Paradise, in Venice (Calle del Paradiso), is a narrow street that begins under a Gothic arch and runs between houses whose upper floors lean out over your head. From there, this slice of the Formosa Walk – Walk No. 10, in Castello – threads through parish lanes to two churches and two campi, covering POIs #6 to #11.
Along the way it passes the front door of a painter. It ends, quietly, at his grave.
Under the arch: Calle del Paradiso
Exit Campo Santa Maria Formosa on its eastern side, near the bell tower, and follow Fondamenta dei Preti. From Ponte del Mondo Novo, continue about sixty metres, crossing Ponte dei Preti. Turn left straight away, cross Ponte del Paradiso, and enter Calle del Paradiso.
The arch is the Arco del Paradiso, a late-Gothic passage at the northern end of the calle, decorated with the Madonna della Misericordia and the arms of the Foscari and Mocenigo families. It is often connected with the 1491 marriage of Pellegrina Foscari and Alvise Mocenigo, though its style deliberately looks back to an older Gothic language. It is worth a pause before you pass beneath it.
The calle itself holds a good example of the barbacani (POI #6): projecting brackets, many of them wooden, that support the overhanging upper floors and win a few extra square centimetres of space for the rooms overhead. In a city where land is scarce, that was a commodity worth building for.
Old houses on Salizada San Lio
After sixty metres on the calle, turn right into Salizada San Lio. Here the architecture reaches further back: medieval houses survive along the salizada, including two dated to the thirteenth-century at Nos. 5690 at Calle del Volto and 5662, near Calle de le Vele (POI #7).
Now for the quieter lanes. Keep a lookout on the left for the very narrow Calle del Cafetier, just after No. 5547, and take it. After fifteen metres, turn left into Calle dei Preti. The calle has an ‘L’ shape, so keep going to its end, then turn left into Calle de l’Oratorio, which curves to the right and becomes Calle de la Malvasia. On the way, an interesting vera da pozzo sits in Corte Perini, which you pass on the left.
Canaletto’s front door
Back on Calle de la Malvasia, at No. 5485, stands the former home of Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (1697–1768, POI #8).
After a brief period in Rome with his father, he returned to Venice and turned the Venetian view, or veduta, into a highly successful art for Grand Tour patrons. His views were sometimes treated as market pictures rather than as the highest Venetian painting. The market strongly disagreed: in 1762, George III bought Joseph Smith’s Canaletto holdings, including 50 paintings and 142 drawings.
What he left behind is a significant body of work: near-photographic records of scenes across the city. Others followed in the genre, including his nephew Bernardo Bellotto and Francesco Guardi, while Gabriele Bella recorded Venetian ceremonies and everyday life in his own manner.
Santa Maria della Fava
From No. 5499 onwards, keep a lookout for the sotoportego on the right, which leads to Corte Licini. Continue on Ramo Licini, and after twenty metres turn right into Calle Drio la Fava, which turns left after a few metres. Fifteen metres more and you emerge onto Campiello de la Fava, facing the church of Santa Maria della Fava (POI #9).
The church’s formal name is Santa Maria della Consolazione, though it is universally known as Santa Maria della Fava. A relatively recent addition to the city, the present church was begun in 1705 to designs by Antonio Gaspari, with later work directed by Giorgio Massari, and was completed in 1753. Its origins are older: the cult began with a miracle-working Madonna image associated with the Amadi family and nearby Ca’ Dolce, and a chapel was placed on the site by the Amadi in 1480.
Inside are works by Giambattista Tiepolo and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, who is buried here, along with statues by Giuseppe Bernardi, called il Torretto, an early teacher of Canova. The miracle-working image itself remains in the church.
Campo San Lio
To continue, head across the façade of the church to the northwest corner of the building, then north on Calle de la Fava. In fifty metres, you will be in Campo San Lio.
The church of San Lio (POI #11) is traditionally ninth-century in origin and was rededicated to Pope Leo IX in 1054. It was altered over the centuries and substantially transformed in 1783. The vera da pozzo in the campo out the front is dated 1572.
Inside, look for Palma il Giovane’s Dead Christ Supported by Saints and Angels (1615) in the main altar, and Titian’s St James the Greater, (c.1565). And here the slice closes its circle: Canaletto is buried in this church. The walk that passes his front door ends at his grave.
Before moving on, look up at the older façades around the campo. Some carry paterae – circular carved marble reliefs, often of animals, reused as decorative spolia on the city’s older buildings.
Walking context
This article covers the middle section of Walk No. 10, the Formosa Walk, in Castello.
The full walk begins at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia and circles Campo Santa Maria Formosa, taking in the church and its famously grotesque mascherone, before setting out along Fondamenta dei Preti toward this slice. From Campo San Lio, the route continues along the left side of the campo into Calle Carminati, crosses Ponte del Pistor, and works its way through a chain of sotoporteghi toward Campo Santa Marina.
The Formosa Walk connects nicely with Walk No. 9, the Vivaldi Walk, at its starting point, and the book suggests grouping it with the Miracoli and Pescaria walks for a compact inner-city circuit – 4.3 kilometres and more than seventy points of interest in all. The full route can be followed on the Castello walking map.
Practical visitor notes
Opening at Santa Maria della Fava can be irregular, so treat the interior as a possibility rather than a promise. POI #10 is on Campo de la Fava (just off the map slice above and is worth a stop (the Alle Corone restaurant located in the Hotel Ai Reali).
The lanes between Salizada San Lio and Campiello de la Fava are narrow and residential – Calle del Cafetier especially so.
Much of what this slice offers sits above eye level: the barbacani, the paterae, the carved arch. Look up often, but stop walking first.
Continue exploring
This Castello slice is one part of the wider Formosa Walk. Continue with the full route in 17 Walks in Venice, or pair it with its natural neighbours: the Miracoli Walk, which intersects this route near Calle Scaleta, and the Pescaria Walk.
The Gothic arch and the barbacani of Calle del Paradiso also feature in the tour of Campo Santa Maria Formosa in The Fabric of Venice, which explores how the city’s squares, churches, wells and neighbourhood life work together.