St. Mark's Square

Piazza San Marco
Piazza San Marco
Vaporetto: San Zaccaria, San Marco-Giardinetti, or San Marco-Vallaresso

Viator.com tours
• Skip the Line: Venice Walking Tour with St Mark's Basilica
• Skip the Line: St Mark's Square Highlights Tour
• Skip the Line: Venice in One Day

Sights nearby
*** St. Marks' Basilica (church)
*** Palazzo Ducale (palace)
*** Grand Canal (sight)
* Campanile di San Marco (bell tower)
Museo Civio Correr (museum)
Torre dell'Orologio (clock tower)
Bacino Orseolo (gondola parking lot)

Where to eat nearby
Bistrot de Venise (meal)
Da Aciugheta (meal/pizza)
Osteria a la Campana (light meal)
Vino Vino (light meal)
Rosticceria Teatro Goldoni (light meal/snack)

Hotels nearby
Hotel Danieli (splurge)
Hotel ai do Mori (moderate)
Hotel Violino d'Oro (moderate)
» More hotels in San Marco

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Fun & Inspiration

The pigeon-filled Piazza San Marco in Venice

Piazza San Marco at night.The living room of Venice is a year-round carnival, one of milling tourists, a seemingly endless supply of pigeons, locals relaxing at outdoor café tables, and couples caught up in Venice's romance dancing on the cobblestones to the competing strains of the cafés' live pianists and classical trios. Also, in winter, sometimes it's full of water.

This epicenter of the city is flanked on three sides by a unified 16th-century arcade and anchored by St. Mark's, Italy's most mosaicked cathedral. The square is mobbed at midday, but late at night or at dawn it's virtually deserted, an emptiness that brings it to life with a Venetian magic all its own.

One of the best ways to appreciate it is by riding the elevator to the top of the Campanile, the belltower standing across from the Basilica di San Marco.

The north side of the square is enlivened by the Torre dell'Orologio, a Renaissance clock tower atop which two darkened bronze statues chime the hours. In the square's southwest corner sits the Museo Civico Correr. Just north of it lies the Bacino Orseolo, where many of Venice's gondolas park overnight (cool sight).

Webcam on Piazza San Marco, Venice
A live webcam on Piazza San Marco. F5 to refresh.

Tips

Yes, the cafes on the piazza are overpriced, but they're worth it for a slowly-sipped cappuccino and a front-row seat to the carnival of Venetian life.
Be sure to return at night, after dinner, when the moon-slicked piazza shakes off its tired touristy air and cloacks itself in that moody Serenissima magic once again.

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St. Mark's Square

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