Venice doesn’t always require taking “un bagno di folla”

Anna Momigliano – NYT

Venice: Venice is so congested that it has become the embodiment of overtourism. Each year millions of tourists flock to this small city, home to a dwindling local population of 50,000, and the hordes in St. Mark’s Square are legendary. Yet visiting Venice doesn’t always require taking what Italians call “un bagno di folla” — a bath in the crowd. The city offers plenty of fascinating attractions spared from the congestion, in fact, some of them could use more visitors. Here are some ways travelers can minimize the inconveniences even while visiting the most popular sites.

Venice’s historical center (what most people think of when they think “Venice”) consists of six districts, or sestieri, but the worst crowds are confined to two: San Marco, home to the basilica, and San Polo, home of the Rialto Bridge. As soon as you roam a little farther, the hordes disappear and each of remaining four other sestieri has its own stunning art and history.

If you must pick one, the Dorsoduro district would be ideal. “It’s not crowded, and there’s so much to enjoy,” said Cinzia Trevisan, co-founder of Venice Guides for Sustainable Tourism. Her group promotes the idea that spreading tourism to broader areas of the city would help make it more livable and enjoyable for all.

Ms. Trevisan suggests starting the Dorsoduro tour from the La Salute vaporetto stop. From there, you can visit the Basilica Santa Maria della Salute, built to celebrate the end of the 1630s plague and renowned for its exquisite Baroque facade. Only a five-minute walk away is the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (adults: 16 euros, or about $17.60). After that, Ms. Trevisan recommends walking 15 minutes more until you arrive at Campo Margherita, one of the largest, and some would say most authentic, plazas of the city, a favorite of local students and the ideal place to rest and grab a bite. Later, Venetian art enthusiasts can visit the Gallerie dell’Accademia (adults: €13), which houses a huge collection of paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and Canaletto.

The walkways of Venice might be overcrowded, but many of its museums are not. According to the city’s official record, each year over a million tickets are sold for St. Mark’s Basilica and for the Doge’s Palace, but lesser-known museums sell only a tiny fraction of that. One of the most charming is Palazzo Grimani, in the sestiere Castello (adults: €14). The palazzo was once the residence of the Grimanis, a noble family who dominated Venice’s political and cultural life throughout the Renaissance as devotees and avid collectors of Roman art. Today, visitors can enjoy the palazzo’s elegantly grandiose architecture, inspired by the Roman Renaissance, and a collection of about 120 statues dating back to ancient Rome. The main hall, Sala della Tribuna, is so rich in art and beauty that it’s almost overwhelming (and quite perfect for Instagram).

Though the name means “schools,” the Venetian Scuole are centuries-old mutual aid societies, hosted in marvelous palazzos and now open to the public.

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Back in their heydays in the 16th to 18th centuries, the Scuole governed most aspects of life — from education to social security — for Venetians who didn’t belong to the nobility or the clergy. Today, they mainly maintain the priceless art that adorns their headquarters, relying mostly on membership fees from locals and tickets from visitors. Visiting one or more Scuole can offer a unique experience for those who appreciate art and value ethical tourism. “Even in an age of overtourism, people can do their part and be of help. Visiting cultural institutions that need support is a good way,” said Stefano Croce, the other co-founder of Venice Guides for Sustainable Tourism and a member of the Scuola Dalmata.

There are dozens of Scuole, but three in particular are worth visiting, with tickets ranging from €5 to €10. The Scuola Grande di San Rocco, with its majestic marble facade, hosts some of Tintoretto’s finest works: the Sala Capitolare is considered Tintoretto’s Sistine Chapel. The smaller Scuola Dalmata is home to a collection of paintings by one of the masters of Venetian Renaissance, Vittore Carpaccio (the meat dish was name after the painter), including a famous canvas depicting St. George and the Dragon. Then in Dorsoduro, there’s the Scuola dei Carmini, whose ceiling is covered by canvas paintings by Tiepolo, dating to circa 1740.

Venice’s Jewish ghetto, one of the oldest in Europe, is a major tourist attraction, but for past few years, the Jewish Museum and many of the city’s shuls have been closed for renovations. Now open to visitors on the island of Lido is a lesser-known site, the Cimitero Antico, which was in use between the 14th and the 18th centuries.

The small cemetery is “like visiting a living testimony of centuries of Jewish life in Venice, and it’s much older than the ghetto,” said Marcella Ansaldi, art historian director of the Jewish Museum. The cemetery hosts the tombs of notable rabbis and poets, and a mass grave of plague victims. The cemetery can be visited only with reservations by emailing ghettovenezia@operalaboratori.com.

“People think that once you saw St. Mark’s and the Rialto, you’ve seen Venice. That perspective needs to change,” said Mr. Croce, the guide. Yet it’s understandable that travelers don’t want to miss the best-known attractions. For St. Mark’s Basilica, you can buy a “skip the line” ticket that is well worth the price of €9: “line skippers” have a separate Bell Tower entrance. The Doge’s Palace also has a fast-track entry (€30), and any ticket to the palace provides free entry to the nearby Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, a library that offers a quiet refuge after a crowd bath.

Speaking of un bagno di folla, remember that the vast majority of tourists in Venice are day-trippers. According to the city’s official records, “only” 5.5 million tourists stayed overnight in 2019, the majority of them foreigners, but Ca’ Foscari, Venice’s main university, estimates that yearly tourist influx is close to 20 million, because so many Italians (and international visitors vacationing in nearby Veneto beach resorts) take day trips to Venice. Most of them reach the city, either by train or by boat, in the midmorning. This means that in the early hours, Venice is devoid of crowds. No need to wake up at dawn: 9:30 a.m. is the ideal hour to roam around the Rialto Bridge and the St. Mark’s area.