However, the crowds thin out beyond the magnetic field of San Marco, and in the off-season it s still possible to have parts of the centre virtually to yourself. Two of the distinctively Venetian institutions known as the Scuole retain some of the outstanding examples of Italian Renaissance art the Scuola di San Rocco, with its dozens of pictures by Tintoretto, and the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, decorated with a gorgeous sequence by Carpaccio. Although many of the city s treasures remain in the buildings for which they were created, a sizeable number have been removed to one or other of Venice s museums. The one that should not be missed is the Accademia, an assembly of Venetian painting that consists of virtually nothing but masterpieces. Then, of course, there s the inexhaustible spectacle of the streets themselves, of the majestic and sometimes decrepit palaces, of the hemmed-in squares where much of the social life of the city is conducted, of the sunlit courtyards that suddenly open up at the end of an unpromising passageway.
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