The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

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West of the Piazza
being converted into a cultural centre by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere e
Arte, an organisation that also holds large-scale shows in the vast Palazzo Franchetti,
which flanks the Accademia bridge. An instructive exhibition relating to the
Venetian lagoon and its maintenance can be seen at Puntelaguna, virtually next
door to the Loredan at no. 2949 (Mon–Fri 2.30–5.30pm; free; wwww.salve.it).
Opposite the Franchetti palace stands the deconsecrated church of San Vitale
(or Vidal). It’s now used for concerts and exhibitions, but still possesses a fine painting
by Carpaccio (San Vitale and other Saints, above the high altar), and Piazzetta’s
Archangel Raphael and Sts Anthony and Louis (over the third altar on the right). If the
facade of the church seems strangely familiar, that’s because it’s a slavish replica of
San Giorgio Maggiore’s.
Campo Sant’Angelo
A door leads from the cloister of Santo Stefano into the Campo Sant’Angelo
(or Anzolo), a square almost as capacious as Campo Santo Stefano, but which
feels more like a crossroads than a meeting place. It’s bounded by some fine buildings,
however, including two magnificent fifteenth-century palaces: the Palazzo
Gritti and, facing it, the Palazzo Duodo, home of the composer Cimarosa, who
died there in 1801. The minuscule Oratorio dell’Annunziata – founded in the
tenth century, rebuilt in the twelfth and once the home of the Scuola dei Sotti
(“of the Lame”) – contains a sixteenth-century crucifix and an Annunciation by the
omnipresent Palma il Giovane. Nothing remains of Sant’Angelo church, which
was demolished in 1837 but is still remembered as a leading player in one of
Venice’s great architectural cock-ups. By 1445 the lean of the church’s campanile
had become so severe that urgent measures were deemed necessary to right it. It
was discovered that there was a builder in Bologna who had made such problems
his speciality, and so he was brought onto the case. The expert fixed it so the tower
stood as straight as a pine tree; the scaffolding was taken down; a banquet was held
to honour the engineering genius; and the next morning the whole thing keeled
over.
San Samuele and Palazzo Grassi
From opposite the entrance to Santo Stefano church, Calle delle Botteghe and
Crosera lead up to Salizzada San Samuele, a route that’s lined with private galleries,
arty shops and a few good places to eat; a left turn along Salizzada San Samuele
takes you past the house in which Paolo Veronese lived his final years, and on
to Campo San Samuele. Built in the late twelfth century and not much altered
since, the campanile of the church is one of the oldest in the city. The church itself
was founded in the previous century but was largely reconstructed in the late seventeenth
century; apart from some fifteenth-century frescoes by Paduan artists in
the apse, the interior is of little interest.
San Samuele is dwarfed by the Palazzo Grassi (wwww.palazzograssi.it), which
in 1984 was bought by Fiat and converted into a cultural centre. No expense was
spared in realizing the plans drawn up by Gae Aulenti (best known for Paris’s
Musée d’Orsay), and blockbuster overviews of entire cultures and epochs became
the Grassi’s speciality, with exhibitions on subjects such as the Phoenicians, the
Celts, the Etruscans and the Pharoahs attracting thousands of visitors from all
over the continent. But with Fiat’s fortunes continuing to slide at the start of the
new century, the Agnelli family – owners of the company – put the Grassi up for
sale, and it seemed likely that it would become yet another swanky hotel. Into
the breach stepped the phenomenally wealthy François Pinault, chairman of the