The “famosissima night,” as Venetians call it, is an integral part of popular custom, an occasion when the city powerfully evokes its thousand-year history. Created to celebrate the end of the terrible plague epidemic that struck Venice between 1575 and 1577, the Festa del Redentore now focuses on gastronomic traditions, with the ever-present bigoli in sauce and folklore that have made, over the years, this ‘most Venetian’ occasion one of the city’s most fascinating tourist attractions. Culminating moment is undoubtedly the fireworks display that lights up St. Mark’s Basin by day, giving new profiles of light to palaces, domes and bridges above the water.