Giardinetti Reali (Giardini ex Reali)

The Giardinetti Reali of Venice
The tiny Royal Palace Gardens of Venice. (Photo by Jeremy Thompson)

The former Royal Gardens of Venice, just off Piazza San Marco

Venice's Giardinetti Reali as seen from the Camanile San Marco
Venice's Giardinetti Reali as seen from the Campanile San Marco. (Photo by r_lizzimore)
The Venice park hidden in plain sight: a pocket-sized garden wedged between Piazza San Marco (behind the Libreria Marciana and Procuratie Nuove) and the Grand Canal.

As the name implies, this patch of pergola-shaded pathways and benches; locust, laurel, beech, and oleander; and goldfish-filled fountains ringed by its own tiny canal once belonged to Napoleon's royal palace, and were laid out by Eugène Beauharnais in the late 1800s.

Before then, it had served as a 14th century gondola yard, medeival granery, and a prison (it held Genoese prisoners during the 1380s War of Chioggia).

It is now zipped past by many visitors—it is right at the San Marco-Giardinetti vaporetto stop, behind that annoying line of little souvenir kiosks you are probably ignoring. Plus, a few years ago they moved the main tourist office into the cupola'ed "Coffee House," a small pavillion at the western end of the park desiggned in 1815–17 by Lorenzo Santi.

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Giardinetti Reali
Giardini Ex-Reali, just south of Piazza San Marco (San Marco)
Vaporetto: San Marco-Giardinetti
Open daily
Free

Nearby sights, dining, hotels

Sights nearby
★★★ Piazza San Marco (square)
★★★ St. Marks' Basilica (church)
★★★ Palazzo Ducale (palace)
★★★ Grand Canal (sight)
Campanile di San Marco (bell tower)
Museo Civico Correr (museum)
Torre dell'Orologio (clock tower)
Bacino Orseolo (gondola parking lot)

Where to eat nearby
★★★ Bistrot de Venise [meal]
Da Aciugheta [meal/pizza]
★★ Osteria a la Campana [light meal]
★★ Vino Vino [light meal]
Rosticceria Teatro Goldoni [light meal/snack]

Hotels nearby
RR Hotel Danieli (splurge)
RR Hotel ai do Mori (moderate)
RR Hotel Violino d'Oro (moderate)
RR Hotel Metropole [premier]
RR Hotel La Residenza [cheap]
RR Foresteria Valdese [super-cheap]
RR Hotel Caneva [super-cheap]


» More hotels in San Marco from Booking.com

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Details
Giardinetti Reali
Giardini Ex-Reali, just south of Piazza San Marco (San Marco)
Vaporetto: San Marco-Giardinetti
Open daily
Free

Nearby
Sights nearby
★★★ Piazza San Marco (square)
★★★ St. Marks' Basilica (church)
★★★ Palazzo Ducale (palace)
★★★ Grand Canal (sight)
Campanile di San Marco (bell tower)
Museo Civico Correr (museum)
Torre dell'Orologio (clock tower)
Bacino Orseolo (gondola parking lot)

Where to eat nearby
★★★ Bistrot de Venise [meal]
Da Aciugheta [meal/pizza]
★★ Osteria a la Campana [light meal]
★★ Vino Vino [light meal]
Rosticceria Teatro Goldoni [light meal/snack]

Hotels nearby
RR Hotel Danieli (splurge)
RR Hotel ai do Mori (moderate)
RR Hotel Violino d'Oro (moderate)
RR Hotel Metropole [premier]
RR Hotel La Residenza [cheap]
RR Foresteria Valdese [super-cheap]
RR Hotel Caneva [super-cheap]


» More hotels in San Marco from Booking.com


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