What to do and see in Venice, Veneto: The Best Sights & Landmarks

It is said that Napoleon called San Marco "the drawing room of Europe." And it is a breathtakingly beautiful place. But the square has long been a lure for massive numbers of pigeons, drawn by the massive numbers of tourists who readily feed them. While the tourists happily post for photos amid the flock, there are concerns that the birds' presence--and what they leave behind--will damage the centuries old architecture and art work.

The tallest spiral staircase of Venice is a perfect synthesis of different architecture styles (Renaissance, Gothic and Venetian-Byzantine). It was commissioned by Pietro Contarini in late 1400 as a decorative element of the adjacent family's Palazzo. Even today there are several hypotheses about the authorship of the manufacturer. The monument can be considered a unique architectural jewel in the lagoon, the new Renaissance expression that was establishing in the city. The Scala is connected to the palace by three floors lodges. At the top there is the Belvedere with a wonderful view of Venice, from here you can see the domes and the Campanile di San Marco, the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, and even the Teatro la Fenice.

The Scuola Grande di San Rocco is a lay confraternity founded in 1478. The popularity of the cult of St. Roch, whose remains had been in the possession of the brotherhood since 1485, contributed to the latter’s rapid expansion to the extent of it becoming the richest Scuola of the city. At that point it was decided to build a new monumental headquarters and engage Tintoretto to decorate it with his most celebrated pictorial cycle, illustrating episodes from the New and Old Testaments. It is the only one of the historic Scuole Grandi to have survived the fall of the republic. It is a unique site, where over 60 paintings are preserved in their original setting in a building that has hardly undergone any alteration since its construction. The confraternity is still active today, carrying out its traditional charitable duties as well as looking after its extraordinary artistic patrimony.

This historic bridge connects the Doge's Palace with its prisons and was named for the condemned prisoners who crossed it to meet their executioners.

Immerse yourself in Venice's Age of Decadence with a visit to this lavish palace of the Venetian aristocracy Rezzonico, which houses an unsurpassed collection of eighteenth-century Venetian art.

Blending the architectural styles of East and West, Venice's magnificent basilica was consecrated in 832 AD as an ecclesiastical building to house the remains of St. Mark.

This 14th-century clock stands on the north side of St. Mark's Square,and is known by its large clock face displaying the hours of the day, phases of the moon and movement of the sun through the signs of the Zodiac.

A masterpiece of Gothic architecture, the building and its sculptural decoration date from various periods. The interior, with works by artists such as Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, A.Vittoria and Tiepolo, includes vast council chambers, superbly decorated residential apartments, and austere prison cells. Along the facades of the Palace run loggias that overlook St. Mark’s Square and the lagoon. The combined entrance ticket to the St. Mark’s Square Museums grants access to the Doge’s Palace, Museo Correr, Museo Archeologico Nazionale and Monumental Rooms of Biblioteca Marciana.

Originally built in the mid-13th century, Santa Maria Glorisoa dei Frari (St. Mary of the Friars) houses many masterpieces of Venetian Renaissance art, notably Giovanni Bellini's triptych "Madonna and Child with Saints," the "Assumption" and the "Pesaro Madonna" by Titian, Saint John the Baptist by Donatello.