Venice - Day 5


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April 30th 2016
Published: April 30th 2016
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We had a big day today exploring Venice! This morning we had our buffet breakfast at our hotel (which we took advantage of!) and then started a walking tour around Venice. Our guide took us around all the parts of Venice that we probably wouldn't have got to see or know the significance of if we'd done it by ourselves. We went over the famous Rialto Bridge, walked through the local market place and visited many courtyards. We learnt that if a street name contained Rio, it used to be a canal and that Venician is a different language from Italian and when they tried to change the names to Italian spelling, the locals crossed out the extra letters to change it back. There are many pictures and sculptures of lions on the buildings around Venice which symbolises St Mark and if the lion has a book that is open it means it was built in a time of peace, if it was closed it means it was in a time of war. Venice is built on sand and mud and is in a lagoon, so when there's a big high tide it floods! Our concierge told us a funny story of how some of his guests tried to walk to the hotel in a flood, but didn't notice that the hotel is on the other side of a canal and they fell right in!

After the tour we had a quick rest at the hotel and then headed to Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), which is the biggest square in Venice. We bought some tickets online to skip the line at St Mark's Basilica (which was so worth it!). It is so beautiful, it is massive and all the inside is done in mosaic and has gold everywhere! We walked along the top of the Basilica and had an amazing view of St Mark's square from up top. We then had enough time to do a tour inside Dodges Palace which was next door. It's the biggest palace I've ever been in and one of the rooms you could fit about 4 basketball courts in there (according to Blair). It is the one of the biggest rooms in Europe! It all has beautiful murals and paintings on the walls and roofs as well. It also has a bridge that connects the palace to the prison. It is called the bridge of sighs as it's the last bit of light they see before they go to prison (where most of them died). We've had a massive day today and according to our phones we've done 24000 steps! So time for us to get some rest and tomorrow we plan to have a more relaxing day. Buona notte (good night)!


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