Wide canal, the bank opposite
Giudecca
Giudecca is the bank opposite, cut off from Venice by a canal wide enough to change the pace of the city. You arrive by water bus and, once you step off, the palaces that were behind you are in front of you.
The wide canal
The Giudecca Canal does not behave like a flooded lane. Boats sit across it in more than one line, and the gap between the banks is a matter of minutes, not of steps.
Mid-crossing you have the Zattere on one side and the long walls of the island on the other. The wind has room here.
Fondamenta and courts
On the island you can walk a long time without changing direction. The fondamenta runs on, the doors belong to houses and workshops, and now and then a gate shows a garden or a court.
There is no route you have to finish. It is an edge. Follow it until a church or a boatyard tells you the scale, then walk back to a stop.
Looking back
People get off here for the view toward Venice, not to tick a monument. San Marco sits far off, small and exact, and the basin opens to the side.
From this bank the Zattere become a line of walking and of trees. Noise is lower here. Over there the city keeps on.
Evening on the canal
Toward evening the light hits the Giudecca facades and leaves Venice in silhouette, or does the reverse, depending on the month. The Redentore reads clearly from the water, a pale mass toward the end of the island.
Take the boat along the canal and stay outside if a bench is free. The stops are few and spaced out. Missing one means a long walk on the fondamenta, nothing worse, and the next boat comes back along the same edge.