Our third itinerary will take you through an imposingly majestic and fairy-tale Venice. Truly precious works of Italian art are preserved only a few steps from our Hotel Carlton on the Grand Canal.

Take Calle del Traghetto and go straight until you reach Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista whose origins date back to 1261 where the Oratory contains the Reliquary of the Cross, two fragments of the cross where Jesus was crucified. The greatest artists of the past worked here: Jacopo Bellini, Palma il Giovane, Titian, Vittore Carpaccio, and Mauro Codussi who designed and built the Monumental Staircase, Giovanni Morlaiter who sculpted the great statue of St. John the Evangelist (1732-1733) placed on the altar in the chapterhouse. Massari was responsible for the magnificent flooring of coloured mable of the hall, an absolute masterpiece completed in 1752. Leaving the Scuola, walk towards the Frari Basilica, a masterwork of Venetian Gothic art containing many paintings, the perfection of accomplishment among which three precious pearls stand out: Our Lady of the Assumption by Titian, the Madonna of Ca’Pesaro also by Titian and the Triptych by Giovanni Bellini on the altar. The Basilica contains numerous sculptures by Pietro and Tullio Lombardo, Baldassarre Longhena, Jacopo Tatti known as Sansovino, together with many other great artists of the past. Coming out from the Frari Basilica, you go towards the nearby Scuola Grande di San Rocco to complete your monumental itinerary. The Baroque façade, covered with multi-coloured marble, will lead you to the discovery of numerous works by Titian. After such an important visit we will lead you to a place of very tender memories for whole generations of Venetians, and others too. Right behind San Rocco, in Campo Castelforte, on the second floor of the house on the opposite bank of the canal there used to live Donato Guido Zangrossi who for years cut, smoothed and painted the dreams of very many children. From the ‘60s. up to the early ‘90s. this kind and mysterious grandfather, an expert artisan, made dozens and dozens of wooden windmills in the shape of suns, stars, flowers and hypnotic moons. Whoever passed by there looked up to admire the whirling, spinning wheels which decorated and coloured the façade. Students who were about to take an exam often checked which way they were turning to as to predict whether the outcome would be positive or not. Unfortunately, the magic windmills disappeared soon after the death of Zangrossi in 1992. Nothing remains except the distant memory of the House of Windmills, so beautiful and strange as to seem the setting for a fairy tale. A pleasant walk will take you to Santa Croce district to reach Campo San Giacomo dell’Orio around the ancient Church of San Giacomo dell’Orio, one of the most suggestive in Venice, rebuilt in 1225 and renovated in the Gothic period between the XV and XVI centuries. It holds paintings by Lorenzo Lotto (Altarpiece of San Gicomo dell’Orio), Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Palma il Giovane and others, a deeply touching Christ without the Cross. Campo San Giacomo is warmly loved and much frequented by Venetians and it is without doubt the reign of children who play together there every afternoon in every season, come rain or shine. Popular festivals are held here, with tango or musical evenings. From here you can easily return to the Hotel with a pleasant ten-minute walk