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.

There is nothing to enter and no schedule to keep -- the facade is on a public canal and visible at any hour. What varies is whether you can see it properly.

The rio runs roughly east-west and the palace faces north, so it sits in its own shadow for much of the day; the arcade and the carved roundels read best in flat, bright overcast light rather than in direct sun, which is unusual advice for a Venetian facade.

Morning is quietest. The Strada Nova alongside fills from mid-morning with foot traffic between the station and the Rialto, and the small bridge that gives the clearest view becomes an awkward place to stand.