Grand Canal Tour, part 2

Continued from Grand Canal Tour, part 1.

The next quarter-mile or so, as far as the Rialto markets, is one of the high-rent squares on Venice’s Monopoly board, lined with imposing palaces on both sides.

On the Right

Next to the granaries are the 17th-century Palazzo Belloni-Battaglia, a slightly sickly-sweet torte with obelisks in overwrought Baroque by Longhena; the late Renaissance Palazzo Tron, built by the opera-loving family who founded Venice's first public opera theatre, at San Cassiano.

Beyond are two 15th-century Gothic palaces, the Palazzo Duodo and Palazzo Priuli-Bon (the latter now a hotel). Next comes the creamy white façade of San Stae, on its canalside campo, and next to it one of the most charming buildings on the canal, the Scuola dei Battiloro e Tiraoro (goldsmiths and jewellers) – not as old as it looks, but an eccentrically retro building of 1711.