Venice’s Saint Mark’s Square or Piazza San Marco is one of the most beautiful squares in the world but is also very overcrowded by tourists. A large proportion of the tourists who visit Venice come as part of a cruise and so just spend the day in Venice. This means that thankfully, even though the square is very busy during the day, it becomes eerily empty at night, meaning that you can enjoy it in peace.

Many of the square’s buildings are majestically illuminated, the library building looks sparkling and exquisite and the front line of Ionic columns on the second level, reared by the smaller ones, uniformly arranges streams of light, making quite a display.

You can even visit some of the main attractions after dark like St Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace by taking one of the special nighttime tours. St Mark’s Basilica can be visited and appreciated up close without the usual crowd, both from the outside and on the inside with a tour, as can the Doge’s Palace.

The cafes, bars and restaurants in St Marks Square often have live music or an orchestra playing in the evenings but they don’t open overly late; so, afterwards you can just soak up the atmosphere of the empty square in solitude.