St Mark’s without wasting time
- St Mark’s Basilica: since 2025 you go in with a timed ticket booked online, so book before you go. Shoulders and knees covered; no large bags.
- Doge’s Palace: buy the ticket online. If you can, book the Secret Itineraries tour well ahead: offices, archives and prisons.
- The view from above: St Mark’s bell tower is the classic one; the bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore, across the water, is usually less crowded, and St Mark’s is in the view.
- When to go: early in the morning or in the evening, after the day-trippers have gone.
Art on our side of the Grand Canal
- Gallerie dell’Accademia: the biggest collection of Venetian painting, from Bellini and Giorgione to Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto. About 10 minutes on foot.
- Ca’ Rezzonico: the museum of eighteenth-century Venice, in a palace on the Grand Canal, a few minutes away.
- Peggy Guggenheim Collection: modern art in the house where the collector lived, with a garden on the Grand Canal. Closed on Tuesdays.
- Punta della Dogana and the Salute: contemporary art at the tip of Dorsoduro, next to Longhena’s basilica.
The quieter Venice
- Cannaregio: the Ghetto, the first in history (1516), and the Madonna dell’Orto, Tintoretto’s parish church, where he is buried. In the evening Venetians fill the fondamente of the Misericordia and the Ormesini.
- Castello: the walls of the Arsenale, the Republic’s shipyard, the wide Via Garibaldi and the Biennale gardens.
- The Zattere at sunset: Dorsoduro’s long waterfront facing the Giudecca, for an ice cream or a spritz.
Many museums close one day a week and opening hours change with the seasons: check the official websites, and book the big names online.