Today we had a Get Your Guide tour that started at 2pm. We left the house around 11 knowing that it would take us a bit to get there on the water bus. Yesterday‘s trial run really helped. We wanted to explore the square before our tour started. Get Your Guide tours uses local tour companies, which is pretty cool. Today we visited the Doge Palace, San Marco Basilica and the Piazza San Marco. When we got off the water bus, it must’ve been high tide because we could see the water coming over the walls. But it didn’t look like it was flooding. As we walked into the square, we noticed a few pools of water. We learned from our guide that two days ago there was a foot and a half of water in the square. I think we got lucky that it was not affecting us today. It’s still amazes me that’s a floating city. We learned a lot while we’ve been here about the wood pilings used to still hold up the houses. It’s amazing to me that they are as stable as they are knowing that they are on wood pilings.

We walked around the square, took some photos, admiring the basilica and the grandeur of the Piazza.

The first bridge we walked over, we could see the Bridge of Sighs. It’s a famous bridge that connects the Doge Palace to the prison. Later, when we were in the Palace, we looked out at the people crossing the same bridge, we crossed earlier.

Christine was our guide and we had about 20 people in our tour. Many of them from the United States, but also Italians and Australians. Fortunately it was an English-speaking tour. We were surprised does the tour started at the Doge Palace. We spent approximately two hours there, also more than I anticipated. As we entered the palace’s main square, she was telling us about how is it not your typical palace but instead, an ancient seat of government and residence of the Doge, the Doge’s Palace in Venice is the symbol of the power of the Republic of Venice and is famous for being a masterpiece of Venetian Gothic architecture.The Doge’s Palace is visited by over 2 million tourists every year, making it the second largest attraction in Venice, after St Mark’s Basilica. Then she mentioned we were going to go into the palace and walk up 4 flights of stairs. Mom and I both thought she was joking, but she was not. Fortunately, the steps are not very steep, and there were handrails. While it was interesting, i was getting a little bored. There’s only so many painted frescos you can see in the day. There’s a statue on the outside of the palace of Adam and Eve.

The artwork was rather impressive and so much of it. Depicting sometimes conflicting messages where some may emphasize peace and justice other may others may depict war and hell.

After two hours in the palace, we are ready to leave, take a break, sit down. We got a 15 minute break, Mom got to pee and I ordered drinks. Nonalcoholic at this time because we still had to go to the Basilica. W

Unfortunately, we were only there for less than a half an hour, which there was so much to see and not enough time. When first entering the building, it looked very familiar and reminded us of the Hagia Sophia and Istanbul. The basilica has also been referred to as the church of Gold. And for good reason, this is probably what the Hagia Sophia looked like before it was defaced and converted into a mosque.  there are over 4000 m² of gold mosaics laid out in the Byzantine style, featuring scenes and holy people from the Bible, adorning the walls and ceilings of the basilica. 

We were entertained by a story of one of the mosaics that depicted the addition of Saint Mark instead of John, primarily because the Venetians had helped the one of the Roman Catholic popes stay in power.

We are basically kicked out of the church because we ran out of time and they were closing at five and preparing for some flooding. We wish we we’d spend a lot more time. There were so much to see and I don’t think we saw as much as we could have.

After our tour was over, we were tired and decided to sit at a local café on the Square and ordered a margarita pizza, a spritz and some fruit juice. It was fun to watch people, relax and prepare for our commute back to the apartment. After sitting down for just about 45 minutes, we could hardly even get up. Our legs were very sore and tired.

Now the question was how are we gonna get home? Do we take the water bus again or find a water taxi? We figured the water taxi would be faster but more expensive but the water bus would be then cheaper and slower. I was leaning on the taxi but then after looking at the prices online it ranged from $41 to $250 which seems ridiculously too much. It was on my list of things to do, so we found water taxi and it was definitely less than $100 and he was willing to take us to the San Marcuola Casino stop. Getting on the boat was a little bit of a scare, but we did it. And enjoyed a restful ride home. Much faster. Here are a few photos from the ride.