Italy · Toscana · Cities of art
the Venezia quarter, the navigable canals and the two fortresses
The Venezia of Livorno is not an affectionate nickname: it is a seventeenth-century quarter built inside the water by Venetian craftsmen, one of the few in Europe to have kept almost the whole of its original design. The canals are navigable, the palaces are reflected in them, and below street level run the cellars where goods arrived from the port without ever touching land. In the evening all this becomes a place where people eat: the tables come down onto the quaysides, the boats stay moored half a metre from whoever is having dinner, and above them people cross the brick bridges.
Sleeping
No one slept here: we arrived for dinner and left again during the night. The two entries below are therefore a collection, not a test.
never seen. The map gives it as free and without electricity, with drinking water and disposal for grey and chemical waste, and it is the closest one to the Venezia. Whether it works, and at what hours, is to be checked on the spot
it is the closest paid car park to the Venezia, ten minutes on foot from the bridges. Nobody has tried it yet with a vehicle our size: where you really leave a motorhome for dinner in the centre remains the thing to check about this page
Getting around
Seeing
Six things inside a quarter you cross in a quarter of an hour, and two fortresses at either end. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
Village · free entry · 43.55441, 10.30692
built in the seventeenth century by Venetian craftsmen to extend the city onto the water, it is one of the few merchant quarters of that period left almost intact in Europe. Navigable canals, bridges, palaces reflected in the water and cellars below street level, where the goods came in straight off the boat. All the photographs of that evening come from here
Castle · free entry · 43.55439, 10.31131
designed at the end of the sixteenth century by Bernardo Buontalenti and don Giovanni de' Medici, it is the emblem of the Venezia: surrounded by water on every side, today its walls enclose a public park you enter freely. The underground passages and the guided visits are paid for separately, and the park's hours change with the season: look them up before going
Castle · 43.55207, 10.30272
the sixteenth-century Medici fortress on the port, with its keep and its tower. It is seen well from the boat; to go inside, check the hours and the events, because it opens intermittently
Church · free entry · 43.55488, 10.30822
the Dominican church in the middle of the Venezia, octagonal in plan, with the dome and the bell tower rising above the roofs from whichever bridge you look. In the evening it stays lit and becomes the backdrop of half the quarter
Square · free entry · 43.55436, 10.30559
the square inside the quarter, along the side of the Bottini dell'Olio. It is where people eat outdoors in the evening, and it is also the address of the city museum
Museum · paid entry · 43.55496, 10.30631
Piazza del Luogo Pio, 57123 Livorno (LI)
it is inside the Bottini dell'Olio cultural centre, above the Biblioteca Labronica, and it tells the story of Livorno from its Medici foundation onwards. In August 2026 the museum is under maintenance and keeps shorter hours, Tuesday to Sunday 9:00 to 13:30: a phone call before going is worth it
Walk · free entry · 43.55307, 10.30742
one of the bridges over the Fosso Reale, inside the quarter. From here the line of moored boats runs away in both directions
Market · free entry · 43.55000, 10.31262
the Mercato delle Vettovaglie, on the Scali Saffi, just outside the Venezia: it is one of the largest covered markets in Europe and you see it from the canal as you pass by boat. You go there in the morning, not in the evening
When
for five evenings the quarter fills with concerts, shows, market stalls and street food, and the Fortezza Nuova becomes a stage. In 2026 it is the forty-first edition, from 29 July to 2 August
Remember
Livorno · part two
and then?
What to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Cacciucco is not just any fish soup: it wants at least five different kinds, one for each c in the name, and the toasted bread at the bottom of the plate is not a side dish but half the recipe.
Looking
7 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.