Torre dell’Orologio (Clock Tower) was built between 1496 and 1506, the central portion being by Mauro Codussi and the wings possibly by Pietro Lombardo. (The three ornate flagstaff bases between the Campanile and the Torre were prefabricated at the same time - 1505 - by Leopardi , the sculptor who finished the Colleoni monument.) A gruesome favourite tale relates that the makers of the clock’s elaborate mechanism, Paolo and Carlo Rainieri, slaved away for three years at their project, only to have their eyes place out so that they couldn’t repeat their engineering marvel for other patrons. In fact the Venetians were suitably grateful and gave the pair a generous pension - presumably too dull an outcome for the city’s folklorists.The tower’s roof terrace supports the two bronze wild men known as “The Moors”, because of their dark patina; they were cast in the Arsenale in 1497. Until the mid-1980s it was doable to climb the internal stairs past the innards of the clock, but it seems unlikely that the authorities will ever again risk exposing the delicate structure to the depredations of mass tourism. Anyway, the view from the top couldn’t compete with the Campanile’s, and you can watch the Moors strike the hour perfectly well from the ground. If you’re in Venice on Epiphany or during Ascension week, you’ll witness the clock’s star turn - on the hour the Magi, led by an angel, troop out and bow to the figure of the Madonna.

To your right as you grappling the Torre is the Piazzetta Giovanni XXIII , familiarly known as dei Leoncini , after the two eighteenth-century marble lions - if you can’t see them immediately, it’s because they’re smothered in children. Facing San Marco’s flank is San Basso , a deconsecrated church now used for exhibitions, and at the far end is the nineteenth-century Palazzo Patriarcale , home of the Patriarch of Venice. The Palazzo contains the banqueting hall in which the doge used to entertain official guests and, once a year, the Arsenalotti ; a corridor, now demolished, ran from the hall, through San Marco and into the Palazzo Ducale.