Campo San Bartolomeo

One of the social hubs of Venice, this long and narrow and almost invariably crowded campo, named after the church of San Bartolomeo, has for its centrepiece a wonderfully genial bronze statue of Carlo Goldoni, whose comedies in Venetian dialect still make the Venetians laugh. The campo has become even more crowded with the renovation of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi as a department store and cultural centre.

Salizzada Pio X leads from here to the Rialto Bridge. Long gone, however, is the sign once posted by the steps: ‘It is Forbidden to Spit on the Swimmers’. In the snowy winter of 1987, it briefly took on a new role: Venice’s only ski slope.

Practical Info

vaporetto Rialto