The Calatrava Bridge, the Habsburg-built avenue that links station to Rialto, and the treasures hidden among its souvenir stands.
Last updated August 14, 2026
In a nutshell: the Strada Nova is the city's only true 'street', a 1.5km avenue the Habsburgs laid out by burying canals - and the Calatrava Bridge is its controversial fourth crossing of the Grand Canal. Along the way: the baroque Scalzi, St Lucy's relics and the old Teatro Italia. Back to the Cannaregio overview or the northern canals.
Just upstream of the train station stands the Ponte della Costituzione, by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava - only the fourth bridge ever to span the Grand Canal, carrying pedestrians between the station and the bus hub of Piazzale Roma. It is widely disliked: in a city so rich in medieval and Renaissance architecture, the futuristic design grates on local sensibilities. Budgeted at €4 million, it ended up costing around €11 million by its delayed opening in 2008. Wheelchair users then found they could not cross at all, so an orb-shaped lift carriage was fitted on a track - it jammed almost immediately and was later taken away. The tempered-glass steps turn dangerously slick in the rain and are to be swapped for stone.
The Strada Nova is actually a recent arrival. When the Habsburgs took over in the 19th century, they found a city that moved by boat and set about giving it roads: in 1846 the railway first reached the city across a 3.6km rail bridge from the mainland; to speed passengers into the centre, they buried canals and tore down buildings to lay out the Strada Nova, a 1.5km avenue running from the railway terminus to the square of Santi Apostoli.
Walk the packed artery linking station and Rialto with your eyes open and you'll find real treasures among the souvenir stands. Right by the station, Chiesa degli Scalzi hides an outrageously ornate baroque interior; the Geremia e Lucia church preserves St Lucy's relics - she is the patron of eyesight; and the San Marcuola church guards an early Tintoretto. Nearby, the neo-Gothic Teatro Italia has had three lives - theatre, cinema, supermarket - and shoppers now queue at the deli counter that occupies the old stage, beneath lavish frescoes. The historic tavern Ca' d'Oro alla Vedova serves wine straight from the jug and is renowned for its meatballs; a little further on, San Felice, the canal-side church, holds another early Tintoretto, a St Demetrius in brilliant scarlet leggings. Just before the Rialto, duck left into the Corte del Milion, a courtyard where legend says Marco Polo once lived.