Monument to the Partisan Woman
Venice
Located in the lapping water just along from the Riva dei Sette Martiri – where seven Venetian partisans were publicly executed by the Nazis in 1944 –…
Must-see attractions in Venice
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…
Venice
The wooden cupola of the 1575 Italian Synagogue protrudes above private apartments at the centre of the Ghetto's main square. The Italians were the…
Venice
Glowing colours and all-seeing eyes fill this treasure box of some 80 Byzantine-style icons made in 14th- to 17th-century Italy. Keep your own eye out for…
Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands
Literally overshadowed by Torcello's famous basilica, to which it's connected by a colonnaded walkway, this interesting round Byzantine-style church dates…
Basilica di San Pietro di Castello
Venice
As interesting as it is, St Peter's would be lucky to scrape into the top 10 of Venice's most impressive churches. Yet it served as the city's cathedral…
Venice
Maritime madness spans 42 rooms at this museum of naval history, featuring scale models of Venetian-built vessels as well as Peggy Guggenheim's not-so…
Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands
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…
Chiesa di San Raffaele Arcangelo
Venice
The neighbours called, and they want their grime back: when centuries of accumulated dirt were removed from the stone angels above the portals of…
San Polo & Santa Croce
This stately Grand Canal palace – designed by Domenico Rossi and completed in 1728 – has been commandeered by Fondazione Prada, which is renovating the…
San Polo & Santa Croce
Built by Bartolomeo Bon between 1489 and 1508 to house the remains of its titular saint, beautiful St Roch's Church received a baroque facelift between…
San Polo & Santa Croce
Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni (1707–93) mastered second and third acts: he was a doctor’s apprentice before switching to law, which proved handy when…
Venice
This attractive iron-framed greenhouse was built in 1894 to house the palms used in Biennale events. It rapidly expanded into a social hub and a centre…
Venice
Occupying a large palazzo with views over the Giudecca Canal, this beautiful new space for contemporary art was lovingly restored by the Russian V-A-C…
Venice
This wooden cabin on the Rio di San Trovaso looks like a stray ski chalet, but it’s one of Venice's few working squeri (shipyards), with refinished…
Giudecca, Lido & the Southern Islands
Tucked away in an old industrial complex, this fascinating contemporary-art gallery has long championed local artists, such as Mariateresa Sartori, but it…
Giudecca, Lido & the Southern Islands
Situated at the northeastern end of the Lido, this wide, sandy beach is arguably the island's best. It's popular with Venetian families and there are…
Venice
Grand Canal palaces rank among the world’s most desirable real estate, and multi-coloured marble marvel Ca’ Dario casts a mesmerising reflection, which…
Venice
This 16th-century church with its facade stacked with muscular caryatids – which the celebrated art critic Ruskin thought ‘the most monstrous example of…
Venice
Seventeenth-century backpackers must have thought they’d died and gone to heaven at this magnificent confraternity clubhouse, dedicated to Our Lady of Mt…
Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands
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…
Venice
A dream made real, San Salvador was conceived in the 7th century when Jesus appeared to a sleeping Bishop Magnus and pointed out on a lagoon map the exact…
Giudecca, Lido & the Southern Islands
Eugenio Miozzi’s angular, Rationalist ‘Palace of Cinema’ was in keeping with the ambitious modernism of the early 1930s, when business tycoon and Fascist…
Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands
From 1468 until the 18th century, this tiny island served as a quarantine station. Merchants waited out their 40-day exile in one of the 100 cells that…
Venice
A retrofit designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano transformed Venice’s historic salt warehouses into art galleries. Although the facade…
Venice
Flourishes of carved stone like icing across the 1660s facade of this church, dedicated to Moses, make it appear positively lickable, although 19th…
Giudecca, Lido & the Southern Islands
Four female saints were venerated in the original AD 890 church here, but Saints Dorothy, Tecla and Erasma weren’t as popular as early Christian martyr…
San Polo & Santa Croce
Travellers pass modest St Paul's Church (founded in the 9th century) without guessing that major dramas unfold inside. Under the carena di nave (ship's…
Giudecca, Lido & the Southern Islands
The Lido is no longer the glamorous bolthole of Hollywood starlets and European aristocracy that it once was, but its groomed beaches, scattering of art…
Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands
Sixteenth-century St Martin's Church, with its worryingly wonky 53m-high campanile (bell tower), is worth a peek for Giambattista Tiepolo’s 1725 La…
Chiesa di San Giovanni in Bragora
Venice
This serene 15th-century brick church harmonises Gothic and Renaissance styles with remarkable ease, setting the tone for a young Antonio Vivaldi, who was…
San Polo & Santa Croce
Slinging fresh fish daily for 700 years and still going strong, Venetian fishmongers are more vital to local cuisine than any single chef. Glistening fish…
Venice
This plain almshouse is often overlooked in favour of the extravagant Jesuit church opposite. But the 12th-century Order of the Cross that founded it to…
Venice
This perfectly preserved 17th-century spezieria (pharmacy) illustrates how Venetian medical advice was dispensed three centuries ago, with curatives in…
Giudecca, Lido & the Southern Islands
As well as a poignant collection of patients' before-and-after photos, this small museum contains the full paraphernalia of psychiatric treatment of the…
Venice
One of Venice's most photographed sights, the Bridge of Sighs connects Palazzo Ducale to the 16th-century Priggione Nove (New Prisons). Its improbable…
Giudecca, Lido & the Southern Islands
Designed by Palladio in the late 16th century and built after his death, the Zitelle was a church and almshouse for orphans and poor young women (zitelle…
Venice
Built by Doge Vitale Falier in the 11th century, Chiesa di San Vidal got a 1706–14 Palladian facelift to commemorate Doge Francesco Morosoni's victory…
Giudecca, Lido & the Southern Islands
This overgrown graveyard was Venice’s main Jewish cemetery from 1386 until the 18th century. Tombstones range in design from Venetian Gothic to distinctly…
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…
