Album: An Early Morning Walk

Album: At the Guggenhiem Museum

Album: Walking about

Album: San Marco
St Mark's Square, often known in English by its Italian name Piazza San Marco, is the town square of Venice. The Piazza is the only urban space big enough to be called a piazza in Venice: the rest are campi. Whether it was actually Napoleon, or the French Romantic poet Alfred de Musset who called it the "drawing-room of Europe", it is the only great urban space in a European city where the sound is of human voices talking. At right angles to the Piazza is the Piazzetta, with the Doge's Palace. There are three ships' masts at the water front, and have been since at least 1480. The banner of St Mark is flown from them on feast days. St Mark's Square is extremely popular with tourists, photographers and pigeons.

Album: Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute
Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (Basilica of St Mary of Health/Salvation), commonly known simply as the Salute, is one of the largest churches of Venice and has the status of a minor basilica. It stands at the junction between the Grand Canal and the Bacino di San Marco on the lagoon. In October 1630, the Senate decreed that if the city was delivered from the currently raging plague that had killed about a third of Venice's population, then a new church would be built and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Baldassare Longhena, then only 26 years old, was selected to design the new church. It was finally completed in 1681, the year before Longhena's death. Every year, on 21 November, the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, the city's officials processed from San Marco to the Salute for a service of thanksgiving for deliverance from the plague. This involved crossing the Grand Canal on a specially constructed pontoon bridge. The Festa della Madonna della Salute is still a major event in Venice.