Parco delle Rimembranze

Venice

　　At the eastern limit of the Giardini Pubblici, on the island of Sant'Elena, this memorial park is planted with umbrella pines, each originally commemorating a fallen WWI soldier. It's a tranquil spot with postcard views of the Bacino di San Marco. Families gather here to sit on the benches, roller...

Chiesa di San Pietro Martire

Venice

　　Take a pause from glass shopping to check out The Baptism of Christ, attributed to Tintoretto, in 16th-century St Peter the Martyr's Church. The parish museum has the usual collection of religious art, vestments, processional artefacts and reliquaries. Of more interest is the extraordinary 17th-century panelling in the sacristy, featuring...

Scuola Grande di San Rocco

Venice

　　Everyone wanted the commission to paint this building dedicated to St Roch, patron saint of the plague-stricken, so Tintoretto cheated: instead of producing sketches like rival Veronese, he gifted a splendid ceiling panel of the saint, knowing it couldn't be refused, or matched by other artists. This painting still crowns...

Chiesa della Madonna dell’Orto

Venice

　　This elegantly spare 1365 brick Gothic church remains one of Venice's best-kept secrets. It was the parish church of Venetian Renaissance painter Tintoretto (1518–94), who is buried in the chapel to the right of the altar. Inside, you'll find two of Tintoretto's finest works: Presentation of the Virgin in the...

Fondazione Querini Stampalia

Venice

　　In 1869 Conte Giovanni Querini Stampalia made a gift of his ancestral 16th-century palazzo (mansion) to the city on the forward-thinking condition that its 700-year-old library operate late-night openings. Downstairs, savvy drinkers take their aperitivi (pre-dinner drinks) in Carlo Scarpa’s modernist garden, while the museum's temporary exhibitions, art-filled salons and...

Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta

Venice

　　Life choices are presented in no uncertain terms in the dazzling mosaics of the Assumption Basilica. Look ahead to a golden afterlife amid saints and a beatific Madonna and Child, or turn your back on them and face the wrath of the devil gloating over lost souls in an extraordinary...

Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia

Venice

　　Never mind the doge: insatiable curiosity rules Venice, and inside the former Fondaco dei Turchi (Turkish Trading House) it runs wild. The adventure begins upstairs with dinosaurs and prehistoric crocodiles, then dashes through evolution to Venice's great age of exploration, when adventurers such as Marco Polo fetched peculiar specimens from...

Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli

Venice

　　This magnificent church was built between 1481 and 1489 to house Nicolò di Pietro's Madonna icon after the painting began to miraculously weep in its outdoor shrine. Aided by public fundraising, Pietro and Tullio Lombardo's design used marble scavenged from slag heaps in San Marco and favoured the human-scale of...

Torcello

Venice

　　Torcello, the republic's original island settlement, was largely abandoned due to malaria and now counts only around 14 permanent residents. Its mosaic-clad Byzantine church, the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, is Venice's oldest. ...

Chiesa di Sant'Alvise

Venice

　　Don't be fooled by the bare brick exterior of this 1388 church, attached to an Augustinian convent. Inside it's a riot of colour, with extraordinary trompe l'œil ceiling frescoes and massive canvases all around. Look out for Tiepolo's La salita al Calvario (The Road to Calvary), a distressingly human depiction...

Chiesa di Santa Maria Formosa

Venice

　　Originally built as a thatch-roofed wooden church in the 7th century, Santa Maria Formosa was refashioned by Mauro Codussi in 1492 with new baroque curves that make good on its name (literally 'Buxom St Mary'). The curious moniker is said to derive from a vision of the Madonna appearing in...

Burano

Venice

　　Burano, with its cheery pastel-coloured houses, is renowned for its handmade lace, which once graced the decolletage and ruffs of European aristocracy. These days, with a couple of notable exceptions, much of the lace sold in local shops is imported. Still, tourists head here in droves to snap photos of...

Murano

Venice

　　Murano has been the home of Venetian glass-making since the 13th century. Today, artisans continue to ply their trade at workshops dotted around the island. To learn about local manufacturing traditions and view a collection of historic glass, visit the Museo del Vetro. ...

Piazza San Marco

Venice

　　This grand showpiece square beautifully encapsulates the splendour of Venice's past and its tourist-fuelled present. Flanked by the arcaded Procuratie Vecchie and Procuratie Nuove, and two of the city's top sights – Basilica di San Marco and Museo Correr – it's filled for much of the day with admiring tourists....

Museo Ebraico

Venice

　　This museum explores the history of Venice’s Jewish community and showcases its pivotal contributions to Venetian, Italian and world history. Opened in 1955, it has a small collection of finely worked silverware and other objects used in private prayer and to decorate synagogues, as well as early books published in...

Trattoria al Gatto Nero

Venice

　　Don't expect fancy tricks from this 'Black Cat' – just excellent, traditional fare. Once you’ve tried the homemade tagliolini (ribbon pasta) with spider crab, whole grilled fish and perfect house-baked biscuits, the ferry ride to Burano seems a minor inconvenience – a swim back here from Venice would be worth...

Schola Levantina

Venice

　　Sometimes called the Turkish Synagogue, the Schola Levantina was founded in 1541 as the first to serve the Ghetto's Sephardic community. Its renovated 17th-century interiors are often attributed to Baldassare Longhena. It's not usually open to the public. ...

Campanile

Venice

　　Basilica di San Marco's 99m-tall bell tower has been rebuilt twice since its initial construction in AD 888. Galileo Galilei tested his telescope here in 1609 but modern-day visitors head to the top for 360-degree lagoon views and close encounters with the Marangona, the booming bronze bell that originally signalled...

Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro

Venice

　　One of the most beautiful buildings on the Grand Canal, with a lacy Gothic facade, 15th-century Ca’ d’Oro is resplendent even without the original gold-leaf details that gave the palace its name (Golden House). Baron Franchetti (1865–1922) bequeathed this treasure-box palace to Venice, packed with his collection of masterpieces, many...

Ponte di Rialto

Venice

　　A superb feat of engineering, Antonio da Ponte’s 1592 Istrian stone span took three years and 250,000 gold ducats to construct. Adorned with stone reliefs depicting St Mark and St Theodore on the north side and the Annunciation on the other, the bridge crosses the Grand Canal at its narrowest...

Museo del Merletto

Venice

　　Burano's Lace Museum tells the story of a craft that cut across social boundaries, endured for centuries and evoked the epitome of sophistication reached during the Republic's heyday. Lace-making was both a creative expression and a highly lucrative craft, although the skill was nearly lost several times as handmade lace...

Rialto Market

Venice

　　Venice’s main market has been whetting appetites for seven centuries, with fruit and vegetable stands abutting the rather more pungent Pescaria. To see it at its best, arrive in the morning along with the trolley-pushing shoppers and you’ll be rewarded with pyramids of colourful seasonal produce like Sant’Erasmo castraure (baby...

Museo del Vetro

Venice

　　Since 1861, Murano’s glass-making prowess has been celebrated in Palazzo Giustinian, the home of bishops of Torcello from 1689 until the diocese's dissolution in 1805. Upstairs, eight rooms have beautifully curated displays of objects dating back to the 5th century BC. Back downstairs, rotating contemporary glass exhibits are on show...

Basilica dei SS Maria e Donato

Venice

　　Fire-breathing is the unifying theme of Murano’s medieval church, with its astounding 12th-century gilded-glass apse mosaic of the Madonna made in Murano’s fornaci (furnaces) and the bones of a dragon hanging behind the altar. According to tradition, this beast was slayed by St Donatus of Arezzo, whose mortal remains also...

Chiesa di San Sebastiano

Venice

　　Antonio Scarpignano’s relatively austere 1508–48 facade creates a sense of false modesty at this neighbourhood church. The interior is adorned with floor-to-ceiling masterpieces by Paolo Veronese, executed over three decades. According to popular local legend, Veronese found sanctuary at San Sebastiano in 1555 after fleeing murder charges in Verona, and...

Museo Correr

Venice

　　Napoleon pulled down an ancient church to build his royal digs over Piazza San Marco, and then filled them with the riches of the doges while taking some of Venice's finest heirlooms to France as trophies. When he lost Venice to the Austrians, Empress Sissi remodelled the palace, adding ceiling...

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Venice

　　After losing her father on the Titanic, heiress Peggy Guggenheim became one of the great collectors of the 20th century. Her palatial canalside home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, showcases her stockpile of surrealist, futurist and abstract expressionist art, with works by up to 200 artists, including her ex-husband Max Ernst,...

Ca' Rezzonico

Venice

　　Baroque dreams come true at this Baldassare Longhena–designed Grand Canal palazzo (mansion), where a marble staircase leads to a vast gilded ballroom and sumptuous salons filled with period furniture, paintings, porcelain and mesmerising ceiling frescoes, four of which were painted by Giambattista Tiepolo. The building was largely stripped of its...

Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute

Venice

　　Baldassare Longhena's magnificent basilica is prominently positioned near the entrance to the Grand Canal, its white stones, exuberant statuary and high domes gleaming spectacularly under the sun. The church makes good on an official appeal by the Venetian Senate directly to the Madonna in 1630, after 80,000 Venetians had been...

The Ghetto

Venice

　　In medieval times this part of Cannaregio housed a getto (foundry), but it was as the designated Jewish quarter from the 16th to 19th centuries that the word acquired a whole new meaning. In accordance with the Venetian Republic’s 1516 decree, by day Jewish lenders, doctors and clothing merchants were...

Gallerie dell'Accademia

Venice

　　Venice's historic gallery traces the development of Venetian art from the 14th to 19th centuries, with works by all of the city's artistic superstars. The complex housing the collection maintained its serene composure for centuries until Napoleon installed his haul of art trophies here in 1807 – looted from various...

Palazzo Ducale

Venice

　　Holding pride of place on the waterfront, this pretty Gothic confection may be an unlikely setting for the political and administrative seat of a great republic, but it's an exquisitely Venetian one. Beyond its dainty colonnades and geometrically patterned facade of white Istrian stone and pale pink Veronese marble lie...

Basilica di San Marco

Venice

　　With a profusion of domes and more than 8000 sq metres of luminous mosaics, Venice's cathedral is unforgettable. It was founded in the 9th century to house the corpse of St Mark after wily Venetian merchants smuggled it out of Egypt in a barrel of pork fat. When the original...