Venice kept its trades close to its churches, and its churches close to its bridges.

In one small corner of San Polo, the pattern is still legible: a guild hall with shoes carved over the door, a senator asleep in stone above a side entrance, and the house where the city’s great playwright was born.

This is the opening leg of Walk No. 6, the San Polo Walk – a short walk with a high payoff. The slice runs from the San Tomà vaporetto stop on the Grand Canal to Casa Goldoni at Ponte San Tomà.

From the vaporetto to Campo San Tomà

From the San Tomà vaporetto stop, follow Calle del Traghetto Vecchio for sixty metres and turn left into Calle del Campaniel. After forty metres, stop short of the bridge and turn right onto Fondamenta del Forner.

Continue along the fondamenta for forty metres. Ten metres before Calle del Cristo, look across the canal. There stands Palazzo Corner della Frescada Loredan, now better known as Ca’ Bottacin, a fifteenth-century Venetian palazzo later owned by the Corner and Loredan families. It served as the private residence of Doge Pietro Loredan prior to his dogeship, which lasted from 1567 to 1570.

Turn right at Calle del Cristo. After sixty metres, turn right again into Ramo dei Calegheri. Twenty metres on, you are in Campo San Tomà, POI #3 – and the name of the ramo has already told you what comes next.

The shoemakers’ guild

You arrive in the campo along the side of the Scuola dei Calegheri, POI #4, the hall of the shoemakers’ confraternity, founded in 1383 under the patronage of Saint Anianus. The guild bought this building in 1446, moving in after restoration works in 1478, just before Pietro Lombardo’s famous relief was added to the facade in 1479.

The doorway does the talking. On the lintel are three carved reliefs of shoes – advertising, done in stone. Above them sits a late-fifteenth-century lunette, often attributed to Pietro Lombardo, showing Saint Mark healing the cobbler Anianus – the guild’s patron saint, at work above its own door. Look closely: traces of the original colour survive.

Higher on the façade is one more piece of moved history: a fourteenth-century Madonna della Misericordia relief, with praying figures sheltered beneath the Virgin’s mantle. It came from the demolished church of Santa Maria dei Servi and was set here in 1928.

The church of San Tomà

Across the campo stands the church of San Tomà, POI #5. Its history is a Venetian layer cake: a church stood here by the tenth century, was renewed near the end of the fourteenth, enlarged in 1508, reshaped in the seventeenth century, then rebuilt from 1742 – and not consecrated until 1803.

It holds fewer artworks than many of the city’s churches, and it appears to be permanently closed. The interest is on the outside. The façade, designed by Francesco Bognolo in 1742, features niches holding statues of St. Mark and St. Theodore by sculptor Paolo Callalo. High above them, the crowning sculptural group dramatically captures Thomas’s incredulity.

Giovanni Priuli, asleep above a doorway

Walk around to the right side of the church, into Campiello del Piovan. Over the side door rests the sarcophagus of Giovanni Priuli, a senator and warrior of the republic who died in 1375.

It was not always here. When the façade was rebuilt, the tomb was moved from inside the church to this outdoor perch, where it has kept watch over the doorway ever since. At his feet lies a dog, the symbol of faithfulness.

Casa Goldoni

Continue to the northeastern corner of the campiello, and shortly after, you will find a bridge. Just before it, on the left, look for an ancient carved archway over a water entry, serving the building on Rio San Polo, with its matching land entrance beside it.

You have reached POI #7 – Casa Goldoni, the fifteenth-century Gothic palazzo Ca’ Centani. Carlo Goldoni was born here on 25 February 1707. His plays took the commedia dell’arte – the improvised theatre of masked, stock characters – and pushed it somewhere new, filling the stage with more topical and realistic figures drawn from the life of the city around him.

A commemorative statue of Goldoni stands elsewhere in the city, on the route of Walk No. 1.

Walking context

This article covers the opening leg of Walk No. 6, the San Polo Walk, in the sestiere of San Polo. It is one of the shorter walks in 17 Walks in Venice, but dense with points of interest.

Between the church and Casa Goldoni, there is an optional short diversion back to the Grand Canal for an excellent view, POI #6. From Casa Goldoni, the route crosses Ponte San Tomà into Calle del Nomboli, turns left into Rio Terà dei Nomboli, then right into Calle dei Saoneri, reaching Ponte San Polo and the southern approach to Campo San Polo.

The walk combines well with its neighbours: the Titian Walk, No. 5, and the Barnabotti Walk, No. 13, which passes Trattoria Honesta Dona just across the canal from the fondamenta at the start of this slice. This walk is drawn from the San Polo walk and you can find the main page for that district here.

Practical visitor notes

The church of San Tomà appears to be permanently closed, so plan to enjoy it from the outside. The campo and campiello are surrounded by homes; the sarcophagus sits above a working doorway, so keep voices low and step aside for residents.

There are good places to pause on this leg. Wisteria, near the corner of Fondamenta del Forner, offers fine dining. Just beyond the end of the slice, over Ponte San Tomà on Calle dei Saoneri, Trattoria Da Ignazio is a recommended stop.

Continue exploring

This slice is the beginning of the wider San Polo Walk. Continue with the full route in 17 Walks in Venice, or pair it with the neighbouring Titian Walk (No. 5) or Barnabotti Walk (No. 13) for a longer day in the western sestieri.

For more on how guilds, campi and parish churches shaped daily life in the city, see The Fabric of Venice.