I’ve just spent a wonderful week in NE Italy, visiting Verona, Venice, Mantua and several small towns on the shores of Lake Garda.

In Venice there was the usual long queue to enter the Basilica di San Marco, so instead I walked around the back streets and came across this small Baroque church – Chiesa Santa Maria del Giglio. Inside were paintings by, Tintoretto, Veronese, Zanchi and Rubens (the only one in Venice apparently). There were only three or four other people in the church – such a contrast to the crowds in the Basilica and so nice to enjoy the atmosphere in peace.

Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to take photos inside but here is one of the exterior….