Basilica dei Frari

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, known simply as the Frari, is after St Mark's the most important church in Venice, and for art lovers it may be the most rewarding. The Franciscan friars began it in the thirteenth century and the vast brick building took its present Gothic form over the following century and more, with a lofty nave, two aisles and a ring of apsidal chapels, crowned by one of the tallest bell towers in the city. Its plain exterior hides an extraordinary collection, and the church's layout means you see it in a sequence that still works as the friars intended. Your eye is pulled down the nave, through the arch of the marble monks' choir, the only one of its kind in Venice still in its original position, to Titian's Assumption of the Virgin over the high altar, a towering, flame-red image of the Virgin rising to heaven that astonished Venice when it was unveiled in 1518 and made Titian the city's leading painter. In the left aisle hangs his Pesaro Madonna, a revolutionary off-centre composition painted for the Pesaro family, whose members kneel in the picture. Titian, who died during the plague of 1576, is buried in the church, under a grand nineteenth-century monument; across the nave stands the strange marble pyramid designed by Antonio Canova as a monument to Titian and built after his death by his pupils as Canova's own memorial. In the sacristy, Giovanni Bellini's luminous triptych of the Madonna and Child with saints still sits in its original gilded frame, and in a chapel to the right of the altar stands Donatello's carved wooden St John the Baptist, his only work in Venice. The composer Claudio Monteverdi is buried here too, in a chapel to the left of the high altar.

Practical details: the Frari is a working parish church in San Polo, so tourist visits are paid with a modest ticket that supports upkeep and restoration, and they stop for services; on Sunday mornings it is reserved for worship and visits begin in the early afternoon. Hours on other days generally run from morning to early evening, but check the official site or the regional tourism listing before you go. Shoulders and knees should be covered, voices kept low, and flash photography avoided. An audio guide is available, and the information boards are good. Allow an hour, more if you love Renaissance painting.

How to see it: walk straight up the centre of the nave first, so the Assumption appears framed by the choir arch as it was designed to, then circle back through the aisles. Visit the sacristy for the Bellini (its small scale is a lovely contrast with the Titian) and look for the Doge Francesco Foscari's Gothic tomb beside the high altar and the carved choir stalls. In the morning, light comes through the tall windows of the apse and sets the Assumption's reds glowing; on overcast days the church can be dim, which makes the paintings feel even more theatrical.

Pairing: the Scuola Grande di San Rocco faces the Frari across a small campo, and seeing both in one morning gives you Titian and Tintoretto, the two giants of Venetian painting, within a hundred steps of each other. From there, walk south to Ca' Rezzonico and Campo Santa Margherita, or east through San Polo toward the Rialto, stopping at a bacaro for cicchetti on the way. The nearest vaporetto stop is San Tomà on the Grand Canal, a few minutes away through the lanes.