Very often English guide books lump Santa Croce in with San Polo as if the two were twins, both encircled by the giant loop of the Grand Canal. Santa Croce has its own very distinct identity and history, however, and if you arrive in Venice by train you cannot miss it. As you leave the low-rise Mussolini-era Ferrovia di Santa Lucia 1 , you step out onto a broad 1930s piazza created after the demolition of the old Convent of Santa Lucia. On the other side of the Grand Canal rises one of the most distinctive churches in Venice. San Simeon Piccolo with its looming copper roof took twenty years to build (1718-38) and was one of Venice’s last major churches to be completed. Its enormous green dome causes it to resemble the Karlskirche in Vienna.
Santa Croce was for a long time the poorest of Venice. It was marshy and barely above the level of the waters of the lagoon. During the 11th century, it was administered by a
