During the life of the Serenissima Repubblica there arose special institutions committed to caring for abandoned children, in which orphans were educated in music and song. A visit to the Church of the Pietà, its choirs and museum, is a charming experience. Here Antonio Vivaldi worked and composed. It was here that Antonio Vivaldi taught, while his contemporary Baldassare Galuppi taught at the Ospedaletto where it is possible to visit the Sala della Musica.
The church of S. Maria della Pietà or della Visitazione is also known as the "Church of Vivaldi". An eighteenth-century church built on a project by G. Massari, interesting for the frescoes by Tiepolo that decorate the ceiling and the presbytery.
From 1978, on the occasion of the third centenary of Antonio Vivaldi's birth, the Church of the Pietà was reopened for concerts after a long period of silence. The Church still hosts, always respecting the sacred place, musical ensembles, with programs dedicated to Vivaldi and Venetian and European Baroque musicians.