A Merchant in Venice

Get it? I used to be a merchant?
...Nevermind.

Venice is like a fairy tale, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It is gorgeous, with canals crossing through the city, and the sea all around it. It’s made up of 117 tiny islands (“islets”), and has 409 bridges.

We got the 3-day unlimited public transportation pass, which allowed us to take the bus to our Hotel in the neighboring town of Mestre (the only “land” bus we took), and allowed us to hop on & off the ferries all day. The ferries work just like buses, with multiple routes, stations, tickets, and a schedule.
Here’s a “bus station” on the water:

ALL of the transportation in Venice is done by boat, including ambulances, taxis, and even the DHL delivery boat (below). It is amazing to have a whole city with no cars.

So let me clarify – while Venice is in total a little slice of heaven, there is the tourist center which is a little slice of hell (at least during high-tourist time in the middle of the day). It’s called Piazza San Marco, the center with all the historical must-see sights. It has long lines, and it’s a sea of crowded chaos, with loud, pushing, shoving crowds... And tourist-trap prices. But it’s a must-see, so we got in there (and got out). The 4 sights listed (and numbered) below are on San Marco Square. Here’s the square from the water (from the Grand Canal) -

Here’s the inside of the square:

Here are the San Marco Square sights:
1. San Marco Cathedral (built in its current from in 1063 – Byzantine architecture). I must admit, I understand why the line is so long - mosaic marble on the floor, mosaic tile & gold on the ceiling & walls... It is pretty incredible. (No pictures allowed inside so that you'll buy a postcard. We bought a postcard.)

2. The Doge’s palace (built in 1324 – gothic architecture) - which was the main governing center of Venice, also included the residence of the doge (duke), the courts, and the prison and dungeon.
Exterior of the Palace:

This is the impressive “Golden Staircase” – real gold and real painted/carved art.

The walls & ceilings of the Doge’s Palace are covered in gold and priceless art – we couldn’t take pictures inside, but we bought a couple of postcards to remember it by.

3. The Procuratie, (3 buildings surrounding the square), which has a museum with rooms and rooms of ancient and priceless art.

4. The Clock and Clock Tower, built in 1496. We took a very cool tour of the tower with a native Venetian. She shared lots of local facts and explained the workings of the clock & the history of the tower. (The clock builder and the subsequent caretakers had to live in the noisy clock tower and manually pull/adjust the weights every 12 Hours.) In addition to telling the time, it gives the lunar cycle and an astrological clock – so sailors and merchants relied on it for timing of voyages.

The Clock tower:

Our tour guide on top of the clock tower, with one of 2 bronze statues that hit the bell every hour.

During the nighttime, this same square is a magical, dream-like place to be:

During the day, as soon as we were done with the sights, we got OUT of San Marco and went...

Here:

And here…

And here. (Arsenale di Venezia)

And here. Sigh. We really enjoyed Venice in the evening.

We have been enjoying gelato nearly every day in Italy (or maybe just 2/3 of the days), and we have found that (as one may guess), it is always more expensive in the tourist center than in the “normal” or residential parts of the city. This was especially true in Venice: If we were ever lost (as one constantly finds oneself in Venice), we could gage how far we were from the square by the gelato prices – it went up by 10 cents every couple of blocks. But as always, we found our 1 euro scoop of gelato.

This is Vince in front of the famous Bridge of Rialto (and a sweet boat).

We had a wonderful time in Venice, we loved the ferries, the bridges, the views, the markets, and the food… We look forward to returning one day when we can be a little splurgier and take a gondola ride, stay right in the city (not Mestre) with a reasonably-working shower, and dine on the Grand Canal.