Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo

Hidden down a narrow alley near Campo Manin, this palazzo has one of the most unexpected architectural flourishes in Venice: a massive external spiral staircase that corkscrews up the outside of the building like a stone snail shell. "Bovolo" means snail in Venetian dialect, and the name stuck so firmly that even the branch of the Contarini family who lived here became known as the "Contarini del Bovolo" — the snail Contarinis.

The staircase was added around 1499 by architect Giovanni Candi, at a time when external staircases were common service features in Venice but nobody had thought to make one this theatrical. The tower features a series of arched loggias that spiral upward, blending late Gothic and early Renaissance styles in a way that somehow works despite breaking most architectural rules. From the top, the view across Venice's rooftops — a sea of red tiles, bell towers, and distant lagoon — is one of the city's best-kept secrets.

Orson Welles filmed scenes for his 1952 "Othello" here, using the spiral staircase as Brabantio's house. In the 19th century, the building served as a hotel, and one of its guests was the German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel, who discovered several comets and a nebula by observing the sky from the top of the tower. The palazzo appears in Jacopo de' Barbari's famous 1500 bird's-eye view of Venice, proof that it was already considered remarkable within a year of its completion.

For centuries, finding the Bovolo was half the adventure — there were no signs, and you had to know which alley to turn down. It's better signposted now, but the moment of discovery, when you round a corner and see that extraordinary spiral rising above the courtyard, still feels like finding a secret.