May 26 ~ Doge's Palace & St. Mark's Basilica, Venice

We took a tour of the Doge’s Palace in San Marco Square. It was an amazing place.

The “family tree” of the Doges names beginning in the 1300’s was on a wall. Truly hard to fathom for people like us from a country with a 200 year history! We read from Rick Steves’ book as we entered the rooms. He has such a fun way of interpreting history. He was a good addition to the written commentary provided by the museum. Rick Steves dubbed one statue of Mars as Paul Newman and we had to agree that it did resemble Paul.

At least from the front. Not sure about the back!

The Venetians had a complex form of city government that provided many checks and balances making it stable over the centuries. Towards the end of their reign, they had a CIA type of unit that was created to protect the citizens. There was an unusual letterbox called the Mouth of Truth where one could anonymously drop a note accusing another of a crime.

We crossed the Bridge of Sighs where the prisoners were taken from the court to the prison, glimpsing their last view of beautiful Venice. Here are two views of the bridge; one from outside and one from inside.

The prison was interesting to wander around in. There were lots of torture devices and weaponry on display, as well. The worst looking was the chastity belt! Wish we could had taken a picture of it.

After the great tour of the Doge’s Palace, we entered St. Mark’s Basilica for a quick visit. Beautiful! Lots of gondoliers waiting outside to take tourists for a ride.