Basilica di San Marco and The Doge Palace

Day 19 - Our mornings generally start off eating at the hotel breakfast and reviewing the game plan for the day. Today was no different, other than we had a served breakfast rather than buffet. Poor Dan's ears aren't any better, so Scott downloaded an App so Dan could use his phone as a microphone and hear better through his wireless headphones. Our hope was that this would work during our morning walking tour.

At 9:30, we headed to the Basilica di San Marco with our guide (who met us in our lobby) for this first stop on the tour. St. Mark's was actually rebuilt several times, and the version we see today was built over several years beginning in 1,063 AD. It is dedicated to and holds the remains (or "relics") of Saint Mark the Evangelist, the patron Saint of Venice.

The sarcophagus of St. Mark

Why so many big churches, you might ask?! Civic pride led many Italian cities in the mid-eleventh century to begin erecting or rebuilding their cathedrals on a grand scale. Venice was similarly interested in demonstrating its growing commercial wealth and power, which resulted in the reconstruction of St. Mark's in 1063.

Over time, the interior of the domes, the vaults, and the upper walls were slowly covered with gold-ground mosaics depicting saints, prophets, and biblical scenes.

Many of these mosaics were later retouched or remade as artistic tastes changed and damaged mosaics had to be replaced, which resulted in mosaics representing eight hundred years of artistic styles.

Interestingly, the church is currently under a renovation to help protect it from rising tides. In 2018, the second highest recorded flood hit Venice, flooding the entire city under several feet of water. St. Mark's is at a low point in the city, so it received major flooding and damage. They are currently erecting a glass wall around the exterior to stop the tides from flowing into the church during these events. The wall should be done by November.

One thing before we leave the church... one of the mosaics in the church features an image of Saint Thomas reaching out to touch Jesus, as Thomas didn't believe Jesus could be alive after his crucifiction. Since St. Thomas is the patron Saint of our family church in Clarkdale, I didn't want to miss including this image!!

Our next stop was the Doge Palace. By this time, Dan had ditched the ear phones as he was picking up all the background noise from everything around, and our tour guide's heavy Italian accent was making interpretation very hard for him. He was being a trooper, but was also starting to get a bit light-headed.

Entrance to the Doge Palace

Formerly the Doge's residence and the seat of Venetian government, the Palace is a symbol of Venice and recognized as a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. The Doge of Venice, sometimes translated as Duke, were the chief magistrates and leaders of the Republic of Venice between 726 and 1797. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the Venetian nobility.

Scott says this was his favorite museum, as it incorporated art, architecture, armor and weaponry, the jails from the 14th-19th centuries, courtrooms, and legislative and governmental rooms. This is him, in one of the court rooms (see the Scales of Justice above him?!).

A couple of interesting things about the jail cells. First, they were stout!! The bars were built into the walls. No one was breaking out of these things. Second, in the collage below, see a couple of examples of "graffiti" that prisoners scratched into the block walls. They were quite detailed! Finally, as the prisoners walked from the courtrooms in the Palace, over to the prison, they crossed over the Bridge of Sighs...and got their last look at freedom before entering the jail.

The image in the lower left of the collage is peaking out from the Bridge of Sighs from the inside of the bridge. Below is what the bridge looks like from the outside (Doge Palace on the right, prison on the left).

The rooms where the ruling nobles of Venice met were quite impressive!

After seeing the Doge Palace, we cut the rest of our tour short, as Dan was now getting dizziness. We dropped Dan and Lori back at the hotel and Scott and Gayle headed out to walk around the city.

Rialto Bridge

After strolling through many of Venice's quiet neighborhood's and stopping for a quick bite to eat, we finally ended up on the Grand Canal and stumbled across the Rialto Bridge.

It's very easy to get lost in the narrow streets of Venice, but we eventually would find our way to a landmark we knew. It was fun to see some authentic Venice neighborhoods, outside the tourist zones, and we even got to see their ambulance, police and fire departments in action at three different locations!!

After dinner this evening we had to take the requisite Venice gondola ride! We set sail from the Grand Canal, then wound our way through the narrow canals of the neighborhoods. An unexpected bonus...we saw the house where Mozart lived when he was 13 years old!!

St. Mark's Basilica was beautiful as we strolled home after the gondola ride. It was a lovely end to the evening.

Tomorrow we hope Dan will be feeling better and can join us on a trip to Murano and Burano.

Tours: Half-Day Private Walking Tour of Venice including San Marco's Basilica and Doge Palace Priority Entrance - by Best Venice

Private Evening Gondola Ride by Venice Events (although you really don't need to pre-book this...there are options for gondolas everywhere, and it is nice to just take it when you want instead of pre-scheduling)

Step Count: 17,313 steps or 8.7 miles