San Marco Square in Venice, Italy: A Basilica, A Campanile and A Clock

If you are a first-time visitor to Venice, Italy, and are wondering where to start when touring around this fascinating city, my recommendation is to begin in the iconic Piazza San Marco - also known as Saint Mark's Square - a wide, open-air plaza surrounded by many of Venice's key attractions. From the square, you can easily access the famous Basilica di San Marco, the towering Campanile, the unusual Astrological Clock, along with many museums, including the Doge's Palace.

In fact, you could easily spend a couple of days exploring what San Marco Square has to offer!

When we visited Venice, Italy in October of 2018, we only had three days to experience the entire city, and so we chose to spend just one day in San Marco Square. This post will focus on our tour of the Basilica, the ride up to the top of the Campanile, and the Astrological Clock. To read more on the Doge's Palace, you will need to read my future blog post about it.

St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco) is the perfect spot to begin your exploration of Venice, Italy.

As I prepared myself for our journey to Venice, I had watched many vlog videos about the Piazza and read several posts. Many, many disappointed tourists had commented on how cramped and crowded the square was, how vendors of mask and T-shirt stands cluttered the cobblestones, and scam artists and pickpockets threaded their way through the crowd searching for gullible targets.

But I was still excited to see it for myself.

Luckily, we traveled to Venice in October, which is technically 'off-season' for tourism in the city. I was surprised that it was still as busy as it was when we arrived, but it definitely didn't match the congested and claustrophobic description that previous tourists had lamented on. (Watch the video at the end of this post to see just how 'empty' the square was compared to summer months!)

The square was certainly not as crowded in October as it will become in the summer months.

We first stood in the middle of the piazza, marvelling at the size of everything: the openness of the square itself, the elegant spires of the Basilica, and the towering Campanile all seemed larger than life.

Restaurants and cafes along the edges of Piazza San Marco were filled with customers sipping coffee and eating breakfast. We stayed away, however, as research had informed us that these restaurants are notoriously expensive, especially if you sit to drink or eat. Coffee in a to-go cup is cheaper than sit down service in the piazza, but even then, it is just more affordable to wait and get your caffeine fix further away from the square.

The Campanile was our first official stop in Piazza San Marco.

It was mid-morning by the time we arrived in Piazza San Marco; we'd tried to get up and get going much earlier, but the trip was catching up to us and we slept in a little too late. Lines had already began to form for access to the Basilica di San Marco and the Campanile. We'd hoped to get there early enough to skip the lines altogether, but by mid-morning they weren't completely unreasonable.

Thinking that the line for the Campanile would grow faster over the course of the morning, we opted to tackle that first. Half an hour later, we were entering the Campanile foyer. We paid to access the elevator to the top, which was 8 Euros (and goes as low as 4 Euros per person if you are in a group of 20 or higher). In my opinion, the fee is worth every penny, so don't let that 8 Euro price deter you.

We jammed into the elevator like sardines, and were whisked away to the top of the Campanile.

The beautiful view of Venice, Italy from above!

Up top. the view of Venice was breath-taking. The city spread out before us like a terra-cotta tinted labyrinth, with the wide open space of St. Mark's Square directly below. You could see just how twisty and turny the streets of Venice truly were by looking at them from this bird's eye view.

My favourite part of the view from the Campanile was how you could see from one end of the main island of Venice to the other, with water all around. On the island of Guidecca, which was just across a small stretch of water from the Doge's Palace, massive domed buildings seemed to be floating on the sparkling water. It was so amazing to see from that perspective.

The twisted streets of Venice, Italy, as seen from above. 

Another interesting part of visiting the top of the Campanile, was that you could see one of the five bells that used to hang on the original Campanile. Yes, you read that correctly - the Campanile of today is not the same Campanile that originally stood in Piazza San Marco. The first version of the Campanile took quite the beating: it was hit by lightning, set aflame, and badly damaged in 1388,  1417,  1489, 1548, 1565, 1658, 1745, 1761, and 1762. Finally, in 1776 someone took it upon themselves to add a lightning rod, and things settled down for a bit. The Campanile was restored and saved, until...

In 1902, the Campanile began to show a large crack on its north wall, which spread and weakened the base of the tower. It collapsed a few days later, crushing a part of the loggetta. Amazingly, no one was killed, except the poor caretaker's cat. Ten years later, the Campanile was rebuilt, and that's the one we had been standing on in October of 2018. One bell from the original tower had been saved, and we were able to see if for ourselves, a 650-year-old relic still hanging in the open air.

That view is sure nice... and the streets of Venice look pretty good too! Ha ha ha!

As waves of new sightseers joined us on the observation deck of the Campanile, it began to get a bit crowded, so we took our leave and went back down the elevator to Piazza San Marco. The line-up to enter Basilica di San Marco wasn't that crazy, since it had begun to sprinkle rain just a bit and many people had fled to seek shelter in nearby cafes. We took our place in line, braved the drizzle, and got into the Basilica after about a 20-minute wait, which wasn't much at all.

The Basilica is free to enter, but as we later discovered, there are various points around the interior where you have to pay a small fee to see 'what's behind the curtain'. I was glad that I had a pouch full of Euro coins, otherwise I would have missed some of the key elements inside the Basilica.

Joey and I outside Basilica di San Marco in Venice, Italy.

To get inside the Basilica, you should also come dressed properly - this is a place of active worship and is a holy space so keep your shoulders and knees covered. No cut-off shorts, ripped jeans, belly shirts, muscle shirts, bikini tops or whatever shows extra skin - dress like you are going to Sunday school, people! The guards at the front doors have the right to turn you away if you don't meet their decency standards.

The moment we stepped inside, I was in awe of the Basilica. The ceilings were covered in gold-plated mosaic tiles, called gold glass tesserae, with colourful and vibrant murals adorning the four domed roofs. The Basilica is constructed in the shape of a cross, so there are three naves forming the top and sides of the cross, and each nave had its own gold-covered dome. The largest dome was located right where the three naves met, at the heart of the 'cross'.

Golden domes of the Basilica's front foyer. 

As we walked deeper into the church, pillars towered above us, holding up the multiple domes and balconies of the church. We noticed that the floor was even decorated with tessellated geometric tile, showing patterns and animal designs in beautiful detail.

Tourists were funnelled like cattle along a one-way pathway, routing us past some of the more important aspects of the Basilica, such as the treasury (where you had to pay a small fee to enter, which we didn't) and the transepts. We did pay the fee to enter the presbytery, located in the eastern arm of the 'cross' design of the church.

The golden domes inside the Basilica di San Marco.

Inside the presbytery you can find the top portion of the underground crypt. The crypt is divided into two 'rooms' by an elevated alter screen, so guests are funnelled from one side of the alter screen to the other, and then back out, like walking around the block.

The back side of the alter screen is definitely worth the 1 Euro fee, because it is hiding the gorgeous Pala d'Oro, a giant alterpiece adorned with 1300 pearls, 300 sapphires, 300 emeralds, and 400 garnets, plus all that gold.

The beautiful Pala d'Oro above the Basilica's crypt.

It is stunning to see, especially since I didn't know it existed. One second I was walking around a corner in a space made of marble and stone, all grey and brown, and the next second I was dazzled by something so glittery and golden that it looked like a treasure hoard from a pirate movie. Definitely worth the small admission fee, in my mind!

The Pala d'Oro glittered with thousands of jewels! 

A note about my photography from inside the Basilica - there are signs clearly displayed all around the church about 'no photography'. However, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, that I saw was either taking photos or filming while inside the Basilica, and the guards weren't even batting an eye about it. I had tucked away my camera inside my purse, with the best intentions of obeying the posted signs, but when I saw all of the visitors doing the opposite and no one caring, I joined in. I didn't use flash, I didn't use a selfie stick, I just took quick photos and got out of everyone's way. There was no ceremony or worship occurring at the time that I would be disturbing, and I attempted to be as respectful as I could - as respectful as you can be while ignoring posted signs, that is. If this offends anyone, feel free to not look at the photos I'm posting here!

There are plenty of other places to explore in the Basilica - for another small fee you can go to the upper balconies and see the Basilica's interior from the second level. You can also stroll around the exterior upper floor balcony, where the famous Horses of Saint Mark-Lysippos overlook the Piazza. The original horses are actually preserved in the St. Mark's Museum inside the Basilica, so the ones outside on the balcony are just replicas. However, the originals date all the way back to the Hippodrome in Constantinople, and were actually stolen in 1204 and taken to Venice when Constantinople was sacked in the Fourth Crusade.

One of the detailed pillars in the Basilica di San Marco.

We exited the Basilica back into Piazza San Marco, just beyond the beautiful Astrological Clock, or the Torre dell'Orologio. This clock is unique, not only for its beauty, but for its multi-functionality. It displays the time, the phase of the moon, and the dominant sign of the zodiac. Built in 1496, it has run for over 500 years. Rumour has it that the clock was so stunning and unrivalled at the time that the ruling doge had the clockmaker blinded, so that he could never make another to compare.

The lovely Torre dell'Orologio in Piazza San Marco.

Our morning in the Piazza had been pretty successful - we'd explored the square itself, gone up to the top of the Campanile, seen the interior of the Basilica, and feasted our eyes upon the Torre dell'Orologio. We still had time to stroll through the Doge's Palace, but I'll cover that in a later post. For our first day in Venice, we had already seen some incredible and notable sights, all in one location. Piazza San Marco is a fabulous place to begin your sightseeing tour of the Floating City!