Today was the third day of my trip to Venice. I spent the entire day in the San Marco area seeing the area around the Rialto Bridge and touring the various sites in the Piazza San Marco (the Doge's Palace, the Basilica of St. Mark, the Correr Museum, and the Campanile). And then I went for a gondola ride accompanied by a guy playing the accordion and a serenading tenor!
The Doge's Palace was really cool. It was both the home of the Doge (the head of the Venetian Republic) and the seat of all the branches of government, not to mention also being a prison. In modern US terms, that would make it a combination of the White House, Capitol Building, Supreme Court, lesser Federal courts, headquarters of the Federal agencies, National Archives, and penitentiary. That's a lot to pack into one building.
Nearly every surface of the official parts of the palace are gilded and covered with paintings. It lets you know just how wealthy the Republic was. Not so the prison. It's just cold and drab and brutal, as you'd expect a prison to be. The notorious womanizer Casanova is reportedly the only person to ever escape from the prison, but it's tough to imagine how he managed it. My guess is he bribed someone. Or several someones.
St. Mark's Basilica echoes the gilded theme of the Doge's Palace. The entire interior of the domes is covered in gold (either paint or leaf, I'm not sure which). It houses the remains of St. Mark, as in Mark the Apostle. The Venetians stole his remains when they raided and sacked the city of Alexandria and then made him the patron saint of the Republic. The winged lion that symbolizes him also became the Republic's national symbol and is all over the city.
The view from the Campanile (bell tower) is absolutely amazing and well worth the 8 euro admission fee. You can see the entire city spread out around you. I'm so glad I came in winter rather than summer. There's no haze in the air to ruin the view and the canal doesn't smell. Plus it's cheaper and less crowded (at least since Carnevale ended, anyhow).
The view from the Campanile and my gondola tour are my two favorite parts of my trip thus far. Normally a gondola ride costs 90 euros, but I booked my tour over the internet before I left home for only 30 euros. There were about 15 of us all together spread over three gondolas along with three gondoliers, a guy with an accordion, and a tenor. It's pretty tough to beat an afternoon of being slowly boated around Venice while being serenaded.
Venice has to be one of the few cities in the world with no cars or trucks. Everything that normally gets picked up or delivered by car or truck (trash, mail, merchandise for the stores, people, etc.) has to go by boat. The lack of car/truck traffic makes it really quiet here. The canals are for boats and the rest of the city is for walking. I haven't even seen anyone riding a bike. I guess there wouldn't be much point though given the stairstep bridges that go over every small side canal. Venice really is a city of a thousand bridges.
Tomorrow, I'm off to the Dorsoduro and Giudecca neighborhoods to hit a few art museums (including the Guggenheim), a museum of Venetian history, and a couple churches.
(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)
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