Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs

This was expected, but the time zone was rough. I woke up at 2:30, then fell back asleep, later waking up at 7. It didn’t help that the AC in the room wasn’t working correctly, so the room was hot all night! We started the next day with breakfast at the hotel, complete with cookies, cakes, Parmesan cheese, and ham. We had a tour of Doge’s Palace booked for 9:55, but got there early. As we were wandering St. Marks Square, we noticed the bell tower was open, and had no line. We had been planning on visiting a less crowded bell tower later in the day, and were delighted by this update. We got lots of gorgeous pictures of the city from high up. We then proceeded to our Secret Itineraries tour of Doge’s Palace. This tour took us through the prison cells, which are not open to the general public. While the tour was cool, I don’t know how worth it is was, thought advanced tickets are absolutely necessary. After the tour, we strolled through the artfully decorated rooms of the palace, complete with a walk through the Bridge of Sighs. This is a bridge connecting Doge’s Palace, in which prisoners were led to see their last view of this beautiful city.

After Doge’s Palace, we took a vaporetto, the public transportation boats, to the Chiesa di San Barnaba Church. We didn’t go inside, but just looked around it. The appeal of this was that it was in a Indiana Jones movie (it’s actually a library in the movie). After this, we strolled around look inside various shops, including the Ca’ Macana mask shop. We got lunch at a little place, where I got a lemon chicken dish, and my parents got pizza. After our lunch, we had a Traghettò bring us across the Grande Canal. These are large gondolas, in which it is custom to stand. We walked around for a while, just taking in the beauty of the city. We decided to take a vaporetto on a ‘cruise’, just riding it through the stops. We eventually got to a more industrial part, in which we got off and took another boat back to Venice proper. We stopped at the Rialto Bridge, and market. I was a little disappointed in the market, as it was kind off a tourist trap, and very commercialized. After this, we took another vaporetto back to the Giglio stop, just a few feet walk from the hotel, where we relaxed for an hour or so.

We got cocktails at the hotel bar, and headed off to dinner. We had a place in mind, but it ended up being closed. We ended up going to the hotel recommended restaurant, Ristorante di Rafael. This ended up being AMAZING! I got a mixed salad (with wonderful tomatoes) and fettuccine bolognese. I was surprised how much I liked the salad without dressing, just drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The fettuccine bolognese was the best I’ve ever had, exploding with flavor in my mouth. My mom had tomato basil gnocchi, which rivaled my meal for the most delicious. My dad tried cuttlefish ink pasta, a Venetian classic, which he did not care for. We don’t love very fishy flavors, so it makes sense we wouldn’t love this. It was also very hard to eat, as it stained your mouth black. For dessert, I had a ricotta apple cheesecake, which was very tasty. Overall, this was an amazing 2nd day, and excited for what come next!Read more