Chiesa di San Zaccaria — iDidier Descouens (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Ready-made walk · Venice

Curious Venice: Snail Stairs and Book Staircases

5 stops · ~1 hr · 2.4 km

Weird & Unusual

Venice’s stranger stories, from the Piazzetta’s columns, where Saint Theodore stands on a dragon, to San Zaccaria and the bookshop whose unsold encyclopedias became a staircase. Meet the Gobbo di Rialto, once kissed by punished thieves, and finish at the spiral “snail” stair of Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo.

The stops, in walking order

iDidier Descouens (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Stop 1: Chiesa di San Zaccaria
~15 min here
San Zaccaria is a large church whose stone façade brings together late Gothic forms and early Renaissance design.
iJanmad (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Stop 2: Columns of San Marco and San Todaro
~3 min here
The Colonna di San Teodoro is the tall stone column carrying Saint Theodore, the warrior saint shown standing on a dragon.
iDidier Descouens (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Stop 3: Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo
~3 min here
Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo is a small Venetian palace whose defining feature is the large spiral stair tower attached to its exterior.
iDidier Descouens (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Stop 4: Il Gobbo di Rialto
~3 min here
Il Gobbo di Rialto is a stone sculpture beside the old church of San Giacomo, made up of a kneeling figure and a column stump.
iGodeNehler (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Stop 5: Libreria Acqua Alta
~3 min here
Libreria Acqua Alta is a bookshop where Venetian art, local history, fiction, comics, and many other kinds of reading matter share the same crowded setting.