Hiding in plain sight outside the Doge’s Palace is a game that generations of Venetian kids have played but few visitors know about. Standing on the Riva degli Schiavoni with your back to the water, identify the third column from the corner of the palazzo. You’ll notice that it stands a little closer to the edge of the loggia’s smooth marble pedestal than all the others. Can you stand with your back to it and inch your way around without falling off the marble edging? It’s more difficult than it looks… but either way, a fun photo opportunity is guaranteed. 

Few visitors realise just how much green space there is in Venice. That’s because many of the city’s historic gardens are attached to private palazzos or religious institutions, and are often hidden from sight behind high walls. In recent years, some of these ‘secret gardens’ have become a little easier to access. Among them is the delightful, recently-restored Orto Giardino del Redentore (open Thu-Sat in winter, Wed-Sat in summer, check website for opening times) on the island of La Giudecca, where Franciscan monks still tend the plants and trees and grow vegetables and herbs for the monastery kitchens. On the island of San Giorgio, in the grounds of the Giorgio Cini Foundation, the Garden of Forking Paths is a green maze created by British garden designer Randall Coate in homage to a literary master who was a treasured guest of the Londra Palace – Jorge Luis Borges. Guided tours take in both the maze and the adjacent Bosco or wood, dotted with a series of small contemporary chapels commissioned by the Vatican for the 2018 Architecture Biennale.