Squero di San Trovaso

In the Dorsoduro sestiere, a short walk from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Squero di San Trovaso has been active since the 1600s and remains, together with the Squero Tramontin, one of the few working yards where Venetian gondolas are still built and repaired. The wood-and-masonry building, with a shape recalling mountain houses, reflects the origins of its master boatbuilders and timber, both arriving from the Cadore region along with the tradition of lagoon shipbuilding. The roughly half-hour guided visit is led by a master boatbuilder who tells the yard's history and explains each stage of the work, from choosing the wood to shaping the hull, still done entirely by hand without machinery.