Cannaregio
Within the northernmost section of Venice, Cannaregio, you pass
from one urban extreme to another in a matter of minutes, the time
it takes to escape the hubbub of the train station and the hustle
of the Lista di Spagna - the tawdriest street in Venice - and into
the backwaters away from the Canal Grande. There may no longer be
any signs of the bamboo clumps that were probably the source of the
sestiere's name (canna means "reed"), but in all of Venice you
won't find as many village-like parishes as you'll see in
Cannaregio, and in few parts of the city are you more likely to get
well away from the tourist crowds.
Imprisoned in the very centre of Cannaregio is the
Ghetto , the first area in the world to bear that name, and
one of Venice's most evocative areas. The pleasures of the rest of
Cannaregio are generally more a matter of atmosphere than of
specific sights, but there are some special buildings to visit too:
Madonna dell'Orto , with its astonishing Tintoretto
paintings; Sant'Alvise and the Palazzo Labia , the
first remarkable for canvases by Giambattista Tiepolo, the second
for the same artist's frescoes; the Ca' d'Oro , a gorgeous
Canal Grande palace housing a fine collection of paintings and
carving; and the Gesuiti , a Baroque creation in the
northeastern part of the district which boasts perhaps the weirdest
interior in the city.
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