The Cannaregio Canal and the Tre Archi bridge, rowing lessons in a batellina, and the quiet Fondamente Nove at sunset.
Last updated August 14, 2026
In a nutshell: the Cannaregio Canal runs from the fish stalls past grand palazzi to the Tre Archi bridge, the city's last triple span; you can learn the gondolier's stroke with Row Venice, and the Fondamente Nove is the quietest promenade in the city. Back to the Cannaregio overview or the Strada Nova.
Begin on the Fondamenta Cannaregio, at the fish stalls where sellers hawk the morning catch, and follow the water north past taverns, trattorias and grand palazzi. The Palazzo Surian Bellotto, a 17th-century palace of the noble Surian family, later lodged the thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Just beyond rises the 16th-century Tre Archi bridge, the sole surviving triple-arched span in the city; cross it and head right to the canal's top end, where Ca' Foscari students attend classes in the old municipal abattoir, Ex Macello Comunale. When the sky is clear the eye travels across the lagoon's northern reaches to the jagged Alps. Walking back down the far bank, you pass San Giobbe, its sober Renaissance lines by Pietro Lombardo, with a chapel whose vault is crusted with Della Robbia ceramics; from time to time a little weekend market of second-hand goods appears in the churchyard. For a break, pause at the waterside Al Parlamento bar or pass the green railings into Parco Savorgnan, a big, shady park that locals adore.
Want to try the gondolier's stroke yourself? Row Venice runs private 80-minute sessions for as many as five people, children included, setting out from the marina at Sacca della Misericordia into Cannaregio's wide, peaceful northern canals; a lesson for one or two people costs €100. You'll be at the oars of a batellina, the shrimp-tailed Venetian boat, picking up the voga - the standing rowing technique of the gondoliers. When the open lagoon beyond is calm - usually in winter or late on weekday afternoons - stronger rowers can ask to glide out onto the water. Or go for the extended Cichetto Row - 135 minutes, with a pair of bar stops en route.
At the sestiere's northern edge, the long quay of Fondamente Nove is the city's quietest waterside promenade, a threshold where Venice melts into the open lagoon. San Michele, the island cemetery, stands just offshore, its cypresses pointing at the sky; further out, Murano and Burano shimmer on the horizon, with the peaks of the Dolomites behind them. Strolling the 950m strip takes about 20 minutes, but it's worth settling at a bar beside the vaporetto landing as dusk paints the lagoon pink.