Campo San Salvador

Campo San Salvador sits on the direct route between the Rialto and St. Mark's Square, a square most visitors cross without stopping -- but it holds a real slice of Venetian history, from a medieval decree about horses to the facade of a church whose foundations reach back to the early Middle Ages.

San Salvador is an active parish that charges nothing to enter while holding two Titians, a royal tomb and three doges. It is kept open by donation, and the box by the door is doing real work.

The square is a bottleneck on the most congested walking route in the city. A group stopping in the middle of it obstructs a genuine flow -- the church steps and the edges are where to stand.

The cannonball embedded in a facade column is from the Austrian bombardment of 1849 that ended Manin's republic. It was deliberately left in place, and it is a memorial rather than a curiosity.

Using this church as the place to rest, rather than a café table on the Mercerie, costs nothing and takes a body out of one of the worst pinch points in Venice for twenty minutes.

Campo San Salvador sits directly on the walking route between the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark's Square, making it an easy stop rather than a detour. The church of San Salvador is generally open to visitors free of charge during regular hours; the adjoining Scuola Grande di San Teodoro is a separate building on the same square.