10-16 Venice, Italy

Arriving into Venice along the Grand Canal was a visual treat.  We passed lots of buildings and canals connected by little bridges.  This is the St. Marks Square area as seen from the ship – with the tall bell tower in the center.  The Doge’s Palace is on the right.   Venice is a city of about 120 little islands connected by bridges,with lots of canals as well as narrow and windy streets.

We learned on our tour why Venice was built on a lagoon.   The barbarians who were trying to conquer them were unable to maneuver in the marshes.  So, the lagoon became a refuge and a natural defense for the city.  It was built on millions of wooden pilons, then two layers of wooden boards crisscrossed, topped with six to seven layers of be blocks of white stone from Croatia. 

We took a walking tour that started from the Piazzale Roma, close to where our ship was docked.  We learned that in each little area there is a square with a main well that collected the rain water for that area and was filtered through the clay beneath the surface.  Each little area or neighborhood also had its own market, parish church, and one notable home.  We went through the Campo Frari area, San Polo, and San Silvestre area before crossing the Rialto Bridge built in 1591.  It had originally been a drawbridge, but after 1492 and the discovery of America and new trade routes, it lost its importance so the fixed stone bridge was built. It crosses the Grand Canal.

A walk through the Calle Mercerie to St. Marks Square ended our official walking tour.  But we ended up walking all afternoon through the St. Marks square area and enjoying all there was to see. 

We walked through St. Marks Cathedral (on the left) and the Doges’ Palace (on the right.) 

The Cathedral is an astounding example of Byzantine architecture.  It is elaborate not only on the inside, but the outside as well.  We were not able to take pictures on the inside, so bought a postcard of the main area.  We were able to walk outside on the 2nd floor to see great views of St. Mark’s square.

The Doges’ Palace was a wonderful surprise.  It is beautiful on the outside, but the inside is even better.  This is the center courtyard. It was the former residence of the Dukes of Venice and the seat of the Venetian government for 800 years.   Inside we walked up the Golden Staircase which was so elaborate with a ceiling of beautiful artwork, to visit the various rooms inside.  The main council chamber was one of the biggest rooms in all of Europe.  Throughout the palace were paintings of Tintoretto.  Every room was elaborate with art work of all kinds. 

At the end of the Doges’ Palace tour, you go across the Bridge of Sighs to the prison cells.  It is called this because the prisoners who were sentenced in palace had to cross this bridge, and it was their last sight of Venice before being imprisoned, thus the “sigh.”  The cells were of concrete with heavy wooden and metal doors – with a pass through for food, etc.  There were many of them all along windy little hallways. 

Somewhere in all of this we took time to have lunch in a little outdoor cafe on the Grand Canal.  While the setting was beautiful, the food was not good – and very expensive!  My Italian lasagna tasted like dog food – seriously!  Doug had ravioli, which was just fair.  So, that was a bit of a disappointment. 

We also walked through the narrow little streets and went in and out of lots of little shops.  We bought a mask – the kind that is used for their Carnival (like our Mardi Gras.)  There was not enough time to see or do it all, but we did as much as we could in one day.

As the sun was going down, it began to rain, so we started to make our way back to the ship – which was a challenge.  I was totally “dazed and confused” and had it not been for Doug and some other people we happened to see from the ship, I’d still be wandering the streets of Venice.  We took a water boat from St. Marks Square which made 13 stops before we came to ours (the last one!).  We then had to find our way to the People Mover (an above ground tram) that took us closer to the ship.  We then walked for 10 minutes in the rain to the ship.  So, the beginning of the day was much better than the end!