Venice — Museums & Galleries by Neighborhood

Venice’s art is not concentrated in one grand museum. It is distributed across the city — in former convents, confraternity halls, Grand Canal palazzos, tiny parish churches, and one modernist sculpture garden — and navigating it requires understanding the city’s six sestieri. The same neighborhood that holds the greatest collection of Venetian painting also has a 20th-century gallery founded by an American heiress who is buried in the garden. The city rewards those who move between them slowly.

Passes and Practical Overture

Chorus Pass

A single ticket (€15 full / €10 reduced) that grants entry to 16 churches across Venice, including several that contain major paintings inaccessible otherwise: Madonna dell’Orto (Tintoretto), San Sebastiano (Veronese), Frari (Titian — though the Frari charges separately), I Gesuiti, Santa Maria del Giglio, and others. Valid indefinitely. Buy at any participating church.

Museum Pass (MUVE — Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia)

MUVE operates 11 civic museums in Venice. Their combination ticket grants entry to all, valid for 6 months, and covers: Museo Correr, Ca’ Rezzonico, Ca’ Pesaro, Museo del Vetro (Murano), Museo del Merletto (Burano), and others. Worth calculating against individual admission if visiting more than three.

Pinault Collection Pass

Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana are both run by François Pinault’s foundation. A combined ticket is available and costs less than two individual admissions.

Booking

Pre-book timed entry for: Gallerie dell’Accademia, Peggy Guggenheim, Doge’s Palace. During peak months (April–September), walk-in queues for these can be 30–60 minutes. The Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni now requires reservation.

Dorsoduro — The Museum Mile

Dorsoduro contains the densest concentration of significant art spaces in Venice. The Gallerie dell’Accademia, Peggy Guggenheim, Punta della Dogana, and Ca’ Rezzonico are all within a 15-minute walk of each other along the Grand Canal. The Gallerie dell’Accademia, Galleria di Palazzo Cini, Peggy Guggenheim, and Palazzo Grassi–Punta della Dogana have formally aligned as the Dorsoduro Museum Mile, covering eight centuries of art.

Gallerie dell’Accademia

Campo della Carità, Dorsoduro 1050 Hours: Tue–Sun, 9:00–19:00 (ticket office closes 18:00). Closed Monday. Admission: Standard €12. Free first Sunday of each month (no booking, first-come basis). Book: gallerieaccademia.it — essential in peak season. Time required: 2.5–3.5 hours minimum.

The largest collection of Venetian painting in existence, housed in a former convent and its associated church. The trajectory runs from Byzantine gold-ground altarpieces of the 13th century through to the grand theatrical canvases of the 18th, covering every major Venetian artist across 24 rooms arranged chronologically.

Key works, room by room:

Room 2 — Giovanni Bellini’s “Pala di San Giobbe” and “Pala di San Zaccaria” (1505). Among the supreme examples of devotional painting in Italian art. The architectural illusionism, the quality of the light, the psychological stillness of the figures.
Room 5 — Giorgione’s “La Tempesta” (c.1508). The most enigmatic painting in Venice: a soldier and a nursing mother in a storm landscape, the meaning unresolved since it was made. Also Giorgione’s “Old Woman” (Col Tempo) — a portrait of ageing of extraordinary directness.
Rooms 6–7 — Titian. “Presentation of the Virgin” (still in its original location on the wall for which it was painted, 1534–38). The pageantry and the color.
Room 10 — Veronese’s “Feast in the House of Levi” (1573). Originally commissioned as the Last Supper, renamed after the Inquisition objected to the figures Veronese included (dwarfs, dogs, German soldiers, a man with a nosebleed). One of the largest paintings in Venice. The entire wall.
Room 11 — Tintoretto. “Transport of the Body of St Mark” — night scene, thunderstorm, diagonal composition, the Saint’s body being carried through a colonnade under a green sky.
Rooms 20–21 — Carpaccio’s “Legend of St Ursula” cycle (c.1490–1495). Nine large-format narrative panels depicting the life and martyrdom of the British princess. The detail — the flags, the architecture, the costumes, the facial expressions of bystanders — is inexhaustible. Set aside 30 minutes for this room alone.
Room 23 — Gentile Bellini’s “Procession in Piazza San Marco” (1496). A documentary painting of the piazza as it looked in the 15th century. The facade of the Basilica is shown in a state of completion that differs from today’s.
Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man is held in the collection but displayed only occasionally (it is on paper and light-sensitive). Check the website before visiting if this is a priority.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Dorsoduro 701 Hours: Wed–Mon, 10:00–18:00. Closed Tuesday. Admission: €18 full / €15 reduced. Free for under-10. Book: guggenheim-venice.it Time required: 1.5–2 hours.

Peggy Guggenheim (1898–1979) spent the last three decades of her life in this low-lying unfinished palazzo on the Grand Canal — known as the “palazzo nonfinito” for having only one storey. She filled it with the most important collection of 20th-century modernism in Italy, assembled through close personal relationships with the artists: Max Ernst was her second husband; Jackson Pollock was her discovery.

Key works:

Pablo Picasso — “On the Beach” (1937) and “The Poet” (1911). Both periods, both modes.
Salvador Dalí — “Birth of Liquid Desires” (1931–32). Surrealism at its most formally strange.
Max Ernst — “Attirement of the Bride” (1940), painted during their relationship. Dense, disturbing, unforgettable.
Jackson Pollock — “Alchemy” (1947). Peggy commissioned the first drip paintings. This is one of the canonical early examples.
Constantin Brâncuși — “Maiastra” (1912). In the sculpture garden.
Alberto Giacometti — elongated bronze figures in the garden.
Alexander Calder — “Arc of Petals” mobile.
René Magritte, Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp — all represented.
Marino Marini’s “Angel of the City” (1948): the equestrian bronze on the Grand Canal terrace, with its arms spread and an erect phallus (removable; Peggy removed it when the Pope passed by boat). The terrace view itself is one of the finest in Venice.

Peggy is buried in the sculpture garden alongside her beloved Lhasa Apsos. The garden (Giardino delle Sculture) is one of the few genuinely verdant open spaces in Venice.

Punta della Dogana — Pinault Collection

Fondamenta della Dogana alla Salute, Dorsoduro Hours: Daily except Tue, 10:00–19:00. Closed 25 December. Admission: €18 full / €15 reduced / €7 for ages 20–26 / free under 20. Combined ticket with Palazzo Grassi available. Time required: 1.5–2 hours.

The former customs house at the tip of Dorsoduro, where the Grand Canal meets the Giudecca Canal, was converted by architect Tadao Ando into a contemporary art space for French billionaire François Pinault’s collection. The Ando renovation — raw concrete within the 17th-century brick shell — is itself worth the visit. The bronze globe and weather vane on the apex (Fortuna, the goddess of fortune balancing on Atlas) have stood there since 1682.

The Pinault Collection is one of the most important private collections of contemporary art in the world, encompassing works by Cy Twombly, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, and many others. The exhibitions rotate; content changes significantly between visits. Check the programme at pinaultcollection.com before going — the current exhibition shapes the experience entirely.

From March 2026: Paulo Nazareth (Brazilian artist) exhibition opens.

The location alone — the water on three sides, the view of Santa Maria della Salute from the terrace — is reason enough to walk to the point even without entering.

Ca’ Rezzonico — Museum of 18th-Century Venice

Fondamenta Rezzonico 3136, Dorsoduro Hours: Apr–Oct: 10:00–18:00; Nov–Mar: 10:00–17:00. Closed Tuesday. Admission: €8 full / €5.50 reduced. Part of MUVE pass. Time required: 1.5–2 hours.

A Grand Canal palazzo built by Baldassarre Longhena (1649), completed a century later and now dedicated entirely to reconstructing the world of 18th-century Venice. The interiors are among the most intact Baroque domestic spaces in Italy: ballrooms with Tiepolo ceiling frescoes, lacquered furniture, Murano glass chandeliers, silk brocade walls, Rococo carved furniture.

Key works and rooms:

Ballroom (Salone da Ballo): ceiling fresco by Giambattista Crosato. Enormous, gilded, overwhelming — deliberately theatrical.
Giambattista Tiepolo’s frescoes throughout: the allegory rooms demonstrate why he was the most sought-after decorative painter of the century.
Giandomenico Tiepolo’s “Mondo Nuovo” fresco (from a villa near Zianigo): crowd scenes watching a spectacle, figures in cloaks, a Pulcinella cycle. The satirical energy of late 18th-century Venice.
Canaletto room: several vedute by both Canaletto and his nephew Bernardo Bellotto, showing Venice as it looked before Napoleon’s arrival.
Francesco Guardi paintings: the Grand Canal in atmospheric, flickering light — a counterpoint to Canaletto’s precise documentation.
Pietro Longhi paintings: small-format scenes of everyday Venetian life — a rhinoceros being shown at a fair, the morning chocolate, a dancing lesson. Genre painting of unusual charm.
The pharmacy reconstructed on the ground floor.

Robert Browning died in this building in 1889 (he was a tenant, not an owner).

Palazzo Grassi — Pinault Collection

Campo San Samuele 3231, San Marco (adjacent to Dorsoduro) Hours: Daily except Tue, 10:00–19:00. Admission: Combined ticket with Punta della Dogana.

The 18th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal, also renovated by Tadao Ando for the Pinault Collection. Temporary exhibitions only — large-scale contemporary art in a neoclassical interior. The combination of the two Pinault spaces (Grassi and Dogana) makes a full day of contemporary art possible.

San Polo — Tintoretto’s Life Work

Scuola Grande di San Rocco

Campo San Rocco 3052, San Polo Hours: Daily 9:30–17:30. Closed 25 December and 1 January. Admission: €12 full / €8 reduced. Time required: 1.5–2 hours.

The most concentrated single-artist environment in Europe. Jacopo Tintoretto painted more than 60 works for this building between 1564 and 1587, covering every wall and ceiling of three main rooms. He did this by undercutting his competitors for the commission — presenting a finished ceiling panel rather than a sketch, as was conventional — and then working for the confraternity at below-market rates for the rest of his life.

The three rooms:

Sala Terrena (Ground Floor Hall) The last room Tintoretto painted (1582–87), and in many respects the most resolved. The large canvases depict scenes from the Annunciation, Adoration of the Magi, Flight into Egypt, Massacre of the Innocents, and the circumcision. The “Flight into Egypt” (right wall) is one of his masterpieces: the Holy Family on a path through a dense landscape at dusk, the colours shifting from green to gold to deep brown, the sense of movement entirely convincing.

Sala dell’Albergo (Upper Floor, adjacent to Sala Capitolare) The first room Tintoretto painted (1564) and the most overwhelming. The entire end wall is taken by the Crucifixion (1565) — 12.25 metres wide, 5.36 metres tall, containing more than 200 figures. Ruskin called it “beyond all analysis and above all praise.” The scene extends from the cross at the centre outward to soldiers, horses, mourners, onlookers, scaffold workers, and in the distance the city of Jerusalem. It is not a single moment but a panorama of an event unfolding.

Note: The Crucifixion was under conservation restoration as of 2025 — verify current access on arrival.

Sala Capitolare (Upper Floor, main hall) The ceiling, painted between 1575 and 1581, depicts Old Testament subjects: the Gathering of the Manna, Moses Striking the Rock, the Bronze Serpent, the Miraculous Multiplication of Loaves. The ceiling paintings are best viewed using the wheeled mirrors provided — trolleys with mirrors on them that allow you to view the overhead canvases without craning your neck. Use them. The wall canvases below depict New Testament scenes: Baptism of Christ, Resurrection of Lazarus, the Temptation of Christ.

The adjacent Church of San Rocco (free entry) contains three more major Tintorettos: “St Roch Healing the Plague Victims,” “St Roch Curing the Animals,” and the “Pool of Bethesda.” Combine this visit with the Frari church next door (Titian’s “Assumption” on the high altar, Bellini triptych in the sacristy).

Cannaregio — The Grand Canal Facade and the Ghetto

Ca’ d’Oro — Galleria Giorgio Franchetti

Calle di Ca’ d’Oro, Cannaregio 3932 Hours: Tue–Sun, 10:00–19:00 (ticket office closes 18:30). Closed Monday. Admission: €6 reduced. Standard ~€8–10. Time required: 45 minutes–1 hour.

The most ornate Gothic facade on the Grand Canal, built 1421–1440 by Marino Contarini. The name (“Golden House”) comes from the gilding and ultramarine that originally covered the stonework — now weathered away, but the tracery and proportion remain extraordinary. Take vaporetto Line 1 to the Ca’ d’Oro stop and approach by water first — the facade is best seen from the canal, not from the narrow calle behind it.

The interior, donated to the state by Baron Giorgio Franchetti in 1916, is undervisited and genuinely excellent.

Key works:

Andrea Mantegna — “St Sebastian” (c.1490). The defining image of the martyr: his body bound to a classical column, arrows piercing him, his expression one of absolute calm. Mantegna’s ability to render marble, flesh, and atmosphere simultaneously is the whole subject of his painting.
Flemish tapestries — 16th-century Brussels tapestries of exceptional quality, hanging in the portego (central hall).
Venetian bronzes — a collection of small-scale bronzes including works by Riccio.
The loggia view — from the first-floor loggia, the view over the Grand Canal toward the Rialto market, with boats passing below, is one of the finest vantage points in Venice. Available to all visitors.
Works by Titian, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Carpaccio, Van Eyck also in the collection.

Museo Ebraico di Venezia — Jewish Museum

Campo del Ghetto Nuovo 2902b, Cannaregio Hours: Sun–Fri, 10:00–17:30 (Thu until 18:30). Closed Saturday and Jewish holidays. Admission: €14 (museum + 2 synagogue tours) / €12 under-26. Time required: 1–1.5 hours including synagogue tour.

The world’s first ghetto was established here on 29 March 1516, when Venetian authorities confined the Jewish population to the island of the Ghetto Nuovo (the area of former foundry, geto in Venetian dialect — the origin of the word in all languages). Because the ghetto could not expand outward, buildings were stacked floor upon floor — some of the tallest in Venice, with low ceilings to maximise the number of floors per permitted height.

The museum traces the history of Venetian Jews from the 16th century to the deportations of 1943. The collection includes Torah curtains, silverwork, textiles, marriage contracts (ketubbot), and documents. The guided synagogue tours are the main reason to come: five synagogues survive in the Ghetto, built and maintained by different Jewish communities (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Levantine, Italian, Canton), their interiors lavish in ways deliberately concealed from the street outside — you would never know from the outside that an ornamented sanctuary was above. Tours run frequently; the experience of entering these spaces is unlike anything else in Venice.

The community is still active. The Ghetto Nuovo square itself — large, irregular, with the Holocaust memorial plaques on one wall and children playing in the afternoon — is one of the most affecting spaces in the city.

Castello — The Carpaccio Room and the Eastern City

Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni

Calle dei Furlani 3259a, Castello Hours: Tue–Sun, 10:00–17:30 (last entry 17:00). Closed Monday. Reservation required. Admission: €6. Time required: 30–45 minutes.

A single low-ceilinged room. Nine paintings. Almost never crowded. One of the most beautiful art experiences in Italy.

Vittore Carpaccio painted this cycle between 1502 and 1507 for the Scuola degli Schiavoni — the confraternity of Dalmatians (Slavs: Schiavoni) resident in Venice. The subjects are the patron saints of Dalmatia: St George, St Tryphon, and St Jerome. The cycle wraps around three walls of a single room, telling the saints’ stories in continuous narrative panels.

The key works:

St George Slaying the Dragon (c.1502): the most famous, and rightly. George on horseback drives his lance through a dragon in a landscape scattered with severed limbs, skulls, and a princess watching from the right. The landscape is documentary in its detail — the architecture, the distant sea, the vegetation.
Triumph of St George: the saint leads the vanquished dragon before the king and queen of Libya, surrounded by courtiers in oriental dress. The crowd’s expressions are individually observed.
St Jerome and the Lion: the saint brings a lion into his monastery; the monks flee in panic. The lion, having had a thorn removed from its paw, becomes Jerome’s devoted companion. Carpaccio depicts the moment of eruption.
St Augustine in His Study (sometimes attributed to this cycle): the scholar at his desk, interrupted by a vision — his small dog turns toward us, the room is filled with books, instruments, objects. A painting about the act of reading and thinking.
The Agony in the Garden and The Calling of Matthew complete the cycle.

The paintings have not been moved since they were installed. The room has remained as it was in 1508. Carpaccio’s colour — red, gold, deep blue, the sky above the landscapes — is undimmed. This is one of the few places in Venice where the original context is entirely intact.

Fondazione Querini Stampalia

Campo Santa Maria Formosa 5252, Castello Hours: Tue–Sun, 10:00–18:00. Closed Monday. Admission: €17 full. Time required: 1–1.5 hours.

The 16th-century palazzo of the Querini Stampalia family, bequeathed to Venice by Giovanni Querini in 1869 on the condition it remain open for public use and that the library stay open on evenings and holidays. The ground floor was renovated by Carlo Scarpa in 1963 — one of the most thoughtful and humane small architectural interventions in Venice, managing the acqua alta (flood water) through a system of raised walkways and controlled water flow that turns flooding into a feature rather than a problem. Mario Botta updated the garden in 2006.

The collection includes Venetian paintings from the 14th–18th centuries, notably:

Pietro Longhi — the largest single collection of his genre scenes. “The Rhinoceros” (1751), “The Geography Lesson,” “The Hairdresser,” “The Dancing Lesson.” Documentation of 18th-century Venetian domestic life at its most specific and humane.
Palma il Vecchio, Palma il Giovane, Vincenzo Catena, Jacopo Palma
Portrait collection of the Querini family

The library — still in active use, still open on evenings and Sundays as Giovanni Querini requested — is extraordinary. Scarpa’s architecture on the ground floor is worth the admission price alone.

Fondazione Giorgio Cini — Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore

Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore (vaporetto Line 2 from San Zaccaria) Hours: Varies by programme. Typically open weekends. Admission: Varies.

The island of San Giorgio Maggiore is dominated by Palladio’s church (1565, free entry — Tintoretto’s “Last Supper” and “Gathering of Manna” still in situ) and the Cini Foundation, which occupies the former Benedictine monastery. The Foundation hosts temporary exhibitions, a library, and restored cloisters. The rooftop view from the church campanile (elevator available) offers the canonical Venice panorama — the entire city visible at once across the water.

San Marco — The Civic and the Imperial

Museo Correr

Piazza San Marco 52 (Procuratie Nuove) Hours: Daily 10:00–17:00 (Apr–Oct until 19:00). Last entry one hour before closing. Admission: Included in the combined Piazza San Marco ticket with Doge’s Palace (~€30 combined). Time required: 1.5–2 hours.

The civic museum of Venice, occupying the Napoleonic wing of Piazza San Marco. The collection traces the history of the Venetian Republic from its foundation to its absorption into Italy in 1866 — told through objects, paintings, documents, maps, armour, and reconstructed interiors.

What to prioritize:

Neoclassical Rooms (ground floor): decorated by Antonio Canova, these were Napoleon’s state apartments. The imperial furniture and Canova’s own sculptures in their original context.
History of Venice rooms: maps, globes, coins, the corno ducale (the Doge’s ceremonial hat), standard-bearer’s equipment, weapons from the Arsenal. The documentation of how the Republic actually functioned.
Quadreria (Painting Gallery): works by Bellini, Carpaccio (“Two Venetian Ladies,” long misread as courtesans — actually noblewomen waiting on a rooftop terrace), Cosmè Tura, Alvise Vivarini. The Bellini room alone justifies the visit.
Library and reading rooms: the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Sansovino’s library, the most beautiful Renaissance interior in Venice) is technically a separate institution but accessible through the combined ticket — worth seeking out.

Palazzo Ducale — Doge’s Palace

(Covered in the main itinerary — referenced here for completeness) Piazzetta San Marco Hours: Daily 9:00–19:00 (last entry 18:00). Seasonal variation. Admission: ~€25–30 with Museo Correr combined ticket. Book online. Secret Itinerary tour: separate booking, additional cost — strongly recommended.

The political and judicial heart of the Venetian Republic for over a millennium. The Sala del Maggior Consiglio contains Tintoretto’s “Paradise” — the largest oil painting on canvas in the world (22 × 7 metres). The Sala del Senato, the Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci, and the prison sequence accessed via the Bridge of Sighs are the essential route beyond the great council chamber.

Santa Croce — The Overlooked Sestiere

Ca’ Pesaro — International Gallery of Modern Art + Oriental Museum

Fondamenta de Ca’ Pesaro 2076, Santa Croce Hours: Daily 10:00–17:00 (Apr–Oct until 18:00). Closed Monday. Admission: ~€8–10 full. Part of MUVE pass. Time required: 1–1.5 hours.

A Baroque Grand Canal palazzo (Longhena, 1710), housing two separate museums on different floors.

International Gallery of Modern Art (floors 1–2) The collection originated from works purchased at the Venice Biennale in its early decades (from 1895 onward), making it a document of what the Biennale was actually acquiring in its formative years.

Key works:

Gustav Klimt — “Judith II (Salome)” (1909): not the Vienna Judith, but its companion. The figure emerges from the top edge, her fingers extended, her expression ecstatic. Exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1910 and purchased for the collection.
Wassily Kandinsky — early abstraction works
Marc Chagall, Henry Moore, Egon Schiele, Felice Casorati, Giorgio Morandi
Sculpture by Rodin, Meštrović

Museo d’Arte Orientale (floor 3) One of the largest collections of Asian art in Europe — largely the result of a Grand Tour to the Far East by Enrico di Borbone, Count of Bardi, in the 1880s–1890s. Japanese Edo period objects (armour, lacquerware, ceramics, prints, weapons), Chinese and Indonesian material. Rarely visited, partially because it is not widely known. The Japanese armour collection alone is worth the ascent.

Giudecca — Across the Canal

Casa dei Tre Oci

Fondamenta delle Zitelle 43, Giudecca Vaporetto: Line 2 (Zitelle stop) Hours: Varies by exhibition. Admission: Varies (~€12–15). Time required: 1 hour.

A neo-Gothic palazzo built in 1913 by the painter Mario De Maria as his private studio (“Tre Oci” — three eyes — refers to the three lancet windows in the facade). Now a dedicated photography exhibition space, it hosts significant shows aligned with the Venice Photography Festival and other international programmes. The building is architecturally distinctive on the Giudecca waterfront, and the view from the fondamenta back toward Venice is the one most visitors never see.

Check current programming before visiting. Photography-focused but occasionally hosts other visual media. One of the few Venice venues dedicated to photography as a primary discipline.

Lagoon Islands — Art at the Source

Museo del Vetro — Murano Glass Museum

Fondamenta Giustinian 8, Murano Vaporetto: Line 4.1 or 4.2 from Fondamente Nove Hours: Daily 10:00–17:00 (Apr–Oct until 18:00). Closed Wednesday. Admission: ~€10. Part of MUVE pass. Time required: 1–1.5 hours.

Located in the Palazzo Giustinian on Murano, this museum traces 2,000 years of glass manufacture from Roman millefiori to 20th-century studio glass. The medieval and Renaissance Venetian glass collection is exceptional — the famous “Barovier Cup” (c.1470–80, dark blue enamel marriage cup) is one of the most important glass objects in the world. The 20th-century rooms show the artistic ambitions of Murano makers — Napoleone Martinuzzi, Carlo Scarpa’s glass designs (he worked with Venini extensively), Fulvio Bianconi’s “Fazzoletto” (handkerchief) vases.

Understanding the museum before watching a glass-blowing demonstration on Murano changes the experience completely — you see where the contemporary craft sits within the longer history.

Museo del Merletto — Lace Museum, Burano

Piazza Baldassare Galuppi 187, Burano Vaporetto: Line 12 from Fondamente Nove (via Murano) Hours: Daily 10:00–17:00 (Apr–Oct until 18:00). Closed Tuesday. Admission: ~€5. Part of MUVE pass. Time required: 45 minutes.

The lacemaking tradition of Burano dates from the 16th century, when Venetian needle lace (punto in aria — “stitch in air”) was among the most valuable luxury goods in Europe. Catherine de’ Medici and Louis XIV both ordered Burano lace. The museum occupies the former lacemaking school (established 1872 to revive a dying craft) and displays examples of the historic tradition alongside demonstrations by the few remaining practitioners.

The craft as a living tradition has largely ended — the school closed in 1972. What remains is documentation, archive, and a handful of elderly women who still practise. The museum is small and the experience is quiet. Worth 45 minutes on the way between arriving and finding lunch at Gatto Nero.

Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral — Torcello

Torcello island Vaporetto: Line 9 from Burano (10 min) or Line 12 direct from Fondamente Nove Hours: Daily 10:30–17:30 (Nov–Feb until 17:00). Admission: Cathedral €5. Museum €3. Combined €8. Time required: 45 minutes–1 hour.

The oldest building in the Venetian lagoon, founded in 639 AD, expanded in 1008 and repeatedly thereafter. What survives is a Veneto-Byzantine basilica of extraordinary severity and power — stripped of the accumulated decoration that crowds most medieval interiors, it reads as pure architectural space: brick, stone, light, and mosaic.

The mosaics:

West wall — Last Judgment (12th–13th century): covering the entire west end of the nave, floor to ceiling, from the Anastasis (Christ harrowing hell) at the top, through the weighing of souls, the division of the damned and blessed, to a detailed Hell at the bottom. Byzantine mosaic tradition at its fullest Byzantine scale. The faces are flat, iconic, non-individuated — this is deliberate. They address you across nine centuries without psychology, without personality, with absolute directness.
Apse — Madonna Orans (12th century): the Virgin standing on a gold ground, arms raised, the Christ child before her. The simplicity is radical — a single figure on an uninterrupted gold field, the background having been stripped of narrative scenes at some point, leaving this solitary presence. One of the most affecting images in Venice.

Outside: the Attila’s Throne (a stone seat of uncertain origin in the grass), the Ponte del Diavolo (single arch, no railings), and the lagoon landscape reclaiming the island that was once a city of 20,000.

A Route Through the Art

For visitors with limited time, a logical sequence that minimises travel:

Day 1 (San Marco / Castello): Doge’s Palace (Secret Itinerary) → Museo Correr → San Zaccaria (Bellini) → Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni (Carpaccio)

Day 2 (San Polo / Dorsoduro): Scuola Grande di San Rocco + Frari (Tintoretto + Titian) → Gallerie dell’Accademia → Peggy Guggenheim → Punta della Dogana

Day 3 (Cannaregio / Castello): Jewish Museum + Ghetto synagogues → Ca’ d’Oro → Madonna dell’Orto (Tintoretto, free) → Querini Stampalia

Day 4 (Lagoon islands): Torcello cathedral → Burano (Lace Museum) → Murano (Glass Museum)

Churches (any day, Chorus Pass): Madonna dell’Orto, San Sebastiano (Veronese), Santa Maria dei Miracoli, San Zaccaria — all within the pass; none requires more than 30 minutes.