Ca’ d’Oro

Along the Grand Canal, you can’t miss the stunning 15th-century Ca’ d’Oro, its lacy Gothic facade resplendent even without the original gold-leaf details that gave the palace its name (‘Golden House’). Ca’ d’Oro was donated to Venice with an impressive art collection by Baron Franchetti (of Palazzo Franchetti fame). Today it houses these works in the 2nd-floor Galleria Franchetti, plus a jackpot of artwork downstairs plundered from Veneto churches during Napoleon’s Italy conquest. Napoleon had excellent taste in souvenirs, as the 1st floor reveals: bronzes, tapestries, paintings and sculpture ripped (sometimes literally) from Veneto churches were warehoused at Milan’s Brera Museum as Napoleonic war trophies, until they were reclaimed by Venice for display here. Collection highlights on the 2nd floor include Andrea Mantegna’s teeth-baring, arrow-riddled Saint Sebastian altarpiece, Pietro Lombardo’s tender Madonna and Child in glistening Carrara marble, and pieces of Titian frescoes along with a faded but still sensuous nude fresco fragment by Giorgione saved from the outside of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. A big incentive for visiting are the photo ops along the loggia balconies over the Grand Canal, with arty angles through lacy stonework.