The whole city of Venice is a stage set: palazzi flaunting their façades, gondoliers barking in striped shirts, churches packed to their domes with Tintorettos and tourists. But look closer—or better, lose yourself in the less-trodden sestieri—and you’ll find the best things are almost always behind an unmarked door, halfway down a calle that smells faintly of brine, or over on a satellite island. 

So, if you’re sick of Saint Mark’s Square, the Rialto, and museums packed shoulder to shoulder, these are 10 places you’ve (probably) never heard of in Venice—two of which were spotted during a recent special event organized by Mytheresa and La DoubleJ!—from a labyrinth inspired by Borges to a cloister that’s the oldest urban vineyard in the city.