The streets of Venice cast their spells on thousands of visitors every year. From the day-trippers ticking St Mark’s off their bucket list to summer students here to study, from opera fans to art-lovers, everyone is searching for our own version of the city. But one thing unites us all; the paper map clutched in our sweaty hands. On the face of it, it’s a practical tool to (hopefully) stop us getting lost. But if you know how to read the map you’ll unearth the hidden history of long-lost canals, old trade districts and the now defunct red light district all from the street and bridge names. Here’s how to decode it.
Street names tell a story
Venice is a unique city. Not just because it was born and built on water. Or because daily life revolves around its canals, lagoon and the Adriatic Sea that laps at its edges. But because Venetians do things their own way. In everything.
Local wine is known as “ombra”, boat rowing is done standing up and the city was a republic long before the rest of Italy had rid themselves of monarchies and feudal duchies. And so it is with street names. So whilst Italian teachers tell us that the words for street and square are strada, via and piazza, in Venice you’ll find calle, rio terà and campo. And it’s not just down to different dialects, Venetian street names tell the story of how Venice developed.
The word calle for example doesn’t mean street but actually comes from the Latin, callis, meaning path as Venice’s islands were originally criss-crossed by paths across the muddy marshland. Even as late as the 18th and 19th centuries many of the city’s calli were still unpaved but you can easily tell which ones were the first ones to be laid in stone as they are now called salizade.
Rio terà is similarly suggestive combining two elements that led to Venice’s success – rio meaning canal and terà meaning land. Sounds confusing doesn’t it? But in true Venetian fashion it is wonderfully straightforward. So whilst maps of the city show its many rii or waterways, any streets labelled rio terà indicate just what the name suggests, an old canal that has been buried or filled in with earth. It was a practice used, in part, to expand the size of the little islets that made up the historic centre. And in some places you can still see the line in the paving where the canal side would once have been before the canal was filled over. But it also signposts a technique employed by the Napoleonic regime when it conquered Venice in 1797 as apparently the French emperor believed that filling in the canals would make the Venetians easier to control. Napoleon’s rule didn’t last long and the city’s canals thankfully persisted.
Another element of Venice’s wonderfully mysterious geography lies in the naming of its squares. Unlike most other Italian cities Venice only has one piazza and thats the one right at the centre of life; Piazza San Marco. Certainly there are other squares of similar or at least noteworthy size in Venice but nothing else has the epithet of piazza. In fact everything else is known simply as a campo, or field, as that’s what it would originally have been before they were paved over in the 19th and 20th centuries.
But Venice is not all about land.
It’s a city that grew out of the water gradually colonising the marshy islets of the lagoon, linking them together with bridges or ponti. And just as the roads and squares give away their origins, the bridges do too through their names. In fact the name of a bridge can conjure up a world lost to memories, its moniker the last remaining thread back to its origins.
Venice’s most famous bridges are the melancholy Ponte dei sospiri, or Bridge of sighs, and the majestic white marble Ponte di Rialto, or Rialto Bridge. And whilst the legends that surround them are fascinating, it’s the names of the little bridges scattered throughout the residential districts that give the most evocative glimpses of life hundreds of years ago.
Take, for example, the Ponte dei Pugni or Bridge – quite literally the bridge of punches. Linking the Campo San Barnaba with Campo Santa Margerita, its not a big bridge, or particularly pretty or ornate to look at. In fact it’s quite workaday as bridges go in Venice. But look down at your feet as you cross over it and you may just catch a glimpse of something glinting in the sunshine; inlaid marble imprints of a foot, one at each of the four corners of the bridge. The bridge used to be used as a boxing ring to settle fist fights between opposing districts and the aim was to wrestle or throw your opponent into the canal (the bridge didn’t have railings until much more recently). But as fights became fiercer the council stepped in to ban fighting in 1705 and so today the only reminder that remains are the four marble feet.
Venetians seem to like simple, descriptive, almost utilitarian bridge names. So the Ponte dei Bareteri, or bridge of hatters, was in the centre of the district where many milliners traded. The Ponte dei Lustraferi, quite literally the iron-shiners, was where artisans made, repaired and polished the many metal prows or ferri that adorn the front of all of Venice’s glorious gondolas. And the Ponte Storto, or crooked bridge is thus named because it crosses the canal like a crooked dog leg. But beware, in characteristically Venetian quirkiness there are at least two Ponti Storti in neighbouring districts and it’s not the only duplication in names so always check addresses once, twice and even three times before setting out!
But perhaps the bridge that creates the greatest stir is the Ponte delle Tette. Yes, its name does mean what it sounds like – the bridge of tits – and just as it suggests this is where some of Venice’s many prostitutes plied their wares. This wasn’t just a poetic name, however, the ladies really did bare their breasts to the passing public. And not just to advertise their business. They were required to do so by law to prove that they were real women and not cross-dressing or homosexual men who were forbidden to trade themselves. Once again, Venice was practical even in its debauchery and today giddy, giggling visitors come to take their selfies on the bridge of tits, little suspecting the true legal twist behind its titillating name.
If you think these bridge names are just anomalies, flights of fancy or curious one-offs, however, you’d be mistaken. Once you start translating bridge names you’ll realise just how wonderfully descriptive, practical and evocative they are. From the wax bridge next to the old candle maker to the butchers bridge that once led to the Rialto abattoir, or from oyster bridge where fishermen sold their catch to the bridge of straw where straw for beds and livestock was landed they all paint a vivid picture of a long lost daily life. Add in street signs in the still spoken Venetian dialect and walls stencilled with the parish church names and the old soul of Venice shines through the tourist throngs.
So whilst many of the old landmarks that once inspired all these street, canal and bridge names have moved, closed or been demolished, their ghostly shadows linger on just waiting for anyone with the curiosity to look closer. You’ll unearth secrets of laws, lewd behaviour and locals. You’ll hear echoes of lives lived and traders trading treasures. And you’ll have just a little taste of the old Venice. You just need to look beyond the shiny modern trinkets and postcards. So are you ready to explore? The real city treasure is right there beneath your feet just waiting to be discovered.
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