One last visit to St. Mark's Square

Courtyard of the Doge's Palace

Lunch in the square

Our final day of Venice and of Italy.  We'd thought of getting an early start to beat the crowds, but we awoke to pouring rain -- so we stayed in and did some family reading instead.  Luckily the rain stopped around 10 am, and since it was the only substantial rain of the whole trip, we weren't complaining.

Today's agenda was to return to Piazza San Marco (a book we listened to with the girls that was set in Venice, The Thief Lord, says that everyone in Venice visits St. Mark's Square at least once a day) and see some of the sights.  Foremost on the list was the Doge's Palace.  (This, along with some of the other landmarks on the square, is referenced in ANOTHER book set in Venice, The Magic Treehouse: Carnival at Candlelight.  Lanie is obsessed with The Magic Treehouse so this made things considerably more interesting for her.) 

As with the Colosseum in Rome, we were able to beat the ticket line by buying our combination ticket at the rather less popular Correr Museum.  And the museum was pretty cool!  We all loved the exhibit of crazy carnivale dresses, and I was impressed by the exhibit that had every coin ever minted in Venice, starting in the year 820.

While waiting in the LONG line for St. Mark's Basilica (we couldn't avoid that one) we got to watch the hour strike twelve, which is marked by two statues repeatedly striking a bell.  The same clock tower also contains the world's first "digital" clock, which flips over every five minutes.  (See a photo plus Lanie's rendition here.)  

The Doge's Palace was a great stop and an amazing study in contrasts.  First we walked through the very sumptuous and ornate state rooms, with their impressive art and architecture.  Then we turned into a stone passageway and were suddenly plunged across the "Bridge of Sighs" and into the grimmness of the prisons.  We were able to explore the many levels of prisons and see the graffiti that had been left there by generations of prisoners.  (I think the kids liked the prison better than the palace.)

Optical illusion floor in the Doge's Palace

***

From Bob:

            Venice is a walking around theme park interspersed with a boat ride or two.   Each street, bridge and side alley calls out to be explored.   Even the smallest passages have the potential to lead somewhere interesting.  On the other hand, some streets seem like major walkways, but then they just wind up in a dead end.  

            I suppose it’s easy to get lost, but we’re sticking to pretty well-traveled territory.  Our apartment is a short walk from the Rialto Bridge, which is right in the center of the town.   To get back and forth from there to Piazza San Marco, we follow signs painted on the sides of buildings.  Sometimes the arrows on the signs point two different ways.  You can get to Saint Mark’s this way or that way.  Take your pick.  Don’t bother with street names – our apartment is on the Corte della Ca’ Amadi, but I doubt anyone would know where that is.  Just follow the arrows on the wall back that say “per Rialto.”  They’ll lead us home. 

 

View from the palace

           Although there was a fair amount of foot traffic as we searched for a restaurant tonight, things have calmed down from our first night, which was a Saturday.  There were lots of people singing in the streets that night.  And drinking.       

            Tonight we followed some interesting side streets and found the first of the three things we were looking for: a place for cicchetti, which are Italian bar snacks.  Most are fried things , like peppers and zucchini.  There were also some meatballs and ricetta balls, but can’t honestly say I’m wholly sure exactly what I ordered. It all tasted good eaten off a barrel in the street outside the bar, though.

            We were not quite as successful with quest number two.  For our dinner restaurant we kind of succumbed to a high pressure waiter who popped into the street while we were reading the menu.  What we really should have done was peek inside to see if anyone was already in there.  They weren’t .

Last look at Venice from the Bridge of Sighs

            To be fair, the food wasn’t bad.  It was just a little uncomfortable being the only ones in the restaurant.  We had tried to avoid this. We waited until 7 pm before shopping around for a place to eat – we weren’t going to be those pitiful tourists who showed up for dinner at 5:30. Eventually people trickled in and the place was half filled by the time we left.   It wasn’t the enchanting Italian dining experience that we had hoped for, but I enjoyed my sole, and at the next table was a German (or maybe British) fellow who looked just like Larry Bird.  That was pretty cool.  German Larry Bird was having a fine time, too.   GLB’s happiness was contagious.  I was in a pretty good mood when we left.

            So then we kicked about for our third goal of the night, a gelato bar.  If you’re in Italy, you’re never too far from one of those.   From there, it was just a matter of following the “per Rialto” signs until we saw the pink church.  That’s all you need to know about navigating in Venice.  Also, pick a different restaurant then the one we picked.   Unless German Larry Bird tells you differently.

St. Mark's Basilica

Cicchetti