Another fun day in Venice! Had a little bit of a rough night, the mattress of my hotel bed is not new, in need of replacement and not even close to firm. Breakfast was great and got me on my way to my first stop of the day, St. Mark’s Basilica.

The Basilica is one of the most visited sites in Venice, right up there with the Palace next door. Unfortunately, no photos or bags are allowed inside. Because of their setup this means you can game the system a bit. They have a storage place for your bag free for an hour. Since it is only for an hour they give you a pass which gets you to the head of the line, neat! Instead of doing that, I left my bag at the hotel and went on my favorite ride in the park, the line. It actually wasn’t too long of a wait and the Basilica is worth the wait.

An interesting mesh of eastern and western influences, the Basilica uses mosaics instead of paintings to cover the ceiling area. I really would not have wanted to be the one to put in all of those little tiles! The space inside is fairly dark and I’ve heard they only turn the lights on twice a day. I assume this is to preserve the art on the walls and ceiling. They are very strict about the whole ‘no photos’ thing and clamp down on anyone who even looks to be taking a photo. Now, while entrance is free there are areas that require payment to get to; I’m cheap, I skipped them. I have heard tell that it can get very crowded in the Basilica so I had gone first thing. It wasn’t elbow to elbow and you could move around so I recommend doing it in the morning.

After my wander through the Basilica I headed next door to Doge’s Palace. The Palace was definitely not free but at least the non-prepaid line was about the same wait as the Basilica. The Doge’s Palace was the center of government for the Venetian Republic and even though they were pretty ruthless the government was very stable and popular while it existed. The Palace is a testament to the power of the Senate and of Venice. I have been to many palaces around Europe but this one impressed me the most because it wasn’t built to sate on rulers ego but to extol the accomplishments of a republican government. The rooms were pretty tastefully done given the time period and they definitely would have shown visiting dignitaries the power of the Republic.

As part of the tour you can also see the prison connected to the Palace by the Bridge of Sighs. It’s pretty bleak and there is a small room showing some of the things prisoners had drawn or written on the walls.

After finishing the walk through the Palace I spent the rest of the pleasant day walking the streets and doing some light shopping.

This will most likely be my last post of the trip as starting tomorrow all I will be doing is traveling home and that will only be long and boring.

I am truly glad that I was able to come back to Italy and suspect I will come back again. It has been an interesting trip all around and a good first scouting trip to Croatia. I will say that I think Italy has better food and a more established tourism trade that makes it easier to travel there but I believe that Croatia is fast catching up and is a place everyone should add to their list of holiday countries.

I hope you enjoyed following along on this trip with me. I’m glad to finally be ending one of these trip blogs without the unfulfilled promise of a summary post afterwards. I never remember to do that! If you ever have any questions about the places I’ve visited please feel free to ask, I’d be happy to try and answer.