I can't remember exactly why but after almost reaching the Piazza San Marco we headed up to the east. Here we are looking down the Rio Del Greci canal; on the right of it you can see the campanile of the Church of San Giorgio dei Greci, which dates back to the mid-1500's. It was the heart of the Greek Confraternity, which was closed down by Napoleon when he had a turn at running the place. Construction of the church was a prolonged affair in part because of the reluctance of the Pope to allow the practices of the Eastern churches to be, well, practiced.

The large building with the Armani poster is, believe it or not, also a church; the Church of Santa Maria della Pietà . It was constructed in the mid-1700's but the marble facing was only completed in 1906. Looking at Google Street View (the version shot from above, which doesn't carry a date) this is not the first time that such large advertising banners have adorned the church. However the ground level version of Street View (dating back to mid 2013) does not show such banners... but does show a church in serious need of repair. My suspicion, though I have not found anything to confirm this, is that this is their way of funding those repairs.

At least it's not as bad as the grubby little deal that was done with Sony over the Sistine Chapel. These signs might be a little... prominent... but they aren't costing the public any form of access.