Ponte delle Guglie

In front of you runs the Cannaregio Canal, the widest in the city after the Grand Canal. Today trains and cars arrive over the Ponte della Libertà, but before the railway opened in 1846 this canal was the great water gateway from the mainland: boats laden with goods from Mestre and the rivers of the Veneto came in this way. The district's very name, Cannaregio, is traditionally linked to this canal.

1A bridge with its own name

There was a wooden bridge here from 1285. The present stone bridge was built in 1580, as its inscriptions record. It has been restored several times and, according to studies of Venetian bridges, it was during the 19th-century works that it gained the spires, the guglie, that give it its name. It is the only bridge in Venice decorated this way. Look at the grotesque heads on the keystone: Venetians put them on bridges and doorways to ward off evil.

2Fondamenta and rio terà

The stone quays lining the canal are called fondamenta, because they rest on the foundations of the houses. And the wide street coming from the station is a rio terà: an old canal filled in with earth. Whenever you read "rio terà" on a nizioleto, picture the water that once flowed there.

From here, a narrow lane through a covered passage leads to the Ghetto. Look for it on the fondamenta, just a few steps away.

3What to look for

• The four guglie at the ends of the bridge.
• The carved heads on the arch.
• The inscriptions recording the dates of construction and restoration.