Buy tickets & tours:VivaTicket Hidden just behind the ornate façades of the Doge’s Palace, a short stroll from the crowds of Piazza San Marco, the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri) feels like a secret suspended over water. Many visitors arrive in the square without realizing that, only a few steps away, the pale, enclosed arch of the Ponte dei Sospiri quietly connects the Doge’s Palace with the former prisons across the narrow Rio di Palazzo canal. From the outside, the bridge looks like a delicate marble jewel-box balanced between two massive buildings. Inside, however, are narrow stone passageways that once carried prisoners from the palace’s interrogation chambers directly to their cells. This contrast between beauty and severity has made the Bridge of Sighs one of Venice’s most intriguing landmarks: at once a symbol of harsh justice and a modern icon of romance. Today, visitors can admire the Ponte dei Sospiri from the small bridges on either side of the canal or glide beneath it in a gondola. Short History of the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri) In the late 1500s, the city constructed a new complex of jail buildings, Prigioni Nuove, across the narrow Rio di Palazzo Read more [...]
Tag: Lord Byron in Venice
Caffè Florian
Caffè Florian is more than just a café, and can rightfully be considered a tourist attraction in itself. Located under the Procuratie Nuove arcades, in the St. Mark’s Square, the world’s oldest café still in operation has been a silent witness, for almost three centuries, of the joys and excitement of Venice. Famous names have passed the threshold of this café over time, and if we were to mention just a few, we could start very well with Casanova, the famous conqueror of hearts, continuing with the playwrighter Carlo Goldoni, Lord Byron or the poet Goethe, with the writer and politician Chateaubriand, Charles Dickens, or Marcel Proust, to end triumphantly with Modigliani. SHORT HISTORY The café opened its doors for the first time on December 29, 1720, under the name of Alla Venezia Trionfante, and soon after that received the name of its first owner, Floriano Francesconi. By the middle of the 19th century, Caffè Florian remained in the possession of the Francesconi family, and then changed its owners several times. In 1858, the café was completely restored by Lodovico Cadorin, with the help of the best Venetian artists and artisans. Since 1985, the cafe hosts the Venice Biennale, Read more [...]
