What is Chioggia known for?

Italy's second fishing port after Mazara del Vallo, with the wholesale market on Canale Vena operating before dawn six days a week. The 1378-81 naval war ended here with Venice's victory over Genoa and reduced Chioggia to a fishing and salt port for four centuries. Eight kilometers of fine sand on the lagoon's outer barrier, Bandiera Blu beach since 2005 and the summer outlet for the inland Veneto.

Chioggia is a comune in the province of Venezia, Veneto region of Italy, about 46 kilometers from Venezia.

Veneto · Venezia

Chioggia

Italy's second fishing port, on an island at the south end of the Venetian Lagoon, called Little Venice for the Canale Vena.

46 km / 29 mi

Nearest hub (Venezia)

47,630

Population

May–Sep

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Chioggia sitson a small island at the southern entrance to the Venetian Lagoon, twenty-five kilometers south of Venice and connected to the mainland and to its frazione Sottomarina by causeways. The Romans knew it as Clodia. By the eleventh and twelfth centuries it had grown into a salt-producing port, became a free commune in 1110, and gave its name to the Naval War of Chioggia in 1378-81, the conflict that ended Genoese rivalry with Venice and left Chioggia under the Serenissima for the next four centuries. The defeat reduced the town to fishing, salt and limited Adriatic trade. The fleet never left. Today the Port of Chioggia is the second fishing port in Italy after Mazara del Vallo, and the wholesale fish market off Canale Vena still opens before dawn. The street plan is a herringbone of calli running off Corso del Popolo, with three canals and the bridges that gave the town its Little Venice nickname. The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was rebuilt by Baldassare Longhena from 1623.

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Gallery

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Known for

Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
Cathedral founded in the eleventh century, raised to episcopal seat in 1110, rebuilt from 1623 to designs by Baldassare Longhena.
Canale Vena
Main canal of the centro storico, lined with fishing boats and crossed by nine bridges including the seventeenth-century Ponte Vigo.
Mercato del Pesce
Wholesale fish market on Canale Vena, open before dawn six days a week, the operating center of the Adriatic fleet.
Corso del Popolo
The single straight street that runs the length of the island, from Piazzetta Vigo to the cathedral, the spine of the herringbone street plan.
Sottomarina
Eight-kilometer beach on the lagoon's outer barrier, with sixty hotels and seventeen campgrounds, the seaside frazione of Chioggia since 1933.
Torre di Sant'Andrea
Romanesque bell tower next to the Chiesa di Sant'Andrea, with a clock mechanism documented since 1386, among the oldest still working in Europe.

When to visit

Best months · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May through September is the working season. June and early July bring warm Adriatic water and the long Sottomarina beach to capacity on weekends; mid-August fills it past comfort. The Sagra del Pesce on the third weekend of July puts the whole fleet on display along Canale Vena. September is the most balanced month: water still warm, hotels easing, the centro storico walkable. October through April is quiet. Sea fog can sit over the lagoon for days in winter, and acqua alta floods the lower calli at high tides between November and February. The fish market opens regardless. The view from Ponte Vigo at five in the morning, with the trawlers coming in, is what stays after the beach empties.