The hotel we stayed at in Venice wasn't really a hotel-- it was more of a bed and breakfast kind of place. The rooms were very homey-- this cat walked around like he owned the place and made friends with Mosey. The owners of the hotel lived there, and when we went to the dining room for breakfast, they made us food to order!
We were excited to go see Venice! We drove back to the freeway, and then across a long bridge to the island of Venice. We parked near the big train station, and then wandered around for a bit until we found the right place to board one of the water buses down the grand canal.
As we made our way down toward St. Mark's Square, I tried to read from my guide book and make note of some of the cool places we passed by.
Our main destination was Saint Mark's Square.
We toured St. Mark's Basilica first. We were able to bypass the entire line because of my wheelchair. :-)
St. Mark's is an example of Italo-Byzantine architecture. The building as it exists now was begun around 1063, and completed in the 1500's.
It is most famous for it's mosaics, both inside and outside.
The inside mosaics are stunning. Much of it is in gold, and if you're inside during the right time of day, the lights are turned on, making the entire interior shine.
The Pala d'Oro is on the altar. It shows the life of Christ and thelife of St. Mark. It's made of gold enamel, and was created between 976 and 1345. The altarpiece is 3 meters wide by 2 meters tall. It is made of gold and silver, 187 enamel plaques, and 1,927 gems. These include 526 pearls, 330 garnets, 320 emeralds, 255 sapphires, 183 amethysts, 175 agates, 75 rubies, 34 topazes, 16 carnelians, and 13 jaspers. (Thank you Wikipedia!)
After that, we waited for our ticket time to tour the Doge's palace.
Mosey rode on the back of one of the famous St. Mark's lions. There are lion statues everywhere!!
I took pictures. This is the clock tower on the north side of the square.
On the top, these two characters ring the bell on the hour.
This is the winged lion, which came to symbolize Venice and St. Mark. It's known as the Lion of Venice, and was probably created sometime between 400-300 B.C.! That's old!
Another lion on St. Mark's Basilica
The Campanile:
Finally it was time for our tour of the Doge's palace.
After fighting some serious crowds to find lunch, we headed back on the Vaporetto.
We went back to our hotel/B&B for a few hours, and then decided to head into the city once more for the evening. We were tired and some people really wanted to stay home, but I'm so glad we went in again! Venice at night is not to be missed, seriously. It wasn't nearly so crowded, the temperature was cool, and the lights from the city on the water is magical. We wandered around the city, ate dinner, bought gelato, and then headed back.
Waiting for the vaporetto to go back home.
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