Things to do in Venice should start from Piazza San Marco: the beating heart of Venice and is considered one of the most beautiful squares in the world. That of San Marco is the only town square overlooking the sea, and is the favourite place for Venetians and tourists to stroll along an extraordinary path of Italian art and history.

Napoleon Bonaparte called it “the most beautiful hall in Europe”.

It was built in the 9th century and paved in 1177, 100 years after its construction.

The first church dedicated to San Marco, commissioned by Giustiniano Partecipazio, was built next to the Doge’s Palace in 828 to house the relics of San Marco. When thinking about Saint Mark’s Basilica, the first images that come to the minds of many people are those of the mosaics and their golden backgrounds.

More than 8000 square metres of mosaic cover the walls, vaults and cupolas of the Basilica. Essentially Byzantine in its architecture, the Basilica finds in the mosaics its natural integrating element. The mosaic decorations were developed through some 8 centuries of the Basilica’s history.

The island of San Giorgio Maggiore is the smaller of the two and is a few tens of meters from the Giudecca Island: it is a magical and silent place, far from the tourist itineraries and, for this reason, it maintains its ancient charm intact, whose roots can be found in the distant 10th century, when the Benedictine monks founded the first convent with an adjacent church here.

The Civil Hospital of Saints John and Paul in Venice is one of the major monumental complexes in the city; it is also an architectural-artistic compendium that spans nearly nine centuries; it is a moral and medical-scientific reality that is indispensable for knowing and experiencing the extraordinary Venetian civilization. In fact, it contains the hospital world of contemporary care but also the world of culture, history, art, spirituality.

The sixteenth-century Hospital of San Lazzaro overlooks the Rio dei Mendicanti with the original double-façade church; on the Campo SS. Giovanni e Paolo, on the other hand, the most beautiful Renaissance facade of a secular Venetian building is mirrored, this is one of the most important urban spaces with the great Dominican Basilica of the thirteenth century and the amazing equestrian monument of Andrea Del Verrocchio, master of Leonardo.

The Rialto Bridge is the oldest bridge that was built to cross the Grand Canal. What most characterizes Venice are its canals, which cross the city like streets. The largest is the Grand Canal, which divides the city in two, with its four kilometres in length.

The first thing that catches the eye when you arrive in Burano is the variety of colours of its houses. It goes from yellow to fuchsia. From teal to fiery red. A kaleidoscope that amazes our view and magically reflects the lagoon.

Burano is an inhabited centre of 2373 inhabitants, which rises on four islands of the northern Venice lagoon. It is part of the municipality of Venice and in particular of the municipality of Venice-Murano-Burano. It is connected by a bridge to the island of Mazzorbo, which has become a sort of appendage.

The town is known for its typical brightly coloured houses and for the centuries-old needlework of Burano lace.