Venetian Canals:
Today was
our second day in Venice and we got to really dive into the sites and beauty of
the city. Venice is very small—tourists probably only need a day or two to see
all that they really want to see there, however it is remarkably charming and
captures your attention at every turn if you sit back and really take it all
in. For breakfast I went to an outdoor café and had a chicken salad Panini with
a Cappuccino. I am really getting used to these Italian cappuccinos! I waited
for Max to show up from getting a straight-razor shave recommended to him by a
barista near our hotel, and we walked over to Basilica San Marco.
The Interior of St. Mark's Basilica:
The lines
were not too bad when we got to the basilica, so we went inside to explore all its
splendor. It is said that Saint Mark’s Basilica is a smaller version of what
the Hagia Sofia would look like if all its original mosaics were intact. Having
been to the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Turkey, this really intrigued me. The
entire inside of St. Mark’s Basilica is covered in gold tile mosaics. There is
literally not a single place not covered in gold inside this church. There is a
reason it has been nicknamed the “Church of Gold” since its completion in the
eleventh century. The church also supposedly houses the remains of St. Mark
himself, however there is debate over whether his body had been removed and
relocated, or whether the remains were in fact those of Alexander the Great
instead of St. Mark. His tomb lies beneath the altar and alongside a beautiful
work of Byzantine craftsmanship, the Pala D’Oro, decorated with gold and almost
two thousand pieces of priceless jewelry.
The Original Quadriga of St. Mark:
After
walking around the cathedral we went into the treasury to see more priceless
artifacts, including the four horses of St. Mark which adorned the front of the
cathedral for seven centuries beginning in the 13th century. We also
got to take in some views of Piazza San Marco from the cathedral balconies and
check out the incredible marble work on the exterior of the church. We soon
exited the beautiful church and walked over to the adjacent Doge’s Palace, or
Palazzo Ducale.
The Inner Courtyard of the Doge's Palace:
The Doge’s
Palace was the seat of the supreme power of the Republic of Venice for almost a
millennium. The palace was built in the ninth century and renovated countless times,
and is now a museum and one of the top tourist destinations in the city. The
gothic exterior façade and lavish interior courtyard are wonderful
architectural achievements and a great way to spend the afternoon admiring.
There are also countless artifacts and paintings of all the Doges of Venice. There
is also a vast collection of Veronese and Tintoretto works inside the palace. The
biggest painting in the Doge’s Palace is a fresco called “Il Paradiso” that
covers an entire wall of the biggest room in the palace, however it has been
damaged significantly by fire.
The Bridge of Sighs:
The palace also sits on top of the
Doge’s prisons, and visitors can walk through them and across the famous Bridge
of Sighs, or
Ponte dei Sospiri. During the time of the Venetian Republic, as prisoners were being
escorted from their cell to be executed, they passed over this covered stone
bridge and were offered one last view of the Venetian lagoon outside. The name
then comes from the sigh uttered by prisoners as they realized they would never
again take in such beauty. A bit depressing, but an amazing story and site no
less. Unfortunately, today, the bridge is nearly entirely covered by corporate
billboards and advertisements. Both tourists and Venetian locals lament this
trend, but it continues across the city.
Harry's Bar:
After visiting the palace, Max and
I decided to find some food and drinks. We tried to go into the world-famous
Harry’s Bar in Venice, a Hemingway staple, but were not allowed in because we
were wearing shorts. We decided to go eat lunch and come back later to get some
drinks there. We wandered around and found a delicious Tapas-style restaurant called
Cantina do Mori where we ate basically everything they offered, mostly seafood,
before grabbing some beers and wandering again. I think this time we did manage
to get lost, but we were trying to and really didn’t care. We ate some fresh
fruit sold off of floating fruit vendors and wandered for hours beer-in-hand.
We got hungry again eventually, and settled on a spot called Osteria Toni where
we ate Caprese Salad, Spaghetti Bolognese (again!), Swordfish, some local white
wine, and some Limoncello for dessert. It was tasty, but unfortunately there
was a piece of glass randomly in my pasta, so I was given a free entrée!
The Santa Maria Salute Church at Night:
We grabbed some pants and wandered
around the south side of the city until night-fall. It was very cool seeing
some of the famous landmarks, palazzos, churches, and piazzas all lit up at
night on that part of the city. We did get to go back to Harry’s Bar, and try a
couple of their world-famous drinks. Harry’s Bar invented the Bellini, which is
Prosecco and Peach Puree in a cocktail. We tried one of those, along with the
Montgomery Martini. The Montgomery Martini is named for British Field Marshal
Bernard Montgomery, who preferred a fifteen-to-one troop ratio going into
battle, thus the martini is a
fifteen-to-one ratio of gin to vermouth. Extremely dry! Also very expensive. Incredibly,
the bar also invented the Carpaccio style of food. Pretty crazy place…
Lightning over the Rialto Bridge:
After a few drinks emptied our
pockets at Harry’s Bar, we headed back to the hotel to do what we did the night
before—enjoy some beers and use the WiFi while sitting alongside the Grand
Canal. We did get to experience a pretty incredible wave of thunderstorms that
came through, offering some awesome lighting to the beautiful facades of the
buildings. I could live in this place in a heartbeat.
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