Accademia Museum

The Gallerie dell’Accademia is the place to see Venice through the eyes of centuries of famous Venetians. The museum has a huge collection of paintings from the Byzantine and Gothic eras through the Renaissance and into the 18th century (including many of Canaletto’s paintings that helped draw travelers here from around the world). Before you visit, watch the Katharine Hepburn film Summertime, which has some great scenes filmed in the museum in the 1950s.

Have you been here? Tell us about it below!

Have you been here? Tell us about it below!

The Gallerie dell’Accademia’s Sala dell’Albergo is one of the latest masterpieces in this storied institution to receive a top-to-bottom restoration. Restoration efforts, which wrapped up in 2012, focused on the room’s 15th-century wooden ceiling, ornate with carvings and gild. The room is also decorated with works by master painters such as Titian, Giampietro Silvio, and Girolamo Dente. The newly restored room within the Gallerie dell’ Accademia stands on its own, worth the visit.

Vittore Carpaccio painted a series of 9 paintings in the 15th Century, that currently live inside the Accademia Gallery in Venice. One of his most famous canvas’s, The Arrival in Cologne canvas, underwent conservation treatment in Rome throughout 2013 between Save Venice Inc., the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro in Rome, and the Venetian Superintendency’s Misericordia Laboratory.

The Gallerie dell’Accademia, located quite close to the Rialto along the Grand Canal, offers a sweeping look at nearly hundreds of years of Italian art, including works by Tintoretto and Titian. Not to be missed.

What sets Context Travel’s tours of Venice apart from other tour companies is that all of their walking and boat excursions around the city are led by scholars and specialists. Depending on what program you choose, you may be led around the city by a professor specialized in Venetian history; or an expert in the culinary delights of the Veneto region. These tours are aimed at travelers wanting to leave with a good store of knowledge about the city. In fact, they even refer to their excursions as walking seminars, not tours. Where foodies might enjoy their annotated seminars about Veneto food and wine; history buffs will appreciate instructional walking excursions while learning about Renaissance Venice, or the Doge’s Palace and the political whims of the Venetian Republic. They even have entertaining family tours for those traveling with young children.