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Published: October 15th 2014
Today was a guided tour day in the morning, and a shop-till-you-drop day in the afternoon, also known as free-time.
We were guided through the Doge's Palace, the prison where the bad boys were kept, went over the "Bridge of Sighs", saw St. Mark's Cathedral, the Duomo, as it is called. Some interesting things about this island. It is built in the middle of a lagoon. About 900 years ago, or more, they decided to pound tree trunks into the mud, with a mixture of sand and clay that hardened better than concrete. Now, of course, if you think about that, you should also think about what you put on top of those trees. Sometimes, that wasn't done. This was after the Roman Empire, so no Roman Engineering to help with structures. So, St. Mark's floor is not very level, with all the pillars holding up the church, it is causing it to be an uneven floor. Most of the tourist sites, such as that, and the bell tower, limit the number of people in the building to control the extra weight.
After the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's, we decided to take a ride in a pirogue, but
No wallpaper here.
As mentioned before, the halls and palaces of powerful countries, and people were decorated with art, which was commissioned by the owners. The great Italian masters have their work on display all throughout Italy, and the paintings tell a story since reading wasn't widely practiced.here they call them Gondolas. They paddle all over the place, and are outfitted a lot better than a pirogue. The canals are so quiet and serene and the trip took us from near where we got out of St. Mark's Square, up canals, to the Grand Canal, the main drag, near the Rialto bridge, and down another canal, back to where we started. A big circle so to speak, and a very relaxing and easy ride. Along the way, we passed a couple of other Gondolas that had paid extra to have someone sing Italian songs while they paddled the canals. (Volare was very popular, but there were others that are familiar, but didn't remember. Dean Martin sang most of them when I heard them before. For those not old enough to remember, he was a singer)
Getting out of the gondola, we headed to meet up with some folks and get some lunch. We had a local recommendation for a little place, kind of off the beaten path, or canal, that we totally enjoyed. A nice quite, relaxing lunch, delicious food, great wine, and beer.
We had some things to get, so we didn't use the
This little mail box is not a suggestion box.
This box was used if you wanted to turn in a neighbor or friend for being unloyal to the government. You had to write it, and sign your name, no anonymous letters here. Then you had to have two other witnesses sign it. Then trial, and verdict. If later facts found that you lied, then you die. Death Row did not have to have many cells. Justice was quick. shop-till-you-drop function of the afternoon. We finished our meal, and the took a leisurely stroll back to the area of the hotel, and looked for the things we needed to get.
We got back to the room, started packing to leave in the morning, (we have a 6am call for luggage at the door), got dressed for supper, and headed down for our Good-Bye Venice dinner. The restaurant gets a 0.05 star out of 5.0.
The water taxis take everyone on and off the island, and they do it well.
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James Keating
non-member comment
Gondola
I would pay an extra €20 for them NOT to sing on my gondola ride. Seems like it would ruin the relaxing ride.