November 6 - Venice, Italy Day 2

Today is the end of one voyage and the start of the next.  Many will be leaving the ship and many will be embarking.  We stay on for the transatlantic!

We are up and off the ship by 8:30 am as we have tickets for the Doge's Palace Secret Itineraries tour at 9:55 am.  We head back to San Marco Square via the vaporetto.  This time we were able to secure 2 seats in the very front of the boat, which was much more enjoyable than the ride yesterday where we were in the crowded back.  We put on our earphones and listened to Rick Steves audio tour again.

The Grand Canal is busy with boats making their morning deliveries.

 This is a traghetto.  Since there are only 4 bridges that cross the Grand Canal, which is about 2 miles long, there are shuttle gondolas called traghettos that ferry locals at 7 different locations.  It only costs about 2 euro for a ride directly across the canal.

San Marco (St. Mark's) Square is much less crowded early in the morning.  This is the outside of the Doge's Palace, the seat of the Venetian government and home of its ruling duke, or doge.  It was the most power palace in Europe for 400 years.

We turned in our pre-booked voucher for our tickets and entered the palace courtyard.  The Doge's Palace was built to show off the power and wealth of the Venetian Republic.  St. Mark's Basilica is directly behind the palace (the onion domes).

Several of our friends from the ship also booked this tour, so we had time to chat while we waited for our Secret Itineraries Tour to begin.  We were guided through the prison area that is not open to the public with the general ticket.

It was dark, cold, and damp throughout the prison area.

A door to one of the prison cells

This is the room where hangings would take place.

We toured the administrative rooms and were told stories about the prison and one of its famous prisoners....Casanova.

We went upstairs above the Hall of the Grand Council...

and there was a display of armory.

The tour was about an hour and a half and was quite interesting.  We then could tour the palace rooms that are open on the general ticket admission.  The palace is wallpapered with masterpieces by Veronese and Tintoretto on the walls and ceilings.

Psychedelic floors!

 Each room seemed grander and grander as we moved through the palace.

Hall of the Grand Council

After the tour of the Doge's Palace, we wandered around the streets a bit to look for a place to have lunch.

We found a nice cafe with outdoor seating to enjoy our lunch of pizza.

 ...and dessert!

Then it was over to St. Mark's Basilica to see the inside with all its decoration of mosaics.  No photos were allowed to be taken inside, but, of course, they are available on the internet.

St. Mark's Basilica really shows the greatness of Venice.  It was built over several centuries and enriched with precious treasures often from the Far East.  Its architecture is a mixture of Byzantine, Roman, and Venetian.

The story of the Basilica goes that Mark, one of the four Evangelists, was given the task of writing his Gospel by Peter and did so in Rome.  The Venetians chose him as their patron saint because of his ties with Rome, thus declaring their independence from the Byzantine church.

Venetian merchants, while on the Eastern trade route, would stop in Alexandria to pray on the saint's tomb.  In 828 A.D. two merchants stole the remains of St. Mark and brought them to Venice.  The Doge had a magnificent church built as a new tomb for St. Mark.  

This was a very important part of Venetian history--in the Middle Ages, to own a saint's remains meant great earnings for the city through increased trade and cultural exchange.  For Venice, owning the entire body of one of the 4 Evangelists brought Venice great prosperity.

The mosaics tell stories.  There are over 8,000 square meters of mosaics.  The pictures were easily understood in medieval times.....not so easy for us today.

The entry to the Basilica was free but we paid to go to the San Marco Museum upstairs in the Basilica.  Again, no photos allowed until we stepped outside on the balcony for overview of San Marco square.

Mosaics on the arches of the Basilica; each one tells a story.

The symbol of St. Mark, a winged lion armed with a sword, became the city's emblem, representing civil virtues, strength and courage.

The Bronze Horses....the original ones are inside the museum (no photos!!)  They could be from ancient Greece or from ancient Rome but the thought is they are from about 175 B.C.  Originally the horses pulled a chariot driven by an emperor and they once had ruby pupils, long since gone.

From the internet, here's the real Bronze Horses in the museum.

Another attempt at a selfie.....on the balcony of the Basilica.

Since our 24-hour vaporetto pass had expired, our plan was to walk back to the ship and explore Venice away from the touristy area.  In theory, it's only a few miles winding through the streets and canals.  They say one should walk through Venice and get lost....and we did!

Following the signs on the buildings to the Piazzale Roma which is near our ship was difficult as they were few and far between and never seemed to be in an intersection where we had to decide which direction to walk.

With some meandering and probably going in circles, we did finally reach the Piazzale Roma and then walked over the bridge instead of taking the People Mover train and then into the port to board our ship.

Back on the ship, we enjoyed a Venetian sunset from our balcony.

Next, our last day in Venice.