For a thousand years a maritime empire was governed from here: the Doge's Palace was home of the doge, parliament, courthouse and prison of the Serenissima, all in a lacework of pink and white stone that inverts architectural logic — solid above, void below — and remains the masterpiece of Venetian Gothic.
What to see
The Porta della Carta and the courtyard with its Giants; the Golden Staircase rising to the apartments; the Great Council hall, where Tintoretto's Paradise — among the largest canvases on earth — looms over the throne; and the frieze of doges with the blacked-out portrait of the traitor Marin Faliero. Then the Bridge of Sighs crossed from inside, toward the prisons Casanova escaped in 1756.
Visiting
The ticket is combined with the St Mark's Square museums; booking online sidesteps the queue. The "Secret Itineraries" — the Leads attic cells, the inquisitors' offices, Casanova's cell — form a separate guided visit with counted places: for many, the palace's best part. Allow two-three hours for the full route.
Getting there
Vaporetto 1 or 2, "San Marco" or "San Zaccaria" stops: the entrance faces the waterfront and the two columns. From Rialto, ten well-signed minutes on foot.
Our editors' tip
Book the first-morning Secret Itineraries, then continue into the ordinary route: you will see the palace twice, backstage first, stage after. And in the Great Council hall, find the missing portrait: that black frame teaches more about the Serenissima than ten rooms.