Today started off with breakfast consisting of rolls. You read that right, dinner rolls for breakfast. Not bad when you spread some nutella and jam on them. I also had these tiny toast things that were pretty good. After fueling up we headed off to St. Marks Square to accomplish one of my goals on this trip. Armed with leftover roll I was determined to feed and hold a pigeon.
It was actually pretty easy to attract them once they discovered you had food. When the first one landed it was kind of weird.
As soon as one came all its friends did too.
Lion statue next to the basilica
After feeding the birds we joined the crowd waiting to get into the basilica. The church has elements from 3 different times all meshed into one so it is very cool looking. It was built to house St. Mark's bones (he is the patron saint of Venice and his body was stolen from its original resting place) and the entire interior (and much of the exterior) is covered in moasics that all sparkle when sun or light hits them. The mosaics mostly display biblical scenes except for one that shows the town praying St. Mark's body is found (while building the church it was lost).
There are signs all over that say no photos but no one seemed to be enforcing this so I snuck photos anyway. This is standing up by the alter, you can see the Tree of Life in the top left.
The entire floor also has mosaics which is pretty cool
Next we climbed a set of steep stairs to the museum and this view over looking the rest of the basilica. The museum showed the various architectural elements on the exterior as well as some of the original pieces like the horses.
From here you can also go outside and get a great view of the square
There is also a great view of the water
Next we headed next door to Doge's Palace which housed the Doge and his wife as well as served as the meeting place for the city government. (No pictures allowed in here except on the outside)
Before the main entrance is the Mouth of Truth. People could use this to annonymously accuse their neighbors of things and make suggestions.
Entrance to the Palace is up the Golden Staircase which leads to the apartments and the government halls
After walking through the ornate palace covered in wood carved ceilings, fabric walls and paintings we crossed over the Bridge of Sighs and into the prison. (named because prisoners would look out, see the above view and sigh)
In the center of the prison was this courtyard (prison social hour??) surrounding it are prison cells in rows.
The next part of our afternoon was spent wandering the streets shopping. We ended up at the Realto Bridge which is lined with shops and so are the streets surrounding it.
The view of the canal from the top of the bridge
The funniest thing we saw while shopping was this hot priest calender
After shopping and lunch we took the Vaporetta over to another island to visit this church. San Giorgio Maggiorie. Riding to the top of the bell tower gives specacular views of the entire city.
In front of the naval museum
Military only
The Realto at night
