5 Best Places To Visit In Venice

In a city as filled with tourist attractions as Venice, it’s hard to know where to begin. Perhaps the best way is to simply get lost for a few hours wandering through its enchanting little streets and passageways, strolling beside its canals, and finding its secret corners. Let us have a look at the 5 best places to visit In venice.

5 Best Places To Visit In Venice

1. St. Mark’s Basilica

Whenever you come into the heart of Venice, you won’t be able to miss the striking façade of St Mark’s Basilica (Basilica di San Marco), known affectionately by locals as the Chiesa d’Oro (Church of Gold). With its dazzling golden spires, it towers over St Mark’s Square, a spectacular piece of Byzantine architecture and one of Venice’s most iconic and best-loved sights with its walls ornately adorned with sculptures, reliefs, and mosaics.

Around the central doorway that leads you into the church, you can see the beautiful Romanesque carvings that give the building so much of its special character. The middle arch is adorned with allegorical figures representing the months of the year and signs of the zodiac, whilst around the outer arches, you’ll spot reliefs depicting traditional Venetian trades. The portal to the left of the doorway is marked by a mosaic depicting the remains of St Mark which were stolen from Alexandria to be relocated here in 828.

2. Piazza San Marco

The vast expanse of Venice’s largest square is brought together and made to seem almost intimate by the elegant uniformity of its architecture on three sides. But more than its architectural grace, St. Mark’s Square (Piazza San Marco) is loved as Venice’s living room, the place everybody gathers, strolls, drinks coffee, stops to chat, meets friends and tour guides or just passes through on the way to work or play.

Three sides are framed in arcades, beneath which are fashionable shops and even more fashionable cafés. The open end is bookmarked by the erratic, exotic curves, swirls, mosaics, and lacy stone filigree of St. Mark’s Basilica.

3. Canale Grande

Grand Canal, Italian Canale Grande, the main waterway of Venice, Italy, following a natural channel that traces a reverse-S course from San Marco Basilica to Santa Chiara Church and divides the city into two parts.

Only four bridges cross its 3.8-kilometer length, but stripped-down gondolas called traghetti shuttles back and forth at several points between bridges. The Grand Canal was the address of choice for anyone who claimed any influence in Venice. Palaces of all the leading families open onto the canal, their showy Venetian Gothic and Early Renaissance facades facing the water, by which visitors arrived.

4. Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

The Franciscans began this Gothic church about 1340 and finished with the completion of the facade, interior, and two chapels in the middle of the 15th century. Its impressive 14th-century campanile is the second-highest in the city.

Although the interior is in keeping with the simple unadorned style of Franciscan churches, it contains a wealth of artistic treasures. In the right transept is an important wood statue of St. John the Baptist by Florentine sculptor Donatello, done in 1451 (first chapel to the right of the sanctuary).

In the sacristy is a triptych Madonna and Child Enthroned with Four Saints by Giovanni Bellini. In the left transept, the St. John the Baptist statue on the stoup of the Cappella Cornaro was created by the sculptor and master-builder Jacopo Sansovino.

5. Lido

The long (12-kilometer) strip of sand that separates the Venetian lagoon from the Adriatic Sea was Europe’s first real beach resort, and in its heyday, at the turn of the 20th century, was Europe’s most fashionable watering hole for royalty and the day’s celebs. Today, the grand hotels where they reposed still welcome guests and still own the beautiful fine-sand beaches, although for a price you can share them with hotel guests.

Public beaches are at the north end of the island, near the church of San Nicolo, where relics of St. Nicholas are revered. After the considerable controversy between Venice and Bari, which also claims the saint’s relics, it has been established by an anatomical expert that both have an equal claim; about half the skeleton, including the skull, is in Bari and the other half in Lido. The cloisters are lovely, and in the church are paintings by both Palma the Elder and Younger.

These are the 5 Best Places To Visit In Venice.

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