Campo san Barnaba, one of the liveliest little squares in Venice; any film enthusiast will recognise this is where Indiana Jones comes out of a manhole creating havoc among the unassuming tourists sat around the campo. The church is open but is momentarily hosting an exhibition on Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions. Going back to the year 1441, a famous wedding took place in this campo, between Lucrezia Contarini and Jacopo Foscari, the son of a much-loved but disgraced doge called Francesco Foscari; their tragic family story was told by Byron in verse and later made into an opera by Verdi called I due Foscari, in which the father was forced to banish his son from the city for a crime he did not commit, soon after which both father and son die in solitude.
On a lighter note, if you approach the archway leading off the campo, above it you’ll see the Casin dei Nobili, one of the many gambling houses which flourished in the city, despite it being completely illegal. Looking up from the pavement to the ceiling, notice a round hole which the custodian would look through to check for the arrival of any new-comers or, most likely, law enforcers.
