Chiesa di San Giovanni in Bragora

This serene 15th-century brick church may keep a straight face, but inside the place looks lively with Bartolomeo Vivarini’s 1478 Enthroned Madonna with St Andrew and John the Baptist, which shows the Madonna bouncing a delighted baby Jesus on her knee. Bartolomeo’s nephew Alvise Vivarini shows Jesus in later years in his splendidly restored 1494 Saviour Blessing, with a cloudlike beard and eyes that seem to follow you around the room. This church harmonises Gothic and Renaissance, ancient and avant-garde styles with apparent ease, setting the tone for a young Antonio Vivaldi, who was baptised here.