The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

statue of Admiral Angelo Emo (1792) is the main point of interest. Tucked
behind the church is the concrete bunker known as Palasport (or Palazzetto
dello Sport), the city’s main indoor sports hall, used for handball and basketball
matches.
eastern castello
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Beyond the Arsenale
Beyond the Arsenale
The Riva San Biagio is the only land route into the districts to the east of the
Arsenale, but once over the wide bridge that traverses the Rio della Tana you
have to make a choice. By following the waterfront you’ll pass the main public
gardens of Venice before finally reaching the football stadium and the isolated
church of Sant’Elena. Opt for the less picturesque Via Garibaldi, and you’re
on your way to the church of San Pietro di Castello, the major monument of
this part of the city.
To San Pietro di Castello
In 1808 the greater part of the canal connecting the Bacino di San Marco to the
broad northeastern inlet of the Canale di San Pietro was filled in to form what
is now Via Garibaldi, the widest street in the city and the busiest commercial
area in the eastern district. (The pattern of the pavement shows clearly the
course of the former canal.) The bars, pasticcerie and alimentari of Via Garibaldi
are as good as most of those in the more comfortable areas of the city, and are
far less likely to treat you as a tedious occupational hazard. Roaming through
the alleyways and squares of the vicinity, it’s possible to forget for a while that
you’re in the most commercialized city in the country.
There’s just a couple of spots of cultural or historical significance along Via
Garibaldi. The first house on the right was for a time the home of the navigators
John and Sebastian Cabot, explorers of Newfoundland (together) and
Paraguay ( just Sebastian) in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. The
church of San Francesco di Paola, opposite the entrance to the tree-lined
alley that glories in the name Giardini Garibaldi, has a painting by Giandomenico
Tiepolo among the sequence on the cornice (second on the right),
illustrating scenes from the life of the eponymous saint. A far more impressive
sight awaits if you walk beyond the market stalls on the right-hand side of the
street, which becomes the Fondamenta di Sant’Anna; this takes you onto the
Ponte di Quintavalle, and so to the island of San Pietro.
The island of San Pietro di Castello
Originally named Castello, after a castle that used to stand here (built by
either the Romans or the first “Venetian” settlers), the island of San Pietro
was one of the very first parts of central Venice to be occupied. Nowadays this
is a run-down district where the repairing of boats is the main occupation,
yet it was once the ecclesiastical centre of Venice. By 775 the settlement here
had grown sufficiently to be granted the foundation of a bishopric under the
authority of the Patriarch of Grado. Within the next half-century Castello
joined the immediately surrounding islands to form Rivoalto, the embryonic
city of Venice.
From the beginning, the political and economic power was concentrated in
the distant Rialto and San Marco districts, and the relationship between the