The 307-foot bell tower at the heart of the UC Berkeley campus is modelled on St Mark's Campanile in Venice, and the family resemblance is obvious enough that Berkeley people have called it the Campanile since it opened in 1915. It is the second-tallest free-standing bell-and-clock tower in the world.
An elevator takes visitors to the observation deck, 200 feet up, where the views are exceptional: the bay, San Francisco, Marin, the hills above Berkeley, and on clear days a long sweep of the coast. Admission is a few dollars for non-university visitors.
The carillon plays three times daily — at 7:50 am, noon, and 6 pm — and student carillonnists give weekend recitals. You can hear it across much of campus and into the surrounding neighbourhoods.