Day 6: Wow. Such Tourist. Very Venice.

Today was a  bit of a slower day, with three big tours planned and not much else. Which was great, I had an opportunity to explore the city in a relaxed way, something I hadn't had an opportunity to do so as of yet. That's one thing I haven't enjoyed about my jam-packed days. It is always nice to have a bit of a relaxing time just wandering.

That being said, Venice has some really nice scenery. I didn't upload this on my last post, but this was the first thing I saw when I left the train station on the island.

Pretty neat huh?

Occasionally in the main harbour, San Marco, has a very large cruise ship, which just looks a little silly. Most Venetian craft have flat hulls because the canals are very shallow (some aren't even two metres deep at times, depending on the tides), yet occasionally the harbour will have one massive cruise liner which towers over everything, even the buildings. Tourism is the lifeblood of Venice and without it, there would be no island.

Cruisey

The first tour of the day was the Doge's Palace. For those of you that aren't familiar with the internet and it's subcultures, there is a joke called "Doge" which uses the photo of a Shiba Inu and puts words after the words much, such and very in a grammatically incorrect way (see the title) as a joke. So of course, it is very funny that the Doge's Palace exists and is a real thing.

An example of the Doge meme

Doge's Palace

The interior is incredible. For a place that was not for royalty (Doges were democratically elected from the powerful families and were in that position for life), it still feels as if your are walking the halls of a royal house. It is designed to impress and quite simply it does. From the chandeliers, the marble stairwells to the massive frescoes and wall paintings all designed to remind guests that Venice is the ruler of the land and sea, the Doge's palace takes your breath away.

The Doge's Palace was directly connected to the church (which they owned)

Fancy Marble Stairs!

Look at the roof!

Chandelier!

The symbol of St Mark, the winged Lion is also the symbol of Venice

Fresco of Saint Christopher from the stairs leading to the bedroom

Some of the rooms

An astrological clock - pointless, just showing off how rich they were

Part of the Doge's Palace was the Bridge of Sighs. When the Palace was originally built,imprisonment was no considered a punishment for crime. So there were prisons inside the palace (which also served as the court) for people to be held prior to their hearings. However, when forms of punishment changed, a prison was built across the canal and as such, the prison bridge was built to provide a walkway. It was only called the Bridge of Sighs by foreigners and served as a spooky horror story to keep invaders away.

View from the Bridge of Sighs

Just a casual fresco in the Parliamentary room

The next tour was a general tour of the city, plus a visit to the Cathedral. This Cathedral was actually built and owned by the government of Venice, NOT the Catholic Church. As such, it is independent of the Vatican and the Bishop did not run services inside, only the Doge did. Pretty cool huh? Inside was your standard issue overly decorated place of gorgeous. What can I say? After seeing so many, it gets pretty ho hum (just kidding - it's completely amazing!)

Some of the exterior decoration - they also had horses stolen from Constantinople decorating the roof

Tiny little Apostle statues

We did a quick walking tour, crossing bridges and learning about the ways in which the city was built - using wooden poles hammered into the mud as foundations - and how the tide can rise by more than two meters and cause severe flooding. Venice is an engineering wonder - that people built upon mud and swamp huge palaces and cathedrals! Amazing.

Our final tour was a boat trip through the Grand Canal. We passed quite a few abandoned monasteries, bought out by big business as tourist accommodation or future hotel sites. I think this is the saddest part of Venice. It isn't home to many Venetians, most have moved to the mainland, and is essentially a tourist population. As such, I found it really inauthentic. Which is a shame, because it is really cool. It was a very nice boat ride though in the afternoon sun.

Tomorrow I leave for Milan, my final city on my Italian interlude. I had one final meal at the restaurant around the corner (which I also ate at for lunch) and the staff were very happy to see me. They like the regulars it seems. It will be a shame to not eat there again, the food was cheap but good.