A perfect way to uncover the back canals and secret campos of Venice is to buy a Chorus Pass and use it as a tool to create a random visit to this unique city.
A simple mandate like “Just do it,” is difficult to follow for tourists who have no idea of where to begin. The Chorus Pass provides just enough structure and a collection of specific destinations to facilitate discovery.
This tourist pass covers entrance to 16 churches tucked in every sestieri (neighborhoods) of Venice — San Marco, Castello, Dorsoduro, Cannaregio, San Polo and Santa Croce. These churches range from the iconic, must-see Franciscan masterpiece of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari touted in every guidebook of Venice as a must-see to hidden San Pietro di Castello in the far reaches of the city now almost abandoned by tourists.
Using this collection of churches to guide the exploration of Venice is far better than simply following a guidebook and treading along the same route as thousands of other tourists. Choosing one’s own path to each church takes anyone intent on squeezing the most out of their visit across tiny bridges forgotten even by many locals, through narrow alleyways where people take turns passing and past hidden gardens never mentioned in basic guidebooks to Venice.
Will you get lost? Of course! That is part of the joy and a given for anyone walking through Venice’s tiny streets. Any visitor who winds their way through the twisting and turning calle from church to church will come across the city’s vaunted history and find some if its most important artworks.
Every church has its own history and each of these churches have free hand outs in multiple languages that guide visitors to the artistic treasures adorning the precious interiors. From a point of view of someone focused on visiting some of the most moving paintings of Venetian masters, the Chorus Pass is hard to match.
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is the final resting place of the painter, Titian, and the acclaimed sculptor, Canova. Here hangs Titian’s Assumption (right), the largest altarpiece in Venice. Just to this massive painting’s right stands the world-famous sculpture by Donatello of St. John the Baptist that portended the rise of realism during the Renaissance. In a side chapel hangs another altarpiece triptych by Bellini (Titian’s teacher and one of the first great Venetian artists).
San Pietro di Castello was built on the spot where legend says St. Mark found shelter during a storm and where an angel predicted that he would be buried in Venice. This church, at the eastern end of Venice, was the main cathedral for the city from the 11th century until St. Mark’s replaced it in 1807. This shift in the headquarters of the Venetian church came almost a thousand years after Venetian merchants stole the relics of St. Mark from Egypt and at the very end of the Venetian Republic when the Doge and his consiglieri had the center of the church conveniently moved next to their palace.
Paolo Veronese’s ceiling painted in San Sebastiano — inspired by the Book of Esther — is called by many experts his personal equivalent to the artwork covering the Sistine Chapel. The altarpiece features the Madonna and Child with San Sebastian (right). A visit into the sacristy allows visitors have a real close-up of Veronese’s talent, since the ceiling is so low. He spent 25 years painting this church, which was his parish church. He is buried here as well. This unassuming church in the far reaches of the Dorsoduro neighborhood seems commonplace on the exterior, but is breathtaking once visitors pass through the doors.
Santo Stefano, that presides over Venice’s second largest campo, only a short walk from St. Mark’s Square, has an intricately decorated wooden ceiling that has been compared to hull of a ship turned upside down on the top of this church. The altar at Madonna dell’Orto (left) is dominated by two massive paintings by Tintoretto depicting the Last Supper and the Adoration of the Golden Calf.
Besides the churches themselves, the path between each of the churches through the warren of streets and alleyways is an experience in itself. 
Visitors waking from Sant’Alvise (right) to San Giobbe through the sestriere of Cannaregio will walk through the old Jewish ghetto. Here, back in 1516, the Jews were settled when the Venetian Great Council allowed Jews to remain in the city indefinitely since they were intricately involved in the business functions of trade and banking and also provided many of the best doctors in the area. The name of these islands where the community lived were Ghetto Vecchio and Ghetto Nuovo — the name ghetto eventually spread to denote any area where people were forced to live apart from the main population.
The walk from San Giovanni Elemosinario (left) in the middle of the market besides the Rialto Bridge to San Giacomo dall’Orio passes nearby Ca’Pesaro, the city’s museum of modern art; Fondaco dei Turci, which houses the Natural History Museum; and Palazzo Mocenigo, a restored palace donated to the city of Venice from the family that provided the Republic seven doges. Along this walk in the neighborhoods of San Polo and Santa Croce, the tiny calle and rios are some of the smallest and most labyrinthine in the city.
This column only mentions about half of the churches that are part of the Chorus Pass collection and discusses only a touch of the history and art that are represented within the sacred walls. When combined with the treasure trove of history to be found in Venice, using these houses of God as destinations combined with 
a good guidebook will provide a wonderfully random road map to learning the history and discovering secrets of Venice.
Chorus Passes can be purchased at any of the 16 member churches for Euros 9 for adults and Euros 18 for a family pass for two parents and kids 18 years old and younger. Students with ID can purchase passes for Euros 6.
The Chorus Pass is included in the All Museum Pass sold at the vaporetto ticket offices — The Venice Card. It can then be picked up either at the airport when arriving or downtown at the main bus station. It costs €39.90 for adults 30 and older and €29,90 for those from 6 to 29 years of age.
I’m not sure that the All Museum Card is the best bet. The Civic Museum Card for €18 plus the Chorus Pass for €9 plus entrance to the Accademia for €7.50 comes to a total of €34.50. That’s a lot of museum entrances. Buying these piecemeal can actually save money, especially for those over 65 or students who can get various discounts that vary at each museum.
Each pass is good for one year.
[Updated Aug. 6, 2011. Some comments are from earlier versions of this post.]
