Day 2–Fish Mkt, Doge’s Palace, St Marks and more

Today we woke after a much appreciated nights rest and had a light brekkie of toast, grapes, fruit jelly and coffee. Coffee making proved to be an odyssey as we lacked a coffee filter. We looked in several markets on our walk yesterday to no avail. So…James, the industrial person that he is, created a filter from many layers of toilet paper. So they had ‘coffee de toilet papel’! :)

After brekkie we headed out to check out the fish market! We were all sporting our rain gear as the rain that started last night continued. The fish markets were incredible. I’ve never seen so much fresh seafood in one place. Enjoy the many pics of this.

Eventually we made our way to Doge’s Palace. The palace is also known as Palazzo Ducale and was the home of the ruler of Venice. We had a Secret Itinerary tour of the palace which included much about the prison, cells, torture room (yikes), the archive room and many meeting and council official rooms. I must also note that Court decisions were made at the desk pictured. Only a pen and paper were use to record judgement so only a small table was necessary. This is a far cry from todays courtrooms!

Also pictured is the Bridge of Sighs located at the Doge’s Palace. It’s called this due to the sighs and cries the prisoners made crossing the bridge where they were met with their torture and death (yikes).

We had lunch at a lovely restaurant recommended yesterday by our guide, Samuel. We enjoyed starters of scallops, muscles and calamari. Our main entrees included 3 spaghetti with octopus and 3 lasagna with fish. The lasagna was so rich and creamy all I could say was “wow”!

After taking in more sights and history, we headed back to the apartment to prepare dinner. James and Lisa treated us to linguine, green beans, salad and garlic bread. It was delicioso!

At 8:30 pm we went on a night tour of Night tour of Saint Marks Basilica. Saint Mark’s is one of the most important religious buildings in Venice. It’s located in St Mark’s Square also known as Piazza San Marco. It’s said to be one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world. We can all attest that it certainly was beautiful, ornate and had many mosaics that are so beautiful it’s difficult to describe.

Saint Mark is buried at the basilica. In facthis remains are in their second location at the basilica. His remains were moved to a higher location at an alter after flooding. Our guide told us that flood waters once reached 1.7 meters.

After the tour we took a Vaparetto (water bus) ride home.

Fun facts:

• High tide brings water to the area that requires walking platforms 2 feet off the ground to be placed around town. We’ve not seen these in use yet.

• Venice has thunderstorms too!

• We are still in search of coffee filters.

Step count = 17,697