

Bridge Two - Ponte dell'Arsenale

Bridge One - Ponte dei Giardini

From the Accademia Bridge, past the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute and along the Guidecca Canal

Bridge Forty-Two - Ponte dell'Accademia

Bridge Forty-Three - Ponte San Vio

Bridge Forty-Four - Ponte San Cristoforo

Bridge Forty-Five - Ponte de San Gregorio

Bridge Forty-Six - Ponte de l'Abazia

Bridge Forty-Seven - Ponte de l'Umiltà

Bridge Forty-Eight and Forty-Nine - Ponte de Ca' Balà and Ponte Incurabili

Bridge Fifty - Ponte della Calcina

Bridge Fifty-One - Ponte Longo

Bridges that tell the best stories

Bridge Fifty-Four - Ponte dei Pugni

Bridge Thirty-Nine - Ponte Maria Callas

Bridge Seventy-Four - Ponte de le Tette

Bridge Ninety-Five - Ponte Chiodo (Oldest bridge in Venice)

Bridges at the Jewish Ghetto: Bridge Ninety-Nine - Ponte de Gheto Novissimo;

Bridge One Hundred - Ponte de Gheto Novo

Where are the bridges?

The location of all one hundred bridges are marked on a special online map based on Google Maps. Because this map also shows your position if you are in Venice, you’ll know when you are in the vicinity of a bridge listed in this book, or pass over one.

Simply open this link on your mobile device, and the map of Venice with the bridges on will open in a browser on your device.

Here’s the link to the map:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oSlSfoVsnMPJSmZxxa_OMj2H4k4ddlib&usp=sharing

Where it all began

While planning a trip through Europe in early 2013, I had the idea of getting to know the bridges of Venice a little better by seeing how many of them I could cross in one day. Being a photographer, I could photograph each bridge, and from those compile a portfolio collection to show their diversity and interestingness. Could be fun!

This idea evolved into the '100 Venice Bridges Challenge' a project whereby I'd walk across one hundred bridges on one day, taking photographs and doing write-ups along the way. Afterwards I'd write everything up, edit the photos into some sort of storyline, and publish it as a blog.

At the outset I had no idea whether I'd be able to walk across one hundred bridges in one day. I didn't know how long it would take, or whether there are enough bridges to justify a really interesting book. I really was only going in on a hunch.

The original planned route followed a winding path starting at the tail end of Venice (look at a map and you'll see Venice is fish-shaped) and ending close to the head of the fish, facing the lagoon train bridge. It included about 116 bridges, to allow for last-minute changes and adaptions if necessary.

The bridges were chosen on the grounds of importance firstly, so included all the major sightseeing bridges. Secondly the route was designed to include bridges on the coastline of the island as well as inland canal bridges, bridges of all types and sizes, and bridges both along popular tourist routes as well as some situated in out-of-the-way areas.

I calculated that in order to go past one hundred bridges in the space of about twelve hours I'd have to spend no more than ten minutes or so at each bridge. It means I'd have to pace myself very well, or else fall behind and risk not finishing.

It was going to be a tough assignment!

Once in Venice, on the day before the Challenge I rode the vaporetto over to Venice early in the morning to do a few camera tests and generally check out some random bridges to get a feel for what to expect on the day. After an hour or two of photographing bridges and watching early morning life go by, it dawned on me that the bridges were much less relics of the past than part of the present-day life of Venice. The stories I picked up were more to do with the scenery and the people of the city in the moment, than historical details. I made a mental note to look carefully at this angle of capturing life on the bridges at it is, not just as it were many years ago.

After this recce the butterflies in my stomach settled somewhat and I felt more certain that we’d complete the task at hand, and not die an ignominious death somewhere at the foot of a Venetian bridge. In fact, I started having visions of crowds going wild as we crossed bridge number one hundred. Little did I know…. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here, without further ado, is the story of the Venice One Hundred Venice Bridges Challenge.

Bridge One - Ponte dei Giardini

The 6.25 am vaporetto from Murano anchors noisily at Giardini station. It's seven in the morning, and we're the only passengers alighting. The air is crisp even though the sun is bright in a cloudless sky, a precursor of what the rest of the day would be like.

It's a short walk to the first bridge of the Challenge, the Ponte dei Giardini. The bridge is located at the top end of the Giardini, or gardens, where the Venice Biennale is held, and is therefore surrounded by lush trees and shrubbery. On the other side is the beautiful, treed Via Garibaldi - a broad, country-like lane certainly not a view generally associated with the city of Venice. For most people the image of Venice is one of tall, tightly packed buildings with narrow corridors and canals separating them.

Originally a wooden bridge, the Ponte dei Giardini is now an unusually wide, almost flat stone bridge on a quiet canal that partially borders the Giardini. Its present appearance dates from 1807, the same period the Giardini were constructed. From afar it doesn't resemble a bridge at all, and people crossing it probably won't realise there's a bridge under their feet.

The Giardini were laid out on the orders of Napoleon when he conquered the city in 1797. He brought a distinctly Parisian design ethic to the city, and construction of the gardens necessitated the destruction of more than a few historic churches in the area. It is the most obvious attraction in the area and certainly the best place for quiet walks in the garden itself and along the lagoon. The garden is rich with works of art, mostly clearly French-inspired since the Venetians weren't really into sculptures at that stage; such works of art were regarded as dangerous self-promotion in a fiercely controlled society. It's home to thirty-seven sculptures and statues, or about half of all those in Venice.

Bridge Two - Ponte dell'Arsenale

Ashort walk away from bridge number one, the Ponte dei Giardini bridge, we passed a thought-provoking work of art: The Monumento alla Partigiana Veneta monument. Commonly referred to as the 'La Partigiana', facing the sea, it is dedicated to the women who fought in the resistance movement against Fascism during the time of the Second World War. It's a statue of a woman lying down with her hands tied and positioned more or less level with the lagoon's low tide mark. Years of the ocean water's ebb and flow over it has tinged the sad figure green by moss and sea algae. During high tide she's submerged and invisible, but right now she's elevated just enough to make it look like she's floating on the lagoon. Is this the world's only statue that is under water half the time?

A walk along the seaboard and then up Fondamenta dell'Arsenale took us to one of the signature wooden bridges in Venice, the Ponte dell'Arsenale. It has a unique and characteristic pointed shape crossing over the fairly broad Rio dell'Arsenale. On one side it faces the impressive pillared entrance to the Arsenale - a well-known image of Venice - complete with its white, maned Piraeus lion and three companions standing guard by the side of the entrance. Two of the sculptures came as booty all the way from Piraeus in Athens, Greece - which at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire - after a successful campaign by Venetian forces in 1687.