Venice day 1 (10/18)

Up early this morning to the sounds of more church bells and motorboats on the canal outside our windows. The weather was bright and sunny but a little cool. After getting our act together, went over to the breakfast room. Coffee, tea, croissants and rolls. Not your standard American eggs and bacon. Oh well, when in Venice, do as the Venetians do.

Breakfast over, we started off to Piazza San Marco. As good a place to start as any. The GPS said 35 minutes walk. However, it did not take into account what was in between here and there. Shops and scenes. It took us a couple of hours. We stopped in many shops and took a ton of pictures. We even bought a few things. There were mask shops, leather shops, glass shops, food shops and just about anything you could imagine. It was really hard to just move on. So many new and different things to see. A cappuccino and some chocolate along the way helped.

We finally go to the piazza. What a sight. It’s really very large with lots of people and pigeons. It is surrounded by buildings including the Doge’s palace, a basilica, office buildings on two side, a tall (325ft) clock tower, restaurants and scads of people. Again, this was not the crowded season. I can imagine in the middle of tourist season, this piazza would be a jam packed zoo. No wonder there are warnings about pickpockets. This would be a pickpockets paradise. It was pretty overwhelming. We had to sit down for a while and just try and figure out how to tackle it. Fortunately Nancy had a guide book which she actually read. We walked to the far end of the piazza and bought a couple of maps and went to the toilette. Finally we had a plan. Off to the Doge’s palace.

The palace is at least three stories high. The middle level is where one starts. It is the Doge’s private apartments. Basically, it’s one room after another. Some rooms were anterooms to other rooms. All were ornately decorated, walls, floors and ceilings. Not much furniture but lots of paintings and gold leaf. I don’t think I would want to be a Doge. It’s a lifetime position with lots of ceremony and responsibility but with no power. The power was in the hand of the wealthy merchants. The Doge was really just a figurehead. Some of the inner parts of the private apartments may have been his only escape from ceremony and all the functionaries telling him what to do.

I’m not much on history but it seems that for several hundred years 13th-17th century, Venice was very rich and powerful merchant state. Wondering through the upper floors of the palace one sees huge rooms devoted to the administration of Venice. There’s the Doge, the Council of 10, the Council of 40. Several sub-councils etc. I just have not had the time to read about the history of this place. We did see a painting in the Council of 40 chamber which is supposed to be the largest painting in the world. It really was huge and very powerful. We continued through the armory with a huge collection of period weaponry. Armor, swords, crossbows, very early guns. Very impressive. Then it was down into the prison and dungeons. All very interesting. After a while, one kind of glazed over but it was still very interesting. By the time we finished the palace, it was 5pm and everything else was closed.

We dragged our tired bods back to the hotel. But then Pascal and I headed back to the car to get some things we had left. We also wondered around looking for someplace where I could get internet access. No luck.

Back at the room, we got ready for dinner. By now it was about 7:30. We asked at the desk for their suggestion for a place to eat. He told us of one in a direction we had not been in. It was a little hard to figure out where he was pointing us but we found the general area on a map. Off we went. Nancy had her GPS and we had a map. Over a couple of canals and through a couple of plazas. Past several bars crowded with young people. A couple of wrong turns. However, one of the wrong turns brought us past a internet shop. They had wifi access but had just closed. Tomorrow I will check it out.
We eventually found the restaurant. It appeared to be a strictly fish restaurant but unlike most other restaurants, there were no translations. We walked a little further and discovered another restaurant in a plaza. We decided to eat there. We sat at an outside table even though it was night and getting chilly. There were no tables inside anyway. The food turned out to be pretty good. Better than the place we ate the first night. It also cost a little more. By now we understood the first course second course concept.

After dinner, we worked our way back to the hotel. By taking a direct route, we discovered that it was not very far. By now it was after 10pm and we crashed. It had been another very tiring day. But we were seeing Venice and have a good time of it.