The Gallerie dell'Accademia is Venice's premier art museum, holding the most comprehensive collection of Venetian painting anywhere in the world. The collection traces the arc from Byzantine gold-ground panels through the Renaissance masters to the 18th-century vedutisti. Housed in the former church and convent of Santa Maria della Carita on the south bank of the Grand Canal, the museum was founded in 1750 as the teaching gallery of the Accademia di Belle Arti and has been steadily enriched ever since. The highlights read like a syllabus of Venetian art history. Giorgione's enigmatic Tempest, Giovanni Bellini's luminous Madonnas, Titian's dramatic Presentation of the Virgin (painted for this very building), Tintoretto's Miracle of the Slave, and Veronese's monumental Feast in the House of Levi all hang here. Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man lives in the collection too, though it is only shown on rare occasions due to its fragility. Vittore Carpaccio's narrative cycles and Canaletto's crystalline cityscapes round out a survey that no other museum can match for depth in this tradition. The building itself, with its original wooden ceilings and the grand Sala dell'Albergo, adds to the experience. A recent expansion and multimedia space have modernized the visitor experience. Gallerie dell'Accademia tickets cost 20 EUR for general admission, with free entry for under 18s and a reduced rate of 2 EUR for EU citizens aged 18 to 25. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00am to 7:00pm (closed Mondays), and ticket sales end at 6:00pm.