Stand on the Ponte della Paglia and Look Up
You come upon it from the waterfront, and for a moment you may not realise what you are looking at. The Bridge of Sighs — the Ponte dei Sospiri — crosses the Rio di Palazzo in white Istrian limestone, spanning the water between the Doge's Palace and the New Prison. It is the only covered bridge in Venice, fully enclosed, its south and north facades symmetrical over a single arch, the roofline topped with volutes. The best view of the exterior is from the Ponte della Paglia, and from there you can trace the details: the row of eleven sculpted heads along the molding of the lower arch, the central one a lion's head, reclining figures in the spandrels, and on the enclosed gangway two windows on each side, each with openwork in stone carved as four eight-leaf flowers, with the coat of arms of Doge Marino Grimani at the centre and the allegorical figure of justice above it.
Walk Through the Passage the Prisoners Took
The bridge was built soon after 1600 to ensure secure passage from the interrogation rooms and the court to the prison cells, and it was designed by Antonio Contin, nephew and pupil of Antonio da Ponte. Its interior is divided by a solid masonry wall into two parallel corridors, so that convicted prisoners would not meet those who were just going to be presented to the courts. One corridor was used by political prisoners, the other by common criminals. You enter it through the Doge's Palace, and the guided tour named Secret Itinerary takes you into the part of the palace where the city's administration worked, as well as Casanova's jail and the roof structure. Casanova escaped from the cells known as The Leads and describes the bridge in his memoirs.
See the Lagoon Through the Barred Windows
The enclosed gangway has two windows on each side, narrow and square, with heavy crossed iron bars. It is through these that the island of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Lagoon are visible. This was the look that the 19th century imagined as the last view of the outside world a convict saw before imprisonment — the notion of the Bridge of Sighs as a Romantic creation, and the source of the sighing in its name. The English name was bestowed by Lord Byron as a translation from the Italian, and his lines in Childe Harold — "I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs; / A palace and a prison on each hand" — fixed the image. What you are looking through is not a lover's window but a prison's.
Take a Gondola Beneath It at Sunset
From the water, the bridge reads differently: white stone over a narrow canal, the arch reflected below. Gondoliers once avoided crossing the Rio del Palazzo out of fear, and the Council of Ten kept the canal under watch, but the water is the best place to see the bridge whole. One of the characters in the 1979 film A Little Romance tells of a tradition that if a couple kiss in a gondola beneath the Bridge of Sighs at sunset while the church bells toll, they will be in love forever. The bridge has been borrowed many times since — H. H. Richardson used it as inspiration for part of the Allegheny County Jail complex in Pittsburgh, completed in 1888, with a similar enclosed arched walkway connecting the courthouse and jail.
When to Go, and What to See Nearby
Go in the quieter hours, when the Ponte della Paglia is not crowded and you can stand at the railing without being moved along. The bridge sits in San Marco, the historic seat of power, where the most spectacular sights are gathered: the Doge's Palace, Saint Mark's Basilica, the Clock tower with its restored astronomical clock, the Bell tower of St. Mark, and the Rialto Bridge across the Canal Grande. The Carnival of Venice takes place for two and a half weeks in January and February, with elaborate costumes and masks, and La Biennale di Venezia holds its Art and Architecture exhibitions in Castello at the Arsenale and Giardini. If you plan to visit three churches or more, the Chorus Pass is worth buying.
Start with the Doge's Palace, book the Secret Itinerary, and let the passage carry you from the court to the cell. Then step back out onto the Ponte della Paglia, look up at the white stone and the eleven sculpted heads, and take a gondola beneath the arch at sunset. Plan your days around the bridge, and let the rest of Venice arrange itself around you.