Must see attractions in Giudecca, Lido & the Southern Islands

  • Top Choice

    Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore

    Begun in 1565 and completed in 1610, this dazzling Benedictine abbey church owes more to ancient Roman temples than the bombastic baroque of Palladio's…

  • Top Choice

    Fondazione Giorgio Cini

    In 1951, industrialist and art patron Vittorio Cini – a survivor of Dachau – acquired the monastery of San Giorgio and restored it in memory of his son,…

  • Le Stanze del Vetro

    Once part of a boarding school, 'The Glass Rooms' are now home to a constant flow of temporary exhibitions, all of them based on glass. Often the displays…

  • M

    Monastero di San Lazzaro degli Armeni

    Tours of this historic island monastery are usually conducted by its multilingual Armenian monks, who amply demonstrate the institution’s reputation for…

  • C

    Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore

    Built to celebrate the city’s deliverance from the Black Death, Palladio's Il Redentore was completed under Antonio da Ponte (of Rialto Bridge fame) in…

  • C

    Casa dei Tre Oci

    Acquired by the Fondazione di Venezia in 2000, the fanciful neo-Gothic 'House of Three Eyes' was built in 1913 by artist and photographer Mario de Maria,…

  • Galleria Michela Rizzo

    Tucked away in an old industrial complex, this fascinating contemporary-art gallery has long championed local artists, such as Mariateresa Sartori, but it…

  • Spiaggia di San Nicolò

    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…

  • P

    Palazzo del Cinema

    Eugenio Miozzi’s angular, Rationalist ‘Palace of Cinema’ was in keeping with the ambitious modernism of the early 1930s, when business tycoon and Fascist…

  • C

    Chiesa di Sant’Eufemia

    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…

  • L

    Lido di Venezia

    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…

  • M

    Museo del Manicomio

    As well as a poignant collection of patients' before-and-after photos, this small museum contains the full paraphernalia of psychiatric treatment of the…

  • L

    Le Zitelle

    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…

  • A

    Antico Cimitero Israelitico

    This overgrown graveyard was Venice’s main Jewish cemetery from 1386 until the 18th century. Tombstones range in design from Venetian Gothic to distinctly…

  • P

    Pellestrina

    Stretching south of Lido and repeating its skinny shape, Pellestrina reminds you what the lagoon might have been like if Venice had never been dreamed of…

  • W

    WWF Oasi Dunes degli Alberoni

    Right at the southern tip of the island, the Alberoni pine forest slopes down to the Lido’s wildest stretch of beach, home to wildflowers, the fratino …

  • G

    Grand Hotel des Bains

    This vast belle époque hotel once epitomised Lido glamour, but it's been boarded up since 2016 – an oversized symbol of the beach resort's fall from…

  • M

    Malamocco

    Pass over Ponte di Borgo to explore the canals and calli (lanes) of a less overwhelming lagoon town. A miniature version of Venice right down to the lions…

  • G

    Giudecca 795

    Founded to promote local artists of all kinds, this quirky and welcoming gallery displays (and sells) a wide range of works by both established and young…

  • B

    Bagni Alberoni

    Sandy beach with all the usual facilities at the southern end of the Lido.