Palazzo Falier

Palazzo Falier stands on the Rio dei Santi Apostoli in Cannaregio, its weathered stone arcade one of the oldest building fronts still standing along a Venetian canal. Its Byzantine-influenced facade, with paired and clustered windows across two upper floors, dates in part to a rebuilding in 1105 -- and the palace is best known as the home of Marin Falier, the only doge of Venice ever executed for treason.

The building is in private and commercial use, with a hotel occupying the ground floor -- there is no visitor entrance, and the arcade is not a public passage. Looking at it means looking from the fondamenta or the bridge, not stepping into the doorway.

The bridge over the Rio dei Santi Apostoli is narrow and carries constant local traffic between the Strada Nova and the campo. It is the best vantage point and also the worst place to linger; a look and a photograph, then moving on, is the difference between using it and blocking it.

Palazzo Falier is a private and commercial building, not a museum, and its interior is not generally open to visitors. Its facade is best viewed from along the Rio dei Santi Apostoli or from the nearby Campo Santi Apostoli, a short walk from the Rialto Bridge and the Strada Nova.