San Marco is the most famous and the most crowded of Venice's six sestieri, home to nearly everything that draws the world's visitors to the city. The Basilica di San Marco, the Doge's Palace, the Campanile, Teatro La Fenice, and the length of the Grand Canal from the Piazzetta to the Accademia bridge — all are here. The neighbourhood is also the most expensive in Venice, with the hotels and restaurants around Piazza San Marco charging accordingly.
The key to San Marco is avoiding the tourist current. The streets immediately behind the piazza — east toward the Castello border, west toward Campo Santo Stefano — are quieter and have good wine bars and restaurants that serve locals as well as visitors. The Mercerie, connecting San Marco to the Rialto, is the city's main shopping street and perpetually busy, but the smaller calli running parallel to it are navigable. The sestiere has fewer residents than any other — it is the part of Venice that has been most completely given over to tourism — but it also contains more great art and architecture per square metre than almost anywhere in the world.