Venice's street address system

Making sense of the city's streets

Word to the wise: Take note of the many yellow directional signs high up on the city's buildings. If you get lost, these can help you get back to a familiar landmark.
Navigating Venice for the first time can be fiendishly confusing, thanks to its network of short, narrow, winding streets and an idiosyncratic address system which doesn't bother with house numbers.

The city is divided into six departments, or 'sestieres' - Dorsoduro, San Polo, San Marco, Cannaregio, Santa Croce and Castello. As a general rule, addresses are written with the street name, followed by the sestiere to which it belongs, and then the district number (not building number): for example, 'Calla della Rosa, Santa Croce 2232', where '2232' is the district code.
House numbers, although present on most buildings, are not used at all when listing addresses. Occasionally, though, the road is not listed either - eg. just 'Santa Croce 2232' - which often makes the place you're looking for near-impossible to find. If in doubt, pop into a bacaro and ask someone.