WHAT TO SEE IN VENICE: TIPS for a great visit

Venice offers a huge wealth of museums, churches, architecture and other sights to see and visit.  Here, by district (“sestiere”) are the highlights selected in Blue Guide Venice, the definitive guide to the Most Serene City:

1. San Marco
2. Dorsoduro
3. San Polo
4. Santa Croce
5. Cannareggio
6. Castello 

1. SESTIERE OF SAN MARCO

Some highlights of the sestiere of San Marco. For much more detail on all, see Blue Guide Venice»

- The Basilica of St Mark, the most important church in Venice and its most splendid building, with superb Byzantine mosaics;

- St Mark’s Square, or Piazza San Marco, with its great Campanile of St Mark’s. Overlooking the Piazza are the Museo Correr illustrating Venetian history, the Museo Archeologico with an important collection of Roman and Greek sculpture and the Biblioteca Marciana with a display of precious maps and manuscripts;  

- The Doge’s Palace, administrative heart of the old maritime Republic, with its vast ceremonial rooms decorated by Tintoretto, Titian, Veronese and others; 

- The little-visited churches of San Salvador and Santo Stefano.

2. SESTIERE OF DORSODURO

Some highlights of the sestiere of Dorsoduro. For much more detail on all, see Blue Guide Venice»

- The Gallerie dell’Accademia, with the best collection of paintings by Venetian masters to be seen anywhere in the world;

- The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, 20th-century artworks in the unfinished palazzo on the Grand Canal where Guggenheim used to live. It claims to be the most visited museum in the city and on a fine day it is certainly one of the most pleasant; 

- The beautiful church of the Salute, crowning Dorsoduro’s eastern tip. Its looming silhouette at the entrance to the Grand Canal provided inspiration to painters from Canaletto to Turner and Monet;

- The diminutive church of San Sebastiano, completely decorated inside by Paolo Veronese (it is also the artist’s burial place); 

- Tiepolo’s ceiling paintings in the Scuola Grande dei Carmini; 

- Ca’ Rezzonico, a large and beautiful palace on the Grand Canal with a collection of 18th-century works. 

3. SESTIERE OF SAN POLO

Some highlights of the sestiere of San Polo. For much more detail on all, see Blue Guide Venice»

- The Rialto, with its eponymous bridge and its busy markets, where Venetians still come to do their food shopping. There are numerous bakeries and grocers’ in the calli close by, as well as some of the best bàcari in town;

- The famous church of the Frari, filled with Venetian masterpieces of sculpture and painting, including Titian’s Ascension, an exquisite altarpiece by Bellini and the great Neoclassical monument to Canova; 

- The Scuola Grande di San Rocco, where the walls and ceilings are covered with superb works by Tintoretto. 

4. SESTIERE OF SANTA CROCE

Some highlights of the sestiere of Santa Croce. For much more detail on all, see Blue Guide Venice»

- The late 17th-century Palazzo Mocenigo, a patrician residence now home to a museum of perfume;

- The splendid Ca’ Pesaro, with Venice’s Gallery of Modern Art and Museo Orientale;

- The Fondaco dei Turchi, warehouse of the Ottoman merchants during the days of the Serenissima, splendidly situated on the Grand Canal; 

- The lovely church of San Giacomo dall’Orio, in a lively, typically Venetian campo, with a beautiful altarpiece by Veronese. 

5. SESTIERE OF CANNAREGIO

Some highlights of the sestiere of Cannaregio. For much more detail on all, see Blue Guide Venice»

- The Ca’ d’Oro, perhaps the most beautiful of all the palaces on the Grand Canal, open as a museum and home to a masterpiece by Mantegna;

- The Ghetto, which survives untouched from past centuries and where it is possible to visit some of its synagogues; 

- The little church of the Madonna dei Miracoli, entirely covered inside and out with polychrome marbles and delicate carvings;

- On the far northern boundary of the sestiere the church of the Madonna dell’Orto, with remarkable paintings by Tintoretto, close to the house where the great artist lived.

6. SESTIERE OF CASTELLO

Some highlights of the sestiere of Castello. For much more detail on all, see Blue Guide Venice»

- The church of San Zaccaria, with a magnificent altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini; 

- The waterfront church of the Pietà, for its associations with Vivaldi and painted ceiling by Tiepolo; 

- The Scuola Dalmata, with its famous series of paintings by Carpaccio; 

- The fine series of 16th-century rooms on the first floor of the grand Palazzo Grimani;

- The paintings in the period rooms of Palazzo Querini-Stampalia;

- The huge church of San Zanipolo, famous for its beautiful doges’ tombs and with Verrocchio’s equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni outside;

- The famous Arsenale, the historic shipyards of the Republic, now also the venue for the Biennale, shared with its traditional location at Giardini.