Discover Via XX Settembre

The street's whole character is the continuous portico on both sides, carrying the upper floors on columns and arches so the pavement is covered end to end.

Because the arcade takes the ground floor, the decorated facades begin a storey up -- which is where the surviving frescoes are: faded reds and ochres, geometric bands, occasional figures, in patches wherever weather spared them.

The Gothic-Venetian windows are the other marker: pointed arches and slender columns, the mainland version of what the Grand Canal palaces do at greater expense.

Note where the cathedral is: it has no facade on this street at all. What you see is the confraternity's frescoed front, with the church hidden behind it.