Venice Day One

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22 October 2014

We last visited Venice about 11 years ago and with some excitement took the bus into town to re-acquaint ourselves with this famous venue. From the station it was the vaporetto, the water buses. We had meant to go along the Grand Canal but got on the wrong boat and finished up being taken along the southern edge of the city. This turned out well as in the bright and sunny weather it gave magnificent first views of the famous buildings.

On arrival we joined the throng of tourists and started our day with a tour of the Palazzo Ducal. For several hundreds of years during its most influential period Venice was ruled over by the doge and an intricate system of elected committees and councils. The Palazzo Ducal was the residence of the doge and the seat of government. The tour was far more extensive than we had inspected and went through many rooms both large and small but all richly decorated and covered with impressive paintings. We were also able to cross the Bridge of Sighs and look at the prison in the adjacent building.

The rest of the day consisted of a visit to St Mark’s Square, a look at the awe inspiring mosaics in the Basilica, a ride on the vaporetto to the Rialto Bridge and a wander through the streets of the Dorsoduro district until we found a restaurant that we liked the look of who served us an excellent supper. When we left there, navigation was a bit difficult in the dark but we managed to get back to the campsite, tired but happy.

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