More Venice

For the benefit of those of you who have written to let me know you will be doing the same tour in the future, I will explain what we did the first day. On Tuesday evening, the day before we started the guided tour of Venice, the 16 people in our group met in a meeting room of the hotel. We met Christina, the Royal Caribbean tour director, who lives an hour north of Venice in the mountains. She explained we would gather the next day and be joined by a local guide. The guide will take us through the Doges Palace and St. Mark’s Cathedral and then we would have the rest of the day on our own.

Christina explained what the proper dress is for the cathedrals we will visit during the week (no miniskirts or sleeveless tops—no problem for me) and a general review of the week’s agenda. She asked us to decide as a group what side trip we wanted to make on the bus ride from Venice to Florence. It was decided we will go to Luca (sp?). We have never been there so it should be good.

After Christina’s talk, we introduced ourselves. Everybody in our group is from the US and eight people all came together. Then we sampled some local wine and what Christina called ‘sweet’ olives. They tasted like the black olives in the US except they were green.

The guided tour starts at 8:15 AM on Wednesday, which we hope will beat some of the mid-day crowds. More in the morning.

We just got back from the morning and early afternoon in Venice. We did the tour first, beginning with the Doges Palace and then St. Mark's. I'll let the pictures explain.

 

Bridge of Sighs. On the left is the Doges Palace. On the right is the prison. After a prisoner was sentenced in the Palace, he was led across the bridge to the prison. In literature, it is said the prisoner would sigh as he got his final look out at Venice.

 

 

EVERYTHING is imported in Venice. Here is a delivery boat.

 

 

It was cloudy and misty this morning. Pictures are not the greatest today. The first public library in Europe is on the left and the St. Mark's bell tower (campanile) is in the background.

 

 

The couryard of the Doges Palace. St. Mark's in the background.

 

 

The same courtyard from the second floor of the palace.

 

 

A closeup of some of the sculptures in the courtyard.

 

 

The ceiling of the Golden Stairway inside the palace. Yes. That is 24 carat gold.

 

 

A closeup of one of the panels in the ceiling.

 

 

A cell in the prison. You were not expected to come out. Most prisoners were convicted of crimes against the state. The Venetian empire was large and had their own version of a secret service.

 

A closeup of a small portion of the front of St. Mark's. The marble was gorgeous in person. Anything you see that looks gold is 24 carat gold.

 

 

Another shot of the first public library in Europe.

 

 

You can not take flash photos inside St. Mark's. I set my camera to no flash and lucked out with the shot of the altar area. The 'entrance' used to be a curtained area to keep the worshipers on this side. Beyond the arches in the background is the altar. Under the altar are the remains of St. Mark. The tour did not include the altar area. I'm not sure any tour does. The church was built in the Eastern Orthodox style, not western Roman Catholic.

 

More tomorrow!