After spending many hours planning our Italian vacation I could not wait for the day to start in Venice. We arrived late in the afternoon knowing by the time we checked into our hotel we would not have time to do any real sightseeing. After getting settled in we walked around the area we picked out a nice little restaurant for dinner. After which we went back to the room and double checked our plans for the next day then settled in for the reminder of the evening.
The next morning we started with breakfast at the hotel and were on our way. Since we did a little walk around the evening before we knew the water bus stop was only a couple blocks from the hotel and was the only part of the trip planning that I did not know much about. The entire length of the city of Venice is only about 2 miles and we were headed to Saint Marks square which was about a mile away so it did not seem far but since we had never been on a water bus we could not guess on the time it might take to get there. It turned out to only take about a half hour to get there however the ride was quite interesting as the boat zig zagged from one side of the Grand canal to the other making it important to know which side of the canal you wanted to go.
Once we arrived at Saint Marks square (Piazza San Marco) we walked around a little took some pictures and decided which of the 3 main sights we planned to see first. We decided to go to the top of Saint Marks square tower and get a view of the city. At first I thought we were going to have to walk to the top and was surprised to see an elevator in it. The ride only took about a minute but seemed longer because there are no windows to look out on the way. Once at the top I realized what a beautiful pristine day we had and without a doubt of haze in the air we would be able to get some great pictures. We took our turn looking out each side of the tower at the view which was spectacular and took some great pictures. I kept a close look at my watch for the time because the huge bells in the tower still stuck on the hour and I for one did not want to be in the top of the tower when there were ringing.
After coming down from the tower the next place to see was saint Marks basilica which is the most famous of over 400 churches on this little island. Upon entering the church I was a little surprised with the lack of light, which I thought made it a little difficult to see the paintings and other works of art in the church. Another thing that bothered me odd was not being able to take any personal property into the church, I could understand no cameras but I could not remember if a large purse was allowed in either.
After we were finished in the church we took time out from sightseeing to have a bite of lunch at a nice place right around the corner, a little pricey for me but we were on vacation and planned on going to just a few pricey places and more reasonable places the rest of the time.
The last sight we had planned on seeing this day was the Doge's palace and I suggest to anyone going to Venice as a must see sight. Entering the palace the first thing you notice are the ceilings which are all very ornate with carvings and paintings everywhere. To me it looked like there must have 50 or more rooms in the palace and everyone had a different kind of pattern carved and painted in the ceilings.
Most of the rooms were large over 30 x 30 and a few rooms that seemed small compared to the rest but each one had either paintings or sculptures in them. There were a few rooms we found particularly interesting one being two very large side by side rooms with a huge 24 hour clock mounted in the common wall so you could see the clock from both rooms, each room being at least 120 x 75 feet.
The most impressive room in the palace was a common meeting room which I believe was used as a court room and for town meetings. I have seen very large rooms before but this place was immunity at least 250 foot long 120 or more feet wide and over 60 feet high with no center support beams of any kind the entire roof was freestanding. I could not imagine how they could build such a span well over 400 years ago without steel.
By the time we were finished seeing the Doge's palace it was mid afternoon around 4, so we still had time to see more so we walked down to see the bridge of Sighs, probably the second most famous bridge in Venice. After which we headed back to the hotel for a short nap before going to dinner.
We were staying in a hotel about 100 feet from Rio Tera San Leonardo which is one of the major streets in Venice and will take you all the way to the train station after a few street name changes that is. Being so close to a major street made it easy to find a nice place for dinner, after which we took a nice walk to see our little part of Venice at night before turning in for the evening.
I can not believe according to what I have read that most people only stay in Venice for one day and I recommend to anyone planning a visit to Venice to stay for at least 3 days, there are just too many wonderful things to see to only stay for a day.
