Well Venice got a good drop of rain last night but it was fine today. We got to St. Mark's Square a little earlier and there was barely a queue for the Doge's Palace, so we were able to take a look.
Another magnificent building – of gigantic proportions - dating back to the 14th century, the Doge's Palace was the seat of power and the palace of justice. We spent over an hour or more with audio players, going through the various rooms - the most spectacular being those displaying their array of armory – very gruesome!!!! We ventured down into the prison quarters, where those poor souls looked through brick vents towards a bridge over the canal – possibly their last look at the outside world – hence this bridge is called the "Bridge of Sighs", and today being one of the most popular tourist 'spots'.
What a brilliant place this is to meander the environs of the back streets to window shop. Speaking of shopping, I did want to buy a mask to remind us of Venice when we return home… and I did venture into many, many shops and finally found one that was not perfect, but Ok!!! Of course the Murano Glass is another great item to purchase, but as we are trying to downsize, we just look and admire these most beautiful pieces.
Another lunch in a café that just passed the test, we continued being the typical tourists, until it was time for a coffee in St. Mark's Square – we were warned about the price, ($10 a cup) but it was well worth it to have a good seat for half an hour or more, and might I add, a really lovely cup of coffee!!!!
The queues for St. Mark's Basilica were bearable so we hopped on and did a quick tour – another beautiful and remarkable building, albeit fairly dark inside, but steeped in history - sadly no photos inside.
Think we did all that we wanted to do in the last couple of days – got a great feel for the heart of Venice and we just loved every minute of it – wonderful memories. The sailaway in the evening was superb!!
Photos: Day 2 in Venice.
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