The Basilica of San Marco overlooks one of the most beautiful squares in the world, a real marble salon, the city center for centuries. Next to both the Basilica and the Doge’s Palace, all the most important religious and civil ceremonies have always been held here and now the Piazza San Marco is considered the city’s main symbol and tourist attraction.
This great square overlooking the water is a mixture of spaces, volumes and styles: the Procurator’s residence, the bell tower, the Doge’s Palace and the Sansoviniana Bookshop.
On Ascension day, the Doge and the city’s most important members got on board and sailed out to the Adriatic, to the Lido port. Here the Doge threw a ring, symbolizing union between Venice and water, into the sea and pronounced the solemn formula: “We wed you oh sea, in the sign of true, eternal dominion”.
A remark usually attributed to Napoleon calls the Piazza San Marco “the drawing room of Europe”.
The square is famous as a symbol of Venice’s floods as pictures and video of tourists tramping through the square on elevated walkways are sent around the world. It is the lowest point in Venice and so floods more frequently that the rest of Venice.
You obviously can’t skip it when visiting Venice as it is iconic.
