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| Leaving Switzerland and entering Venice |
After dropping our bags, the first order of business was to find an ATM to pull out some Euros. A nice man in an unnamed pizza shop directed us to the closest ATM, so of course, as a thank you to him, we doubled back and got the most delicious slices of pizza I've ever had in my life from his shop-for the most reasonable price EVER!
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| Fueling up for our adventures! |
Then we started our exploring! The goal was to get over to St. Mark's, so we started our journey. Of course we had to go over the Rialto Bridge, so we stopped to snap some shots of the Grand Canal as the sun was setting. We had our first gelato of the trip! There were some cute Christmas shops set up along the way, so we stopped at those too.
When we finally got to St. Mark's, it was closing for the day and people were everywhere! We took some time to snap shots of the golden mosaics on the outside and walked over to the Bridge of Sighs.
By this time it was pretty dark, so we made our way back to our hotel to find something for dinner. We ended up across the street from our hotel at a Trattoria and had the best meal with a Liter of wine. Yes, I just said LITER! Kevin didn't realize how large a liter was until it arrived! E la vita! All of that wine had us crashing early!
The following day we woke up to numerous church bells ringing all throughout Venice. We got ready and went down for our hotel breakfast before tackling the day. On our walk to St. Mark's Basilica, I found a shop with beautiful Venetian lace and bought a tabletop piece for my mama! It was fun to hear what makes Venetian lace true Venetian lace.
Fortunately, we didn't have to wait in line to get into St. Mark's. We spent a lot of time following Rick Steves' steps again and checking out all of the many golden mosaics that cover the entire church. It is said that the body of Mark, the apostle (like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) was in Alexandria, Egypt and two visiting merchants of Venice "rescued" his body and brought it to Venice giving the city instant religious status. Mark was made the patron saint of the city and his symbol, the winged lion is ALL OVER VENICE! The church is said to be built over Mark's body. However, some say that the body is really Alexander the Great's body and St. Mark's was burnt in Alexandria. Either way...
Kevin and I paid the extra few Euros to go behind the high alter to the see the Golden Altarpiece where the tomb of St. Mark lies behind the grate, or Alexander... Anyway, it was really cool to see it!
Next we climbed the stairs to the top of the Basilica, paid another few Euros and saw the original Bronze Horses before stepping outside to look down over Piazza San Marco and check out the replica horses. It was a gorgeous day!
We happened to catch the 24 hour clock chiming.
When we climbed back inside, we walked through the upstairs gallery/museum before leaving the church all together.
We were famished, so we walked along the water until we found a little restaurant to eat in. Of course we had pizza again! After eating, we walked back over to San Marco and entered the Doge's Palace, a place I've never seen. What an amazing home for the Doge (Duke/ruler of Venice) and the government!
We spent some time in the courtyard before walking inside and climbing the Golden Staircase to the first floor of the palace where the Doge lived.
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| The Doge's Palace is build onto the side of St. Mark's, so St. Mark's is the dome you see over the courtyard. Secret entrances between the two exist! |
Next it was off to the government rooms: executive, legislative and judicial rooms made for senate meetings, elections and judgements of criminals. Pictures weren't allowed, but we snuck some again!
We saw armory and the weapons museum.
And ended with a visit to the Hall of the Grand Council which could accommodate up to 2,000 people at a time (it was huge). Paintings of portraits of former Doges line the top of the walls in chronological order. One Doge is "blacked out" because he opposed the will of the Grand Council, was tried for treason and beheaded. No one wanted to remember him, so he was blacked out, but now he's the most famous! We found ways to sneak shots even after getting reprimanded by a guard!
After leaving the Grand Council room, we wound around across the Bridge of Sighs (YES we got to walk across it) and toured the prisons! They were dark and cold and really creepy! I would not have wanted to be a prisoner in Venice!
When we left the Doge and his beautiful palace, we walked down by the water because I REALLY wanted a painting or print from Venice. (I failed to buy one on my last trip and have regretted it since.) Well, we found a guy with paintings and etchings and bought a beautiful etching for 10 Euros (a steal). It was of a bridge and a canal, gondola included, with the St. Mark's bell tower in the background.
We started walking back to the hotel debating if we were going to take a gondola ride now or later. We wanted to go over to Murano to see the glass blowing, but they were about to close for the day, so a gondola ride was the last "must do". The only problem was that no gondoliers had asked us to ride and we didn't want to beg to ride and look desperate, we wanted to finagle a deal somehow. Lo and behold, we stumbled upon a gondolier that actually asked us if we wanted to ride, no deal, but we rode. Here's the crazy part. You can only see the St. Mark's bell tower from one bridge and one canal in all of Venice and we happened to be on the one gondola that went under that bridge. The etching we had just purchased was the ride we were taking. How perfect! It was meant to be!
After our ride, we got coffee at a little shop and I wasn't feeling so great, so we headed back to the hotel to rest for a little bit. I was feeling a little stuffy, so we sought out a pharmacy a little later for some meds and had a fabulous dinner at Ristoteca Oniga.
It was back to the hotel to crash after a busy day. The next morning we were off to a new spot...
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