Venice

Today we were up early and went for a walk to the Rialto Bridge and St Marks Square before breakfast. Venice is one massively crowded city during the day but if you get up early you can see these places with relatively few people.

We went on a guided walking tour of the Basilica di San Marco and the Doge’s Palace.

The Basilica is really fascinating. Venice was originally a separate country to Rome until Napoleon conquered it all in the early 1800s - no love lost there, even today! Before that though it was quite different in that they democratically elected a leader every few years - the Doge. He was seen as a servant of the people. He could only rule for a set number of years and then he was replaced. There was a group of 6 who supported him and there was also a senate of a couple of hundred who supported them. So it was very democratic for its time.

The Venetians were very much focused on trade and had become very wealthy as a result. This meant when the Vatican tried to enforce control the Venetians said no we will do it our way. So of course they are Catholic but they are not tightly controlled by the Vatican, a situation which still exists today.

Given the location of Venice the Basilica has a strong Byzantine influence with many of the icons looking more like Greek Orthodox images. Over the years as various influences came and went some of the imagery was changed so you have a mix of styles.

The Basilica, like the rest of Venice, is sinking and very high tides can flood St Marks Square so it is now surrounded by a water barrier.

All the gold and pictures on the walls and all the patterns on the floor are made from mosaic tiles. There are millions of them and they are stunning.

After the Basilica we went into the Doge’s Palace which was where the Doge lived, the seat of government, law courts, and also a prison. It was very opulent!

As well as having all the democratic processes in place they did have a secret police to monitor and report on any untoward activity. There were also slots where people could dob in someone who was breaking the law, if you did dob someone in you had to do it in writing and have it witnessed by two others - but be careful, get it wrong and you as well as your witnesses were punished!

The prison sits just across the canal. Criminals accused of certain offences were tried in the Palace and if convicted sent across the Bridge of Sighs to prison. We walked through the prison and it was also very advanced for its time with limits on the number of prisoners in each cell, they could have visitors, they were allowed to buy wine, and they had to work.

After the tour we went to a demonstration of Murano glass blowing and a talk about some of what they make. Really interesting. They make drinking glasses and decanters as well as chandeliers, jewellery, ornaments, plates, and so much more.

We then shared a pizza for lunch and had the afternoon to ourselves. By this time St Marks Square was packed and it was a hot day so we went to the Museum Corro which had a heap of statues, paintings, coins, maps, etc all impossibly old. As I said Venetians were traders so map making was very important.

By this time it was spritz and beer time followed by dinner in a cute restaurant in one of the alleys. Venice has a myriad of alleys and even maps become hard to follow so we have to use Google Maps to get around, much easier.

So far this holiday has been fantastic. The things I really like:

- the history is just fascinating
- the food is sensational and cheap

The things I don’t like:

- Italians have not got the message about smoking, everyone smokes and cigarettes are very cheap
- pickpockets, you do have to be careful, one of the ladies on the trip was targeted but they didn’t get anything

Tomorrow we are off the Lake Como with a stop in Verona.Read more