Vení, Vidi, Vici... Venezia

Title translation: I came, I saw, I conquered... Venice. Jokes! We obviously didn't conquer it... we only had one day and Rome wasn't built in a day. Wait. We're mixing metaphors here, let's just get to the usual stuff.

Got up at 7 am - very impressive for us. Breakfast at the hotel buffet (they had a large range of sweet pastries... odd but delicious). Then wandered through the streets of Venice.

Made our way to Saint Marks Plaza - a lot of people but not too crazy and definitely better than the hordes we'd heard of. Small line for the free St Marks Basilica - moved through quickly and was interesting to see from the inside (very glamorous frescoes).

Then over to the Doge's Palace - bit pricey at NZD $35 each but worth it.

The Doge was the Duke of Venice and ruled over the city with various councils of noblemen etc. Very important guy, especially with Venice being such a rich and powerful city (they had impressive ship prowess which allowed them to be great traders and merchants). His palace was the seat of governmental power (basically the Beehive of Venice... except way wayyyyy fancier than the Beehive). The Doge couldn't leave the palace without certain rituals and arrangements.

The rooms flowed logically for touring and there were information panels (and we got an audioguide).

Some regal looking rooms with old paintings and gold decoration adorning the walls. Various council rooms - some with secret entrances. There were also lion's head wall slots where people would post anonymous declarations to inform on each other. Part of the council was a kind of secret police/autocratic type council - so there was a lot of public fear of prosecution. Interesting.

The armoury in particular was awesome - heaps of old but well preserved weapons. A bunch of swords all with different hilts - from simple s-shaped hilts to giant fancy ones, along with armour, crossbows and pikes.

There were some prisons too - much more extensive than they first appear. Some very small doors which would not have been fun to be thrown through.

The main attraction was the grand hall - very cool. A giant room absolutely covered with paintings on walls and ceilings - including the portraits of past Doges (apart from one guy who just has a black curtain painted for his portrait because of the whole he-committed-treason-and-was-beheaded thing). Really impressive room.

Next room was the treasure room, with a special temporary exhibition hosting the Al-thani collection of Indian (and Indian inspired) jewels. It was seriously impressive. Some massive diamonds, and non-faceted (e.g. lumpy) emeralds, and sapphires - a crazy amount of wealth to have in one room. Also explained a bit about different aspects (like how India has a long tradition of having jewels and gold to show power and status, and used mostly larger uncut gems, before later adopting the Western style of having faceted but smaller gems).

Also had swords and daggers and other random items made out of (white?!) jade and other materials. One cloth type thing that looked woven except actually it was made up of small diamonds and pearls and stuff. Crazy. Oh and a jade, emerald and ruby egg cup (for when you want a fancy breakfast but only have eggs).

No photos allowed in the exhibit but was impressive.

To top off the stellar time so far, we next saw some weird modern art thing about the port at Venice. Odd, confusing and basically 10 minutes of our life we'll never get back. But we did try to understand it - we're clearly just not smart enough to appreciate it. Oh well.

Also briefly checked out some rooms with parts of the facades, which randomly also had an espresso machine exhibited in a glass case with absolutely no explanation. Still unsure why it was there...

A great visit to the palace and would definitely recommend it.

Wandered some more, tried on clothes and had a nice tomato and seafood pasta from Dal Moro. Then back to San Marco to go up the Bell Tower (elevator this time, no stairs) for great views. <Insert joke about Wade being the hunchback of Notre Dame/Venice here>

Back down and more wandering. Considered getting a gondola, but was incredibly pricey - especially for a ride along randomly smelly canals. Instead wandered around and stopped for a coffee. Spotted the leaning tower of Venice. Then browsed some jewellery and stopped for more pasta - again the black ink and cuttlefish one and a delicious eggplant, tomato and ricotta one (Alla Norma). Can't remember the name of the place but it's on Calle Casera - was definitely the best (and cheapest) pasta we had in Venice.

Got more cake on way back (pistachio cake... yum!) then packed and got an early ish night. Very early start tomorrow!Read more