Venice & the Veneto - San Marco (PDF Chapter)

This is the San Marco chapter from Lonely Planet’s Venice & the Veneto guide-book.

The neighbourhood of San Marco is Venice’s oldest and most famous. With the palace, pris-ons, government offices, mint and library crowding around the basilica, Piazza San Marco was the fulcrum of Venetian power and it attracts the majority of visitors today.

• join the chorus of gasps rippling through the crowd as you enter Venice’s magnificent Ba-silica di San Marco, looking up to discover angels dancing across 8500 sq metres of glit-tering golden mosaics
• maps
• discover over-the-top state rooms, dark secrets, dingy prisons and blockbuster exhibitions behind the rosy façade of the Palazzo Ducale
• transport
• shout ‘Brava!’ from one of the boxes at Venice’s jewel-box La Fenice for an encore perfor-mance
• restaurants & accommodation

Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping.