Budget · 3-hour walk · Venice
San Marco to the Accademia in three hours
The basilica and the palace, the Rialto, and the two bridges that cross the Grand Canal between them.
Venice has no cars, no cycling and about four hundred bridges, so three hours of walking here covers less ground and more city than anywhere else on this site. This route crosses the Grand Canal twice on foot, which is only possible at four points along its whole length. Go early: San Marco between ten and four in season is a queue with a square around it.
The route, stop by stop
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St Mark's Square
The only piazza in Venice; every other square is a campo. It floods first and most often, which is what the raised walkways are for.
20 min here Walk here → -
St Mark's Basilica
Free to enter with a booked slot, and the Pala d'Oro and the loggia horses are small extra tickets that are worth it.
30 min here Walk here → -
Doge's Palace
The Secret Itineraries tour gets you into the prisons and Casanova's cell, and has to be booked separately.
45 min here Walk here → -
Rialto Bridge
Stone since 1591, after three earlier wooden ones collapsed. The market on the far side runs mornings only and closes Sundays.
20 min here Walk here → -
Ponte dell'Accademia
A wooden bridge meant to be temporary in 1933 and still standing. The view down the canal to the Salute is the classic one.
15 min here Walk here →
More in Venice
Every walking route in Venice, or the full Venice guide for where to stay and what a day costs.