If you are in the area of the Ghetto, this extra stretch will be rewarding!.

Cross Ponte de Gheto Novo at its northeastern corner and the enclosure gives way to a long, straight canalside where the walk is allowed to slow down. Bars and restaurants line the water. The evening, whenever it arrives, is already provided for.

This slice covers the closing leg of Walk No. 17, the Ghetto Walk in Cannaregio – the longest of the seventeen. It runs from Fondamenta dei Ormesini along the canal to Campo dei Mori (POIs #22 and #23), and finishes at the church of Madonna dell’Orto (POI #25): a colourful eat street, four stone figures with an uncertain story, Tintoretto’s front door, and one of the finest Gothic church façades in the city.

An eat street on the water

Fondamenta dei Ormesini is a long, straight section, good for a relaxing stroll. It is also one of the most reliably colourful stretches in Cannaregio, with bars and restaurants strung along the canal in unhurried succession.

The walk’s two recommended stops sit along here: Al Timon (POI #20) and Il Paradiso Perduto (POI #21). Several other hospitality venues are worth considering as well, depending on your needs, your tastes, and the time of day.

This leg runs 340 metres before you leave the water, passing four bridges on the way. After 200 metres the fondamenta changes its name to Fondamenta de la Misericordia. The name changes; the tables do not.

Campo dei Mori: four figures and a painter

When you reach Calle Larga, turn left off the fondamenta and continue 70 metres to Ponte dei Mori. Cross the bridge into a narrow triangular campo where stone figures project from the brick walls. This is Campo dei Mori, once Tintoretto’s neighbourhood.

Four stone figures occupy the walls around the campo and the adjoining fondamenta (POI #23). Tradition identifies three of them as Rioba, Sandi and Afani, merchants from Morea associated with the Mastelli family; a fourth stands around the corner. The identification is an old one, but not a certain one. The family’s palazzo stands near the next stop on the walk, and is worth the short detour.

Tintoretto (d. 1594) lived just along the fondamenta at No. 3399 (POI #22). His house is a few steps from the campo; his parish church, as it happens, is only a few minutes further on.

To find the Mastelli palazzo, leave the campo heading north and cross the bridge. Bear right, and a little further along, on the other side of the canal you came from, you will see Palazzo Mastelli. Look for the distinctive relief of a man leading a camel on the right of the façade, opposite No. 3527.

Madonna dell’Orto: the Lady of the Vegetable Garden

Return towards the church of Madonna dell’Orto (POI #25), where you will find one of the finest examples of a Gothic church façade in the city. Bartolomeo Bon designed the portal, which was completed after his death. A statue of St. Christopher crowns it, and the twelve apostles occupy the niches of the side wings, flanking the rose window at the centre.

The church began as ‘San Cristoforo’, established in the mid-14th century by Fra’ Tiberio of the Humiliati, a religious order. Its familiar name came later, from an unfinished statue of the Madonna and Child by the sculptor Giovanni de Santi. Placed in the garden of his house – an orto – it became an object of popular devotion, and in 1377 it was transferred to the church. Structural problems prompted a major rebuilding campaign from 1399, and work continued through much of the fifteenth century, producing the present façade and its elaborate portal.

The church then changed hands repeatedly. The Humiliati were expelled from Venice in 1462 for various transgressions, and the Canons of San Giorgio in Alga took over, enriching the church with many works of art. That order was dissolved in 1668, and the Cistercians followed, leaving in 1787. Decline set in: the church became an oratory in 1810, and the complex was used as a stable and storage facility. In 1841 the Austrian government ordered a general restoration. The work proceeded unevenly, and the building served for a time as a military store; restoration resumed in the 1860s, and the church reopened near the end of that decade.

After the flood of 1966, Madonna dell’Orto became Venice in Peril’s first restoration project. The first phase ran from 1968 to 1970, with further research and conservation continuing through the following decade.

Inside Tintoretto’s parish church

The church has a history of reusing fragments from earlier rebuilds, and the interior is no exception. Look for the lovely Greek marble columns, their capitals salvaged from the original church.

From 1547 this was the parish church of Jacopo Tintoretto, and he and several members of his family are buried here. The church holds an exceptional group of his works. ‘The Adoration of the Golden Calf’ and ‘The Last Judgement’ (c.1563) flank the altar. ‘The Presentation of the Virgin’ (c.1553) hangs above the entrance to the Cappella di San Mauro – painted across the outer faces of the organ shutters, it is now displayed as a single composition. The inner faces carried two further works now in the apse: ‘The Vision of the Cross to St. Peter’ and ‘The Beheading of St. Paul’ (both c.1556).

Other works to seek out include Cima da Conegliano’s ‘St. John the Baptist with Saints Peter, Mark, Jerome and Paul’ (1493–5, still in its original stone frame), Titian’s ‘Archangel Raphael and Tobias’, and Giuseppe Sardi’s monument to Girolamo Cavazza.

The statue that gave the church its name remains in the Cappella di San Mauro. Its rough, unfinished form belongs to the story of its creation. Giovanni Bellini’s ‘Madonna and Child’, painted around 1480, was stolen from the Valier Chapel in 1993; a reproduction now marks its former place.

Walking context

This article covers the final leg of Walk No. 17, the Ghetto Walk in Cannaregio, the longest of the seventeen walks.

Just before this slice, the route passes through the Ghetto itself (POIs #17–#18), the confined quarter established in 1516, whose gates were demolished soon after the French occupied Venice in 1797. From Madonna dell’Orto the walk ends, and you have a choice. Double back to Fondamenta de la Misericordia: Vino Vero for cicchetti and a glass, sullaluna for a table among the bookshelves, or Bacaro del Gelato for something colder. Continue along the canal to Fondamenta dei Ormesini for a full meal at Antica Mola or pizza by the slice from Da Zorma. Alternatively, take Calle Larga Piave through Campiello Piave and Ramo Terzo Piave, reaching the Orto vaporetto stop in 70 metres – from there, a vaporetto to wherever you want to go next.

The full route can be followed on the Cannaregio walking map.

Practical visitor notes

The fondamente of Ormesini and Misericordia suit an unhurried pace, and there are venues along the way for most needs, tastes and times of day.

Campo dei Mori and the streets around Madonna dell’Orto are quiet and residential. Keep voices low, keep doorways clear, and give the corner statues a moment before moving on.

Continue exploring

This slice closes the Ghetto Walk. The full route – beginning at Campo San Felice and passing through the Ghetto before arriving here – appears as Walk No. 17 in 17 Walks in Venice.

Campo del Ghetto Nuovo also features among the campi of The Fabric of Venice, which traces how the enclosed square was built upward when outward expansion was forbidden – and how, for all that, it settled into the familiar Venetian pattern of wells, trees and houses pressing close around an open core.