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St. Mark's Square
The pigeon-filled Piazza San Marco in Venice
Piazza San MarcoPiazza 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 Civico 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 from Venere.com
» More hotels in San Marco from Booking.com
ReidsItaly.com Venice Map
» View ENLARGED MAP with all listings
TOURS FROM OUR TRUSTED PARTNERS that include Venice
Intrepid Travel 2011 Italy trips
• Best of Italy
• Italy Uncovered
• Italy Experience
• Classic Italy
• Italy Family Adventure
• Highlights of Italy
• Umbrian Discovery
Not just Italy...
Paris to Venice
Venice to Istanbul
G Adventures 2011 Italy trips
• Ultimate Italy
• Italy Culture and History Explored (9 days)
• Venice to Rome Adventure
• Italy Family Adventure
iExplore Italy trips 2011
• Italy Experience (9 days)
• Italy in Style (9 days)
» THE VENICE BOOKSHELF
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 bell tower 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).
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 cloaks itself in that moody Serenissima magic once again.
Related pages
- Basilica di San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica)
- Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)
- Campanile di San Marco (St. Mark's bell tower)
- Museo Civico Correr (civic museum)
- Bacino Orseolo (gondola parking lot)
- More sights in San Marco district
- Sights in neighboring Castello district
- Sights in neighboring Cannaregio district
- Sightseeing in Venice
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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.
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