Ca' Foscari

Ca' Foscari is one of the most photographed Gothic palaces on the Grand Canal, its rhythmic arcades of pointed arches marking the bend in the canal near San Toma. Built for a doge who was forced from office before he could enjoy it for long, the palace has been the main seat of Venice's university since 1868 -- making it a rare case of a grand medieval facade still doing real, everyday work.

Students are studying and staff are working in this building throughout the week. The Saturday tour exists precisely so that visiting does not interrupt that, and wandering into the courtyard on a weekday to look around is not the same as being admitted to it.

The tours are free, which is unusual for a building of this quality in Venice. That makes the ordinary courtesies -- turning up on time, staying with the group, not opening doors -- the only currency the university is asking for.

The Aula Baratto is a Scarpa interior in continuous daily use rather than a preserved room, and it survives because it is treated carefully by the several hundred people who pass through it every week.

For the Regata Storica, the free vantage points along the fondamente are the ones that cost the city nothing; hiring a boat to sit in the middle of the course adds to a congestion problem the regatta already has.

Ca' Foscari is a working university building, but free guided tours run on Saturday mornings, departing roughly every 40 minutes from the courtyard, and typically include the Niobe Courtyard and the Carlo Scarpa-designed Aula Baratto when university business allows. Arrive at least 10 minutes before a tour's start time; there's no advance booking for individual visitors.

This is a working university before it is anything else, and access follows the academic calendar rather than a museum timetable. Free guided tours run on Saturday mornings, roughly every 40 minutes from the courtyard, with no advance booking for individuals -- arriving ten minutes early is the practical requirement.

What the tour includes varies. The Aula Baratto and the Niobe courtyard are the draw, and both are released only when university business allows, so two visitors on consecutive Saturdays can see quite different amounts of the building.

Term time fills the courtyard and the surrounding calli with students and gives the place its real character; July, August and the Christmas break empty it almost completely.

The best view is not from inside at all. The facade needs to be seen from the water or from the opposite bank, and the first Sunday of September -- the Regata Storica -- puts it at the centre of the one day a year the canal belongs to the city rather than to traffic.