Dorsoduro Private Tour: gondola makers, the Salute and art

We start on the wooden bridge, with its view down the Grand Canal toward the Salute, then look at the Gallerie dell'Accademia, the great collection of Venetian painting. A visit inside can be added and planned with you.

This unfinished 18th-century palace was bought by Peggy Guggenheim in 1949. She lived here for about thirty years with her collection of modern art, opened it to visitors from 1951, and her ashes rest in the garden. The museum has been run by the Guggenheim Foundation since 1980.

After the plague of 1630 the Republic vowed a church to the Virgin. Baldassare Longhena won the competition, and building began in 1631. Every 21 November Venetians still cross a temporary bridge over the Grand Canal for the Festa della Salute. In the sacristy hang works by Titian and Tintoretto's Marriage at Cana.

At the tip of Dorsoduro, the sea customs house built by Giuseppe Benoni between 1678 and 1682 is crowned by two Atlases holding a golden globe with Fortune, who turns with the wind. Restored by Tadao Ando, it reopened in 2009 as a contemporary art space.

The sunny promenade along the Giudecca Canal takes its name from the rafts that once unloaded timber here. On it stands the church of the Gesuati by Giorgio Massari, with ceiling frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo completed by 1739.

One of the few boatyards where gondolas are still repaired and, now and then, built. Its wooden houses look Alpine because the first craftsmen came from Cadore, in the Dolomites. The squero dates back to the 17th century and is not open to the public: we watch from across the Rio di San Trovaso.

Longhena began Ca' Rezzonico in 1649 and Giorgio Massari completed it around 1750; today it is the museum of 18th-century Venice. Nearby, Campo San Barnaba and its canal-side boats lead us inland.

We end in the lively campo of the university quarter. At its corner, the Scuola Grande dei Carmini, with a façade by Longhena, keeps Tiepolo's ceiling paintings of 1739–1749.