Riva degli Schiavoni

Riva degli Schiavoni is Venice's grandest waterfront promenade, running roughly 850 meters along St. Mark's Basin from the Doge's Palace toward the Arsenale. Named for the Dalmatian merchants who once moored and traded along its edge, it's both one of the most photographed stretches of the city and a genuinely major public space in its own right, not just a walkway between other attractions.

The riva is a working transit corridor as much as a promenade: several vaporetto stops, gondola moorings and the route between San Marco and Castello all use the same pavement. Standing to photograph is fine; standing in the queue lane or across the pontoon gangways is what causes the crush.

Prices along it are the highest in Venice, and the restaurants facing the water charge for the view rather than the food. One street back, the same meal costs a fraction.

Gondola touts and unlicensed water taxis work this stretch harder than anywhere. Official gondola fares are fixed and published; anything quoted off the cuff is not the real price.

Because everyone passes along it, the riva concentrates a large share of the pressure that Venice struggles with. Walking a few hundred metres further east -- past the Pietà, toward the Arsenale and Campo Bandiera e Moro -- costs nothing and empties out almost immediately.

Riva degli Schiavoni runs from the Doge's Palace and Piazza San Marco eastward toward the Arsenale and Castello, served by several vaporetto stops along its length. It's at its most atmospheric early in the morning or in the evening, once the daytime cruise-ship and tour-group crowds have thinned.