Discover the Hidden Gem of Italy: Your Ultimate Guide to Chioggia
The “Little Venice” is, together with the Serenissima, the pride of the Venetian lagoon. Chioggia lives by its light with its 49 thousand inhabitants, who have profitably learned to coexist with the many tourists ready every year to storm the jewel at the mouth of the Adige and visit the archipelago that offers hints of pure poetry as soon as you enter the primordial Adriatic scrub contained by the Bosco Nordio nature reserve.
The history of Chioggia
Chioggia’s historical origins can be traced back to 2000 BC, when the Pelasgians took the place of a human settlement destined to gradually emancipate itself from Roman dominance.
We have a lot of archaeological discoveries and studies to back up this chronological identification, as well as a classic “spatial organization” of the town centered on a geometric grid, a “cardo” and a “decumanus” scheme inherited from the Decima Regio.
During the time of the Romans, there were a lot of salt pans from which a lot of salt was taken and put on the market for economic reasons. In the Middle Ages, Chioggia benefited from the stability of a new and long-lasting government: the Republic of Venice. The Republic of Venice was a collection of prosperous urban centers that forced Chioggia to leave in 1797.
Only after the third war of independence was Chioggia finally annexed by the newly formed Italian state, under which we now live.
What to see in the center of Chioggia and surroundings
In terms of morphology, this lagoon treasure is difficult to describe. Yet there is someone who has been able to draw an exhaustive profile, and this someone has the face, heart, and pen of Carlo Goldoni, who interprets it as follows in his famous “Baruffe chiozzotte“:
“Chiozza is a beautiful and rich city twenty-five miles away from Venice, also planted in the lagoons, isolated but made Peninsula by a very long wooden bridge, which communicates with the mainland […].”
A melting pot of remarkable architectural frameworks, “campi” (for campi we mean squares, not fields), “calli,” and canals, Chioggia is the island of palaces and churches that jump from one bank of Canal Vena to the other, crossed by a total of nine bridges, including the magnificent Ponte Vigo.
From Ponte Vigo, you can get to the beautiful Palazzo Grassi, which is home to the Giuseppe Olivi Museum of Adriatic Zoology. This museum is open to the public and shows the marine environment of the Adriatic, including a basking shark that is 8 meters long.
The main church is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (Duomo), which is dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo. The sober exterior (where we can find a symmetrical facade and the fourteenth-century bell tower 64 meters high) contrasts with the overwhelming beauty of the interior, dotted with decorations, altars, canvases, and bas-reliefs, not least counting the magnificent organ of 1,617 barrels by Gaetano Callido. Near the cathedral stands the former convent of San Francesco, which houses the Civic Museum of the South Lagoon, in which the evolutionary phases of the city are highlighted.
People come to the Basilica of San Giacomo Apostolo to see the “zocco,” which is a piece of the bloody wooden trunk on which the Virgin Mary sat when she appeared to the gardener Baldassarre Zalon in 1508 when the icon of the Madonna della Marina was found. Mary was dressed in black, and the dead Christ was on his knees.
To this beautiful sacred diptych are added other ecclesiastical examples, which are the Church of the Holy Trinity (built in the 18th century to replace a dilapidated architectural structure of the 16th century), the Church of San Domenico (dating back to the 13th century but radically modified between the 18th and 19th centuries), and the Church of Sant’Andrea, besieged by visitors for its tower, which sports the oldest clock in the world, built by the Dondi family in 1386.
Events, festivals and demonstrations in Chioggia
There are many events that bring out popular folklore, starting with the carnival in February or March, depending on when Easter is. In May, the Popular Festival dedicated to Mary Help of Christians takes place in the Salesian oratory. The Palio della Marciliana takes place in June and includes a historical reenactment set in the Middle Ages, as well as processions and competitions between districts.
Also in June, the bluefish festival takes place in Sottomarina; finally, in July, the Fish Festival offers 4 food stands where, of course, the treasure of the sea stands out.
Chioggia also includes events that are pure amarcord: in 1979, it was here that an episode of the legendary “Games without Frontiers” was filmed; in 1984, the film “Fotografando Patrizia” was set there, directed by the director Salvatore Samperi; in 1990 the Festivalbar made a stop.
Where to eat
The town is small but filled with restaurants and bacari (where you can eat bites and drink Prosecco and Spritz), but we would like to recommend only a few places. The first is Ristorante Garibaldi, not cheap but with great fish and seafood dishes. Another great place to eat is Ristorante El Gato, where, like Garibaldi, you pay a (fair) high price and eat excellent stuff. If you want to save money, we recommend ristorante Aurora and Il Bersagliere, both of which have a very cozy atmosphere and are reasonably priced.
How to get Chioggia
By car from Milan, take the A4, exit at Padova (industrial area), and take the SS516 towards Piove di Sacco, Chioggia, and Sottomarina; from Bologna, it is well to take the A13 exit at Padova Sud, and take the SS516 for Chioggia and Sottomarina. By train, use the Andria-Loreo-Chioggia railway line. The nearest airport is Venice, connected to Piazzale Roma by bus.