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This Veneto-Byzantine church with an imposing square campanile (bell tower) will be recognized by film buffs from the chilling Nicholas Roeg film Don’t Look Now . Hidden away in a maze of narrow alleyways off the port zone, “St Nicholas of the beggars” has a pretty portico which doubled as a shelter for the poor. Founded in the 7th century, it is the second oldest church in Venice. In the 1970s it was restored by the Venice in Peril Fund, who waterproofed the low floor.

A sleepy island of grassy squares and boatyards, it is hard to imagine that Venice’s religious headquarters were centred here right up until 1807, when the Basilica San Marco became the city’s cathedral. Linked to the rest of Castello by two broad bridges, San Pietro attracts artists for its evocative forlorn air and fun-lovers for the animated late-June neighbourhood fair. Art lovers also come for the church with work by Veronese and Coducci, flanked by the patriarchal palace-cum-army barracks.

This narrow 11-km (6.5-mile) central strip of land, linked to the Lido and Chioggia by ferry, is dotted with picturesque sleepy fishing communities, once famous for lacemaking and now renowned for champion rowers and a shipyard. The Genoese wiped out the villages during the 14th century, an event almost repeated during the disastrous 1966 floods – powerful waves broke over the seawall, forcing full-scale evacuation. The massive defensive barriers with their 14-m (46-ft) broad base were first erected in the 1700s but have consequently needed large-scale reinforcement.

In 1648, 200 nuns exiled from Candia, Crete, by the Turks were lodged on this island, but after their numbers dwindled in 1725 it was given over to a sanatorium for psychiatric cases, although exclusively those of “comfortable circumstances”. The roomy buildings are now shared by an international university and a trade school for artisans from all over Europe interested in restoration of traditional stone and stucco techniques.

A “jewellery box” of marble slabs and exquisite basreliefs, this Renaissance church was named after a miracle-working icon from 1409, said to have resuscitated a drowned man and now enshrined in the main altar (see Santa Maria dei Miracoli).

Inextricably linked with the composer and musician Antonio Vivaldi, this Classical-fronted church belonged to the adjoining home for foundlings where he taught. Come to an evening concert to appreciate Tiepolo’s uplifting ceiling fresco exalting music and the young orphan choristers, identifiable by their sprigs of pomegranate blossom. The interior has choir stalls to accommodate both the singers and nobility who were not expected to mingle with the commoners.

Close to San Giorgio, this abandoned island used to be a hospice for pilgrims and was named after a miraculous image of the Virgin brought back from Constantinople and attributed to St Luke. Its colourful history features a series of religious orders and churches, devastating fires, allotments, luxuriant gardens and, until recently, the city’s infectious diseases hospital. It is now private property with no public access.

Often used as a film set, this fine 15th-century palace with its beautiful external “snail-shell” staircase is squeezed into a diminutive square. Following careful restoration, visitors can now climb the winding steps via five floors of loggias to a dome sheltering a splendid belvedere. From here there are magical views over the city’s rooftops.