Page 80 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

78  VENICE AREA B Y AREA

street-by-street: piazza san Marco

Throughout its long history the Piazza San Marco has
witnessed pageants, processions, political activities and
countless Carnival festivities. Tourists flock here in their
thousands, for the Piazza’s eastern end is dominated by
two of the city’s most important historical sights – the
Basilica and the Doge’s Palace. In addition to these
magnificent buildings there is plenty to entertain, with
elegant cafés, open-air orchestras and smart boutiques
beneath the arcades of the Procuratie. So close to the Gondolas Traditionally gondolas
waters of the lagoon, the Piazza is one of the first points have moored in the Bacino Orseolo,
in the city to suffer at acqua alta (high tide). Tourists named after Doge Orseolo.
and Venetians alike can then be seen picking their
way across the duckboards which are set up to Quadri’s café was the favourite
crisscross the flooded square. haunt of Austrian troops during M
the Occupation (see p250). e c e r i e
r

p r o c u r a t i e v e c c h i e

p i a z z a
8 Museo correr s a n M a r c o
Giovanni Bellini’s Pietà (1455–60) is one of
p r o c u r a t i e n u o v e
many Renaissance masterpieces hanging
in the picture galleries of the Correr.

the ala napoleonica is the
most recent wing enclosing
the square, built by Napoleon
to create a new ballroom.

caffè Florian (see p250) was the
favourite haunt of 19th-century
literary figures such as Byron,
Dickens and Proust.

the Giardinetti reali
(royal gardens) were
0 metres 75 laid out in the early
19th century.
0 yards 75 San Marco Vallaresso

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