David's Diary: Thursday, August 22, 2002
Venice: Doge's Palace
Vaporetti arriving at a stop
After a good night's sleep we were up and off the boat to start exploring Venice. Where you use streets for transportation in any other town you use the water in Venice. We were soon onboard one of the numerous Vaporetti, like a bus on the water, which travel all around Venice. Being boaters we felt completely at home as we traveled into the heart of Venice.
Procuratie Vecchie at Piazza San Marco
We stopped at the Zaccaria stop and walked over bridges as we made our way to Piazza San Marco, the heart of Venice. We took a look around and thought about going into the Basilica, but the line up was so long that we looked around for something else to do.
Palace Courtyard
Karalee and I have been to Venice once before, but we had never seen the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace). The Doge was the head of the Venetian government and the palace was not only his home, but the seat of government. The council members numbered from 1200 to 1700 at any one time and all could gather together in the enormous palace.
Letter box for filing complaints
One of the first things we saw was a small letter box with a carved head. Letters would be dropped in through the figure's mouth. These letter boxes were used to file complaints with the government. For example, to complain about the price of grain.
We toured the whole palace. As boaters we were especially interested in Marco Polo's map of the Mediterranean which is painted onto one of the walls. The map depicts the knowledge of a few hundred years ago and since navigation is so important to us we could recognize features that were incorrect or at least which we know to be incorrect today. Our tour continued through the splendid halls, the huge paintings, the armoury museum, and finally down into the basement where the jails were.
Our tour took a couple of hours and by the end of it everyone was hungry and ready for lunch. We stopped for an Italian lunch and then explored the tiny streets leading away from Piazzo San Marco. Everyone was still a little bit short of sleep after our twenty-four hour passage to Venice so we headed back to the boat to have an afternoon nap. We plan to be in Venice for a few days, so we don't feel that we have to try and see everything on our first day.
For more pictures of the Doge's Palace, Piazzo San Marco, and this day in Venice, visit our Venice pictures Web page. After looking at the pictures use your back button to return here.
