10+ things to do in Venice if you love Rome

We have old stuff, artichokes, and delicious cream filled pastries too

I know that some of you are a little disappointed that I left Rome. I understand. I miss Rome too. It took a year for me to not catch my breath and get a little teary when I remembered that the Colosseum was not right outside my front door.¹ It also took me a year to really understand that I will miss Rome forever but I do not miss living in Rome. I love hearing boats from my bedroom window and now the Guidecca canal and a view of the Salute are right outside my front door. I have found the shop that sells the good guanciale from Arricia and I can make a very good Amatriciana at home. Best of all. Rome is an easy 4 hour train ride away from Venice. Come on up and see us!

In case you need some convincing I made you a list of things to do here in Venice if you love Rome.

If you love a Baroque sculpture

If Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in Santa Maria della Vittorio or the Ecstasy of Ludovica Alberton in the Chiesa di San Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere are your favorite Baroque sculptures in Rome then go see Heinrich Meyring’s version made in 1697 in the Church of the Scalzi. That is the church right next to the train station.

Need to see something ancient?

Venice at just over 1600 years old is younger than her Roman cousin who just celebrated their 2777th birthday. She has some Roman roots in her eclectic background. There were three Roman cities nearby on the mainland and Venice was founded by refugees fleeing Vandal invaders. Centuries later Roman sculpture was a symbol of prestige for powerful and noble families. The National Archaeological Museum of Venice is tucked inside the Palazzo Reale. Your combined ticket to the Doges Palace and the Museo Corer include this museum.

The Tribuna in Palazzo Grimani is also filled with ancient sculptures.

If you like a treasure hunt

In Rome I love hunting for spolia. If you have gone on a walk with me I have probably pointed out ancient columns embedded in walls or in the deli section of a grocery store. We have spolia here too. If you know where to look. Some of it is Roman. Most of it is Byzantine. Piazza San Marco is a good place to start.

We have something that Rome doesn’t have. Pateras. These are the round bas relief usually stone sculptures that are embedded into building facades. They are mostly Byzantine, from the 11th-13th centuries. Use this list for your DIY treasure hunt.

I have already told you about the Four Tetrarchs in Piazza San Marco and where to find embedded columns near the vaporetto stop.

We have a Jewish ghetto

In fact Venice is where both the first Jewish ghetto was and where the word comes from. In 1516 the Doge Leonardo Loredan decreed that Jews were to be restricted to a small section of Venice. What exact Venetian word ghetto came from is debated. You can take a guided tour that includes visits to some of the five Synagogues and the Midrashim. There is a museum too. There is even a Roman Jewish restaurant and a bakery.

I have this thing with floors

The Cosmati floors in Rome are spectacular. But have you seen the floors inside the Basilica San Marco? I am a big fan of the Carlo Scarpa designed floors at the Olivetti factory. I love the rough salt damaged pink and white marble that you see in many ground floors here in Venice that I put it in my own entryway. Venetian terrazzo is also wonderful.

If the Basilica San Pietro is your favorite church

We have one here too! The Basilica di San Pietro di Castello is at the far eastern end of town well past the Arsenale. It used to be the most important church in the Venetian Republic. Until 1807, the Basilica San Marco was the private church of the Doge and off limits to most Venetians. The Basilica di San Pietro di Castello was the city's cathedral. There has been a church in this location since 775 A.D and the current basilica dates back to the 1600s. Andrea Palladio drew the original designs but work was completed by the architects Francisco Smeraldi and Giovanni Grapiglia. Cross the wooden Quintavalle bridge over the Canale San Pietro and take a break under the leaning bell tower. Look for a small slab of white marble on the stone pathway leading to the church. That was the neutral space where the Doge and the Patriarch could meet.

Relics

You know I love a relic. In Rome I always take (drag?) visitors to see Saint John the Baptist’s head, San Carlo’s heart and the body of Santa Francesca Romana. My favorite Valentine’s day activity is to visit the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin to say hello to the saint’s skull that is decorated with flowers. Venice does not have nearly as many slightly ghoulish remains as Rome does but we do have some. The most famous are the relics of San Marco, the patron saint of Venice. His relics are behind the altar. You need to have a ticket that includes the Pala d’Oro. You can visit without the crowds with this after hours tour.²

Did you know that Venice has a second patron saint? San Rocco is also invoked against plague and knee problems. The church where you can visit his relics is next door the Tintoretto filled Scuola Grande di San Rocco. On August 16, the feast day of the saint, a long red awning is set up between the church and Scuola just like when the Doge used to come visit.

The train station in Venice is named after a saint, Santa Lucia. Look down after you take your picture of the green dome of San Simeon Piccolo. There is a plaque at the bottom of the stairs marking where the original church bearing her name once stood. It was demolished in the 1860s to build the station. Now her relics are nearby in the Chiesa di San Geremia.

Artichokes

Venetian artichokes are a completely different species than the enormous artichokes in Rome. The most special ones are the violet artichoke of Sant Erasmo. Small and spiky you can eat them raw, thinly sliced with wisps of parmesan as a salad or folded into pasta. As the season progresses they are cut into wedges and deep fried. They are available from March/April until June-ish. At the market look for white rounds soaking in lemon water. These are tondi di carciofi and they are braised in a similar way to carciofo Romano but without the wild mint.

Cream filled pastries

If you really need a Maritozzo, The Pasticceria Alla Bragora in Castello and the mini chain Majer often has a tray of them. A more Venetian pastry to try is a Krapfen filled with crema chantilly or crema pasticcera from one of these old fashioned bakeries; Dal Nonno Colussi near the Galleria Accademia, Pasticceria Tonolo, near Campo San Pantalon or Pasticceria Rizzardi near Campo San Polo. If you are visiting during Carnevale look for a Frittella alla crema chantilly.

When I am craving Pizza mortadella from Antico Forno Campo di Fori I head towards Rialto and get a few tiny mortadella sandwiches at Al Merca.

If you want to go back to the very beginning

Take a road trip (Or a boat and bus trip. The 25 bus will take you straight there from Piazzale Roma) and visit Altinum. This was a pre-Roman settlement that became a Roman town with a treaty between the Veneti and the Romans in in 225 BCE. There is a museum with the archeological artifacts from the ancient town.

Bonus Rome in Venice content

If you are in Venice before November 24th go to the Swiss pavilion and watch this video installation.

1. Ok, I might still get a little teary

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