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In this odd funnel-shaped square your attention is drawn to three statues of Arabian-style “Moors” – but neither North African nor Muslim, they hailed from Morea in Greece. Rioba, Sandi and Afani Mastelli were medieval traders who made their home in the family palace around the corner. Next to the bridge over Rio della Sensa is a doorway marked No. 3399, once the residence of the renowned 16th-century artist Tintoretto (see Jacopo Tintoretto)

Nowadays a modest square dotted with some low-key bars, its main attraction is a colourful moored barge loaded high with shiny fresh fruit and vegetables – a must for photographers. Its history has not always been so peaceful, however – the square used to be the arena for fierce rivalries between the city’s working class bands, the Nicolotti and Castellani, who would fight it out on the Ponte dei Pugni (see Ponte dei Pugni). On a more forgiving note, the rather nondescript church used to take in disgraced and bankrupt nobility.

This lovely square undergoes a series of transformations, from attractive theatre or dance area during Carnival, to open-air cinema through the summer months, and playground for bicycle- and scooter-mad kids the rest of the year. It has never been particularly quiet – it was once a venue for bullfights and bird-netting, extravagant parties with fireworks displays and even crime. In 1548 Florentine writer in hiding Lorenzino de’ Medici was stabbed to death here on orders from the great Cosimo de’ Medici. It was punishment for the assassination of Cosimo’s cousin Duke Alessandro, which brought the Medici line to an end.

This spacious, elegant square is edged by cafés with smart, white-jacketed waiters and colourful awnings. Its most regular inhabitants seem to be unhurried pigeons, pecking around the ornate lampposts, and local children at play watched over by nannies and doting grandparents. Pride of place in the centre goes to a statue of Niccolò Tommaseo, patriot and author of the Risorgimento . At Carnival time a lively outdoor craft market is held here, although it is not quite up to the level of merrymaking seen here in olden times when there were magnificent balls and bull-fights. The latter events ended in 1802 when a stand collapsed on spectators.

A lovely rounded church on this sun-blessed square appears to spread in all directions, the result of a 7th-century bishop’s vision of the “shapely” (formosa ) Virgin Mary’s request it be built where “a white cloud came to rest”. Artworks are by Vivarini and Palma il Vecchio. The square is a good place for a picnic or a game of football, in lieu of the bullfights and re-enactments of Venice’s conquests held here in olden days.

Dominated by the brick façade of the Gothic church SS Giovanni e Paolo, this breezy square welcomes visitors with a flotilla of outdoor cafés. Worthy of contemplation is one of the world’s most magnificent equestrian statues, a stylized 15th-century portrait of the great condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni. He left a legacy to the city on the condition that his statue be erected in front of San Marco, craftily “interpreted” by the governors as the Scuola Grande di San Marco close at hand. Gracefully decorated with arches and trompe l’oeil panels by the Lombard masters, the former confraternity serves as the public hospital.

Famous for his landscapes of Venice and England, Canaletto (1697–1768) thrived under the patronage of the British consul Joseph Smith.