Venezia

In an attempt to beat the crowds today we had an early start again this morning. After getting our bus into the boating/parking area, we boarded a Water Taxi and travelled along the main Canal, to just near St Mark’s Square. There were lot of boats on the water this morning as today is a Special Day of some sort for Venetians. A ‘makeshift’ bridge has been made to go from one side of the Main Canal to the other…this only happens on this particular day, once every year. We understand that this is done so that the Doge (‘Duke’ in the old days) can cross the water to go to the Jewish section of the City. After leaving our Taxi, we were met by a local guide who then took us into the Doges’ Palace for a tour through the many lavish rooms. We then walked over the Bridge of Sighs and into the prison cells in the prison building, which is next to the Palace itself. The Bridge of Sighs is so named because as the prisoners walked through this very small bridge from the Palace, they say they sighed as they knew they were never coming back out again….some were beheaded, others just rotted in their cells. This whole tour was really interesting

From here we visited a Murano Glass Factory to see how the vases etc are ‘blown’ and made…just amazing. Within 5-6 minutes the fellow had made a beautiful glass pouring jug. Very clever. It is said that once you work for the glass factories you are not allowed to leave because you might take their ‘secret processes’ to another glass place. After the demonstration one could buy anything they wanted (or could afford, more like it) as they had a lot of beautiful stuff for sale. We actually found that their prices were dearer than some of the small shops around the City.  Once again, Dave was tempted to buy a decanter and glasses, but, he resisted in the end.  We then wandered around with free time for about 4 hours. Dave and I found the Famous Rialto Bridge and wandered round that area for awhile. Then we walked all the way up to the gardens at the Giardini end of the Island, sat and had a well earned rest as the day was very hot and humid, before retracing our steps back to meet up for the water Taxi ride back to the bus, then back to the Hotel. A very busy but enjoyable day.

 Bridge of Sighs

 Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge

 See the crowd in the distance