Venice Italy tourist attraction. Famous places in Venice. Venice things to do. Venice, Italy, which was founded in the fifth century and is spread across 118 tiny islands, rose to prominence as a significant naval force in the tenth century.
The entire Venice city is an architectural masterpiece, with works by some of the world’s finest artists, including Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and others, adorning even the tiniest of structures. Venice and its lagoon have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.
Venice Italy, includes:
Venice things to do
In a city as tightly packed with tourist attractions as Venice, it’s tough to know where to begin. The ideal method is to simply get lost for a few hours, meandering around its charming small alleyways and passageways, strolling alongside its canals, and discovering its hidden gems.
Famous places in Venice
At every step, you’ll come across something worth photographing. It’s easy to get back to Piazza San Marco and the Grand Canal no matter where your explorations lead you. The majority of the best sites to see are located near these two landmarks.
Venice, Italy, is divided into six sestieri, or neighborhoods, each with its own particular personality. The central one is San Marco, which is ringed on three sides by a large loop in the Grand Canal. The artisans’ area of San Polo lies across the Rialto Bridge, while elegant Dorsoduro, with its prominent art museums and vibrant squares, is across the Grand Canal to the south.
Venice Italy tourist attraction
On the outskirts are Santa Croce, Castello, and Cannaregio, the ancient ghetto. Aside from exploring the city’s six sestieri (neighborhoods), a vaporetto ride to the islands of Lido, Murano, Burano, and Torcello is a must.
The beautiful views of San Marco and Venice from the church’s tower make San Giorgio Maggiore, a fourth island, worth seeing.
Use this list of top attractions in Venice to plan your trip so you don’t miss any of the best places to see and things to do in Venice. Certain businesses may be temporarily closed due to current worldwide health and safety problems.
St. Mark’s Basilica (Basilica di San Marco)
St. Mark’s Basilica, or Basilica di San Marco, is unquestionably Venice’s most well-known church, and one of the most easily recognized in the world. It was formerly the Doge’s private chapel, and it was embellished with Byzantine art treasures brought back by Venetian ships when Constantinople fell.
The mosaic artistry within is only hinted at by the gold-backed mosaic pictures above the doorways on the façade. The domes and walls are covered with 4,240 square meters of gold mosaics. These give the towering interior a characteristic Byzantine feel. However, you’ll come across gems from other periods, such as later mosaics by Titian and Tintoretto, whose names you’ll see all around the city.
The Pala d’Oro, a stunning golden altarpiece that is one of Europe’s finest, was began by early 12th-century craftsmen and later embellished with approximately 2,000 diamonds and precious stones. Look down at the floor, a marble inlay masterpiece, if you can tear your gaze away from the mosaic domes and the number of elaborately decorated altars. Also, visit the Treasury to admire the gold reliquaries and icons.
Grand Canal Venice (Canale Grande)
The Grand Canal, which runs through the centre of Venice in a gigantic reverse S-curve, is the city’s main thoroughfare. It links Piazza San Marco, the Rialto Bridge, and the mainland rail station and bridge arrival sites.
Only four bridges span the 3.8-kilometer stretch, but traghetti, or stripped-down gondolas, shuttle between them at many spots. The Grand Canal was the preferred address for anyone claiming to wield power in Venice. From whence guests approach, all of the major families’ palaces face the canal, with their ostentatious Venetian Gothic and Early Renaissance facades facing the water.
These enormous palaces – or at least their façades – are well preserved today, and the best way to see them is by taking a vaporetto ride along the canal. In addition, a gondola ride around the Grand Canal at night is one of the most romantic things to do in Venice.
Palazzo Ducale / Doge’s Palace and Bridge of Sighs
Tourists arriving in Venice used to alight beneath the magnificent façade of this magnificent mansion. They couldn’t help but be awestruck, both by its magnitude and the elegance with which it was built.
If the Doges welcomed them inside, the impression would only grow stronger when they passed through the Porta della Carta. Its a perfect example of Venetian Gothic at its height, and ascended the monumental Scala dei Giganti and the gold-vaulted Scala d’Oro. Which is to be received in what many consider to be the palace’s most beautiful chamber, Sala del Collegio.
Even jaded twenty-first-century tourists are awestruck by the palace’s grandeur and elaborate decorating. All of the Venetian greats are represented, including Tintoretto, whose Paradise is the world’s largest oil painting.
A walk across the Bridge of Sighs to the dark cells of the Prigioni—the jail from which Casanova famously escaped—is not included on public tours but is included on private visits. The best view of the Bridge of Sighs is from the Ponte della Paglia, which is located behind the Doge’s Palace on the Riva degli Schiavoni.
St. Mark’s Square / Piazza San Marco
The beautiful homogeneity of its architecture on three sides brings the immense expanse of Venice’s greatest square together and makes it appear almost intimate. St. Mark’s Square (Piazza San Marco) is known as Venice’s living room, where everyone congregates, strolls, takes coffee, stops to speak, meets friends and tour guides, or simply passes by on their way to work or play.
Arcades surround the area on three sides, with fashionable stores and even more fashionable cafés beneath them. The irregular, exotic curves, swirls, mosaics, and lacy stone filigree of St. Mark’s Basilica mark the open end.
The campanile’s masonry shaft rises above it. Go to the top of the Torre dell’Orologio, where a pair of “Moors” strike the hour, for a panoramic perspective of this bustling piazza.
Ponte di Rialto / Rialto Bridge and San Polo
Rialto Bridge, once the sole bridge spanning the Grand Canal, represents the site of the island’s first colony, Rivus Altus (high bank). It was built in 1588, 150 years after a previous wooden bridge collapsed. Two busy streets and a double set of stores are supported by this stone arch.
In addition to being a busy crossing point in the middle of the canal. Tourists flock to this vantage point to take – or pose for – photos and see the diversity of boats that pass beneath it.
The church of San Bartolomeo is located at the bridge’s San Marco end. It was the church of the German merchants who lived and worked near the canal in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (German Commodity Exchange). The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, by Palma the Younger, is a superb altarpiece. The former exchange is now a famous shopping destination.
The bustling food market on the other side of Rialto Bridge is where Venetians and chefs go to buy fresh produce and fish. Beyond the market, artisans’ shops and mask-making workshops line the small lanes of San Polo, making it one of Venice’s top shopping districts. You’ll also find restaurants that aren’t as crowded as those closer to San Marco.
