Ca' d'Oro

Of all the palaces on the Grand Canal, the Ca' d'Oro is the one that makes people gasp from the vaporetto: a delicate screen of pointed arches, quatrefoil tracery and white marble, as intricate as lace, rising from the water in Cannaregio. Built in the early fifteenth century for the patrician Marino Contarini, it was originally decorated with gilding and bright colour, hence its name, the golden house. After centuries of changing owners and some heavy-handed alterations, the palace was bought at the end of the nineteenth century by Baron Giorgio Franchetti, a collector and patron who devoted himself to restoring it, and in 1916 he gave both the building and his art collection to the Italian state. Today it is the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oro, a state museum, and its greatest treasure is the one Franchetti placed at its heart: Andrea Mantegna's St Sebastian, a late, intense image of the martyred saint, displayed in a small chapel-like space designed for it. The collection also includes Renaissance sculpture, bronzes and medals, Venetian and Flemish paintings, and fragments of the frescoes that Giorgione and Titian painted on the outside of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi near the Rialto, rescued from the weather. On the ground floor, the courtyard has a richly patterned marble mosaic floor laid by Franchetti himself in the old style and a carved well-head from the fifteenth century, and on the upper floors the loggias open directly onto the Grand Canal, with one of the finest views on the water.

Visiting: the Ca' d'Oro has its own vaporetto stop on line 1, directly in front of the palace, and the land entrance is on the Strada Nova, the busy main street of Cannaregio. As a state museum it has modest ticket prices and takes part in the national free-entry Sundays, usually the first Sunday of the month, which brings crowds. Opening days and hours have changed in recent years, and the gallery has been refreshing its displays, so parts of the collection may be closed or rearranged; check the official site for current times and any notices before you go. An hour is enough for most visitors.

How to enjoy it: start in the courtyard, with the mosaic floor and the well-head, then head upstairs to the Mantegna, and finish on the loggias overlooking the Grand Canal, where you can watch gondolas, delivery boats and vaporetti from a palace balcony. The view across the water toward the Rialto Market and the fish market's loggia is especially good in the morning. The collection is smaller and quieter than the big museums, which is part of its charm.

Pairing: cross the Grand Canal by traghetto, when it runs, or by vaporetto to the Rialto Market and Ca' Pesaro, or walk north through Cannaregio to the Jewish Ghetto and the canalside bars of the Fondamenta della Misericordia for cicchetti. The Ca' d'Oro also makes a good first stop on a Grand Canal day, admiring the palace from the water on line 1 and then stepping inside to see the view the other way. Be realistic about scale: this is a compact gallery rather than a major museum, and its pleasures are the building, a handful of masterpieces and the canal views. That makes it ideal for a rainy hour, a break from the crowds of San Marco, or a first taste of Cannaregio, the long, lived-in district that stretches from the station to the Fondamenta Nove.