Day 11 June 2, 2023
Today we were up early – 5:50am and ate breakfast in the room so we could make it to our 8am tour of The Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica. We left our BNB at 7am. It’s about a 1 mile walk from our end of Venice to St. Mark’s square. At 7am there are not too many people out, so it was a nice peaceful walk.
We met our guide in St. Mark’s Square and our first stop was the Doge’s Palace. The Doge was like a president or duke of Venice. Venice was the most powerful city in Europe for 400 years as it was in the middle of the trade routes between east and west (Europe and Asia) and the Doge’s palace was built to show off the power and the wealth of the Venetian republic.
After a 90-minute tour of the Palace, we proceeded to a tour of St. Marks Basilica which is attached to the palace. The Basilica which stands today was built in the 11 century. The Basilica houses the remains of St. Mark (hence the name). Also in St Marks’ Square is the Campanile di San Marco, which is a 325 ft bell tower, as well as the clock tower.
When we finished our tour of the palace and basilica, we headed back to our BNB for lunch. On the way back we stopped for a few groceries.
After lunch in the BnB we hit the streets of Venice again to head back to St. Mark’s Square for a tour of the clock tower at 4pm.
The clock tower tour took about 45 minutes and was very interesting. The tower was built in 1497. The two Moors and the bell are original though much of the clock mechanism has undergone renovations over the centuries. The views from the top of the tower were pretty incredible.
After the clock tower tour, we headed back to the BNB working our way through the sea of tourists with a stop at a chocolate shop to pick up some chocolates for desserts. We cooked dinner tonight, which was sauteed shrimp, onions, and zucchini. We both needed a break from pasta 😊
Tomorrow, we plan to take one of the vaporetto’s and do a lagoon tour, which consists of four different islands – San Michele, Murano, Burano, and Torcello.
Miles walked – 9.6
