Piazza San Marco

The only space in Venice called a piazza — everything else is a campo, a field, because that is what they were. Arcaded on three sides by the Procuratie, closed on the fourth by the basilica, and open at one corner to the water, which is the view Napoleon is supposed to have called the finest drawing room in Europe.

What it costs

Free, always, and never closed.

Sitting down is not. The cafés under the arcades charge a table price and a music surcharge when the orchestra plays, both of which are posted and neither of which is a scam — but a coffee standing at the bar inside the same café costs a fraction of the same coffee at a table outside.

When to go

Early. The square belongs to the pigeons and the street sweepers until about eight, and to fifty thousand people after ten.

It is also the lowest ground in Venice, so it is the first place to flood and the last to drain. On a high tide the duckboards go down here first, and a moderate acqua alta puts water across the paving while the rest of the city stays dry.

Getting there

Every vaporetto line that matters stops within five minutes’ walk: San Marco Vallaresso, San Zaccaria, or Giardinetti. Walking from the station takes about thirty-five minutes and is well signposted.

If you only have an hour

Stand with your back to the basilica and look down the square — the arcades converge slightly, which is deliberate and makes it look longer. Then walk out to the two columns on the Piazzetta, look across to San Giorgio Maggiore, and note that the space between the columns was where executions were carried out, which is why Venetians still avoid walking between them.

What people get wrong

Feeding the pigeons, which has been banned since 2008 and carries a fine.

And treating the square as the city. It is the one part of Venice built to impress foreigners, and it is the least representative place in it.