We were only in Venice for 2 full days but I have so many pictures!
The Venice train station is on the Grand Canal.
Our airbnb host, Alessandro, picked us up from the train station!
We had 4 boat rides while in Venice not counting the waterbus to the airport!
Our airbnb. We stayed on the bottom level.
Delivery to our door! After showing us around the apartment and telling us about the area he promised to come give us an after dark boat ride the next night!
Every corner we turned was postcard picture worthy!
The view from our airbnb of the canal
The door to our airbnb is to the right.
This was definitely the quirkiest place we stayed.
Alessandro had left us a pie/tart, cookies, nuts, a fridge full of drinks, and other food. And there was so much stuff in this small apartment it was hard to tell if we'd packed up all our stuff when it was time to leave!
Every toiletry and first aid item you could ever need!
A tiny bedroom and only one comfortable chair in the apartment. But there's a large screen tv, a huge sound system and a projector and screen!
Federica gave us a private tour of Venice! A 2 hour walking tour and a 1 hour water taxi tour.
This was going to be our big splurge of the trip (for one activity). One of Paul's bosses from Ryan Homes had recommended Federica. Paul had contacted her and scheduled our tour before the trip. When she met us at our airbnb she told us that he had paid for the tour!
Showing us how we can tell when a building was built by the type of windows
Federica is an art historian and taught us alot about all we were seeing. Of course, I remember very little of it! Glad I have our Italy tour book and the internet to tell me some of what I forgot. This is Ca'd'Oro (House of Gold). It was originally painted and gilded. Today it's an art gallery
The Rialto market
Along the Grand Canal
San Giacomo di Rialto. According to tradition it's the oldest church in Venice.
15th Century 24 hour clock.
The Rialto Bridge. If you walk down the middle you are surrounded by shops on each side. On either side you can walk on behind the shops and see the canal.
On the Rialto Bridge
The Rialto Bridge
St. Mark's Square with St. Mark's Basilica in the background
Punta della Dogana-art museum in the former Customs House
Campanile (bell tower) and Doge's Palace
Doge's Palace
Bridge of Sighs. Condemned prisoners would be led from the Doge's Palace through the Bridge of Sighs to prison, take one last glimpse of Venice and sigh.
Palazzo Barbarigo
"
Originally built in the 16th century, it is distinguished by its mosaics of Murano glass applied in 1886. At the time it was owned by the proprietors of one of the glass factories, who were inspired by the exterior mosaics on the facade of St Mark's Basilica to apply those to the palace. When the mosaics were installed, the then new owners were decried by their more aristocratic neighbours as nouveaux riches, and their taste garish and out of keeping with the genteel decay of the neighbouring buildings. However, it should be remembered that many of the Renaissance palazzi on the canal were once too covered in polychrome and gilt decorations, with elaborate plaster and stucco work." wikipedia.orgPonte dell'Accademia
One of the 4 bridges that span the Grand Canal. Built in 1933.
Ca' Rezzonico--art gallery
"Palazzo Balbi is a palace on the Canal Grande, Venice, northern Italy. It is included in the sestiere (quarter) of Dorsoduro, to the right of Ca' Foscari. Currently it is the seat of the President of the Veneto region and of the regional council.[1][2][3]
It was built from 1582, under design by Alessandro Vittoria as the residence of the Venetian patrician family of the Balbi. In the 19th century it was acquired by Michelangelo Guggenheim and later by the Adriatic Electric Society. It became a property of the Veneto region in 1971." wikipedia.org
Ponte degli Scalzi
Saying "goodbye" to Federica
Federica got the water taxi driver to drop us off near our airbnb!
We had tickets to get into St. Marks soon after our tour so we walked back by the Rialto.
Inside St. Mark's. It truly is amazing. Covered on the inside with mosaics and looks like it's covered in gold. Built in the 11th century. It's decorated with materials looted from lands conquered in the Venetian Empire. In AD 829 it was believed that Mark's body was in Alexandria, Egypt. Two Venetian merchants stole it and brought it to Venice.
Pentecost Mosaic
We went to the San Marco Museum in the top of the church up these steep, narrow stairways
The bronze horses stollen from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade
From the top of St. Mark's
"St Mark's Campanile (Italian: Campanile di San Marco, Venetian: Canpanièl de San Marco) is the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy. The current campanile is a reconstruction completed in 1912, the previous tower having collapsed in 1902. At 98.6 metres (323 ft) in height, it is the tallest structure in Venice and is colloquially termed "el paròn de casa" (the master of the house).[1] It is one of the most recognizable symbols of the city.[2]
Located in Saint Mark's Square near the mouth of the Grand Canal, the campanile was initially intended as a watchtower to sight approaching ships and protect the entry to the city. It also served as a landmark to guide Venetian ships safely into harbour. Construction began in the early tenth century and continued sporadically over time as the tower was slowly raised in height. A belfry and a spire were first added in the twelfth century. In the fourteenth century the spire was gilded, making the tower visible to distant ships in the Adriatic. The campanile reached its full height in 1514 when the belfry and spire were completely rebuilt on the basis of an earlier Renaissance design by Giorgio Spavento." wikipedia.org
Carta Gate
entrance to the Doge's Palace
The Doge's Palace is on the left
Clock tower built in 1496
"
On a terrace at the top of the tower are two great bronze figures, hinged at the waist, which strike the hours on a bell. One is old and the other young, to show the passing of time and, although said to represent shepherds (they are wearing sheepskins) or giants (they are huge figures of great mass, necessary so that their form can be recognized at a distance) they are known as "the Moors" because of the dark patina acquired by the bronze. The bell is also original and is signed by Simeone Campanato, who cast it at the Arsenal in 1497.[1]Below this level is the winged Lion of Saint Mark with the open book, before a blue background with gold stars. There was originally a statue of the Doge Agostino Barbarigo (Doge 1486–1501) kneeling before the lion, but in 1797, after the city had surrendered to Napoleon, it was removed by the French, who were purging the city of all symbols of the old regime.[2]
Below again, is a semi-circular gallery with statues of the Virgin and Child seated, in gilt beaten copper. On either side are two large blue panels showing the time: the hour on the left in Roman numerals and the minutes (at 5 minute intervals) on the right in Arabic numerals. Twice a year, at Epiphany (6 January) and on Ascension Day (the Thursday 40 days after Easter, counting both days), the three Magi, led by an angel with a trumpet, emerge from one of the doorways normally taken up by these numbers and pass in procession round the gallery, bowing to the Virgin and child, before disappearing through the other door.
Below this is the great clock face in blue and gold inside a fixed circle of marble engraved with the 24 hours of the day in Roman numerals. A golden pointer with an image of the sun moves round this circle and indicates the hour of the day. Within the marble circle beneath the sun pointer are the signs of the zodiac in gold (these are original and date from the 1490s), which revolve slightly more slowly than the pointer to show the position of the sun in the zodiac. In the middle of the clockface is the earth (in the centre) and the moon, which revolves to show its phases, surrounded by stars which are fixed in position. " wikipedia.org
St. Mark's Basilica
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