Weather forecast: today will be cloudy with sunny periods,
temps of 23°C, possibility of rain 13%.

Actual weather: Temps of 17°C, tipped it down all night,
stopped for breakfast then rained for 5 solid hours. Why don’t the weather gods
LISTEN to the forecast?

 

Anyone who knows my getting-up habits will be amazed to hear we left the site at 08.40 for the 9am boat :) in my case nothing was stopping us enjoying Venice, though we did get quite wet (underexaggeration) on the 15 min walk to the ferry and there was a Vaporetto strike from 10am to 1 pm. Macs ‘n Brollies R Us. Venice looked really different from across the lagoon being all hazy & grey, but the people were very colourful as everyone was wearing a brightly coloured poncho, carrying an umbrella, or both.

 









We started in the Doge’s Palace, the residence of the rulers of the city + the law courts/tribunals etc. Its a reasonably nice building on the outside (Gothic from the 1300s) but the interior is stunning (Renaissance from the 1500s.) Every room and gallery is large and filled to the brim with huge paintings by Carpaccio, Bellini & Titian amongst others. The ceilings have to be seen to be believed, and the Golden Staircase is just an incredible work of art. 
      
                         

As part of the non-guided visit you walk inside the Bridge of Sighs which links the courtrooms to the prison, and the difference in atmosphere & decoration is shocking – you can just imagine the poor prisoners losing all hope as they crossed the canal from renaissance masterpieces to total deprivation, including light. The prison is in the cellars, all bare brick and crumbling plaster and is one of the most depressing places I have ever visited.

 

Back in the main building, we walked the corridors past a feature I liked: set into the wall were postboxes marked by lions’ heads or gargoyles - places for people to slip notes denouncing fellow citizens for crimes they may have (or have not!) committed. Sadly Napoleon ordered most to be removed when he was temporary ruler of Venice, but a couple still remain.








 
The Chamber of the Great Council is stunning – a huge room richly decorated on every surface with paintings and frescoes. The walls show scenes from the history of the city while the wall behind the Doge’s throne holds the longest canvas painting in the world, Tintoretto’s Il Paradiso. It is fairly dark in there, as it would have been in the 14^th century, but of course it helps to protect the amazing artwork too.

 

Leaving the palace, we crossed the Piazza San Marco to visit the Correr Museum which promised to tell us the history of Venice....after queueing with other brollied people for 25 mins just to get TO the door, we spent an enjoyable hour or so admiring the statuary from years BC, coins, glass & artefacts from all ages, and most bizzarely, some high-heeled shoes from the 1500s. And I thought modern day shoes were far too high & uncomfortable! 

 

We (well, I) decided to brave the rain and queue to see inside St Mark’s Basilica – its pretty good on the outside & I was keen to see more, although the queue was about 100yds long, literally. I bumped brollies with others while R went off to suss out where the bag drop was ( you cant take bags ANYwhere inside anything & always get wanded & your bag searched). After about 10 mins of slow shuffling, he returned & quietly told me to follow him. Apparently
if you go round the corner & leave your bag, they give you a blue plastic ticket.....and you can jump the queue & go straight in! So we did :)

















As St Mark’s is free to enter, it was a bit of an international scrum inside, but nothing could detract from those ceilings – huge pictures made from tiny coloured mosaic tiles with the background in gold. Stunning. Sadly no pictures were allowed, so mine are from Google to give you an idea what it was like. Lunch was in a little back-street cafe – Panini & a drink for €4.90, a fraction of the price of those places on the Grand Canal. 

                                        

We’re moving on tomorrow, heading for the Black Forest via 1 night in Austria, so the rest of the day was spent packing things away/reading/doing the washing. To reward ourselves for all this industry, we ate out at the pizza ristorante down the road, a very nice meal of salmon, shrimp & tomato pasta in my case, topped off with a complimentary glass of lemon sorbet with vodka & a lesson from the smiley owner/waiter on how to eat like an Italian :)