@petervg73
THE PERILS OF VISITING VENICE’S PIAZZA SAN MARCO are well known. In the glimmering golden light reflected from the fagade of the basilica, you risk being poked in the eye by a selfie stick, plopped on by a pigeon or fleeced for a plate of spaghetti alle vongole - if you aren’t first trampled by a horde of cruise-ship passengers. Yet escaping the maelstrom of over-tourism on display in the middle of the city can be simple. At the moment I visited, it took a 15-minute stroll northwards.