St Mark’s Basilica and other Venice, Italy Things to Do Tips

St Mark’s Basilica, a superb example of the Romanesque-Byzantine style with five cupolas, was built to house the body of the St Mark the Evangelist.
The facade features five portals decorated in splendid marbles and mosaics, and with a terrace dividing it into two halves.
On the terrace stand Four Horses of gilded copper (copies - the originals are now preserved inside) that were sent from Constantinople to Doge Enrico Dandolo in 1204.
Splendid mosaics in the atrium relate the stories of the Bible. The imposing interior in the form of a Greek cross contains a wealth of paintings and sculptures. Of particular interest are mosaics of Veneto-Byzantine origin, some of them reconstructed from drawings by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.

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Directions: At Piazza San Marco

One of the landmarks of Venice is the Bell Tower adjacent to the basilica that was once a lighthouse for ships. At the foot of the tower is a 16th century loggia by J. Sansovino.

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Directions: Piazza San Marco

St Mark’s Square is called a piazza and not a campo to distinguish it from the other squares and to emphasis its singular beauty - it is quite unique as a place for strolling about in and as a gathering place. Occupying the present area since the 12th century, in 1264 the square was paved in herringbone pattern bricks: this was in fact the original paving style that used to line the streets and squares of Venice. The present-day Euganean trachyte paving stones date from 1723. Enclosed on three sides by the arcaded buildings of the Procurators, it was once a remarkable showcase for feasts, ceremonies, tournaments and fairs.
You find many tourist feeding doves here - though they have become a pest, and it is recommended that you leave them alone!

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Directions: Piazza San Marco

Completed in the 16th century, this stone bridge on wood piling was built to replace a wooden bridge and an earlier pontoon bridge that once was the only link between the two banks of the Grand Canal.
The shops lining the central passageway make it particularly picturesque.

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Address: Ruga degli Orefici

The bridge was constructed in the 17th century with two internal passageways. The bridge leads to the New and Old Prisons, the latter called pozzi (wells).
A little window looks out over the Basin of St Mark offering a picturesque view of the Island of San Giorgio.

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Directions: San Marco

The first occasion of Palladio’s intervention in the Lagoon capital was the design of the new façade for the church of San Pietro in Castello, patriarchal cathedral of Venice. Palladio probably obtained this prestigious commission thanks to Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro, who are recorded as the guarantors of the contract with the masons in January 1558. The death of the patron, the Patriarch Vincenzo Diedo, caused works to halt two years after they had begun, but they would resume at the end of the century under the direction of Franceso Smeraldi. The present façade, therefore, does not follow Palladio’s project exactly, but is faithful to its essential lines, in particular the fundamental theme of the intersection of a major order (corresponding to the nave) and a minor one (corresponding to the aisles), successfully realised at San Francesco della Vigna a few years later.

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Address: Castello 70, Campo San Pietro

Erected on a plan by Giorgio Massari between 1726 and 1735 and commissioned by the Domenican Order to substitute the little church that still stands nearby, this church features important works that make it a good example of the development of art in Venice in the course of the 18th century.
Four of the most renown artists worked here: G.B. Tiepolo, J. Tintoretto, G. Morlaiter and S. Ricci.

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Address: Fondamenta delle Zattere ai Gesuati

The Grand Canal is Venice's most important waterway. It forms one of the major water-traffic corridors in the city. Running through most of the city, it "starts" from the lagoon at the train station, makes a large S-shape through the central parts of Venice, and ends by the Canal of San Marco at Piazza San Marco.
Because most of the city's traffic goes along the Canal rather than across it, there are only three bridges: the Ponte dei Scalzi, the Ponte dell'Accademia and most famously the covered Rialto Bridge. A fourth bridge is being constructed across the Canal, the Piazzale Roma Footbridge.

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Directions: Right in the heart of Venice from Piazza Roma to Piazza San Marco

One of the most important museums in Italy with an extraordinary collection of works by the greatest exponents of Venetian painting, including Giorgione, G. Bellini, Carpaccio, and J. Tintoretto to name but a few.
The gallery premises were formerly owned by the Confraternity of St Mary of Charity and it was one of the six great guildhalls of Venice.

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Address: 1050 Campo della Carità
Website: www.gallerieaccademia.org

Built in the 13th century, the Fontego dei Turchi is one of the most interesting palaces on the Grand Canal.
Purchased in 1381 by the Duke of Ferrara, it was used from 1641 as a warehouse by Turkish merchants trading in the lagoon. Gradually falling into a state of disrepair as commerce declined, it was restored to its former splendour thanks to the interest of the poet and art critic John Ruskin, at the beginning of the 19th century.
The rooms on the second floor house the Museum of Natural History (temporarily closed for restoration) with an interesting collection regarding the lagoon’s fauna and flora.
The collection of shells and fossils is curious as are the herbs and ornithological and ichthyologic collections.

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Address: 1730 Salizada del Fontego
Website: www.museiciviciveneziani.it