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Today, Sydney, Pieter and I went out to Venice to see some of the most famous historical sites there – St. Mark’s Basilica, Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) and La Fenice (the Opera House). There was a great website we found where we could buy a museum pass for under $20 that allowed us priority entrance to all the museums in St. Mark’s Square and one other museum in the city of our choice. The priority entrance was especially beneficial because by 10 am, there is a huge line to enter both the Basilica and Palace and we didn’t have to wait in either!
First, we water taxied over to St. Mark’s Square to save some time and went directly to the Basilica. I didn’t know a whole lot about either of the sites we were about to see, so I was really excited to learn some background information on these legendary destinations. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures inside, but I did steal a few when the guards weren’t looking. The building was huge inside and all the domed ceilings really made it seem much larger. St. Mark is actually buried in the church building, which is probably why it has been so well preserved for centuries. The building underwent initial construction in 829 A.D. when the body of St. Mark arrived from Alexandria, Egypt and has expanded and radically renovated many times since then. The most impressive aspect of the Basilica for me was that the entire interior of the structure is covered in mosaics. The ceilings, walls, some of the floors, standalone frescoes and statues are all made out of tiny (probably ½ inch square) handmade mosaic tiles. Everywhere you look, you see thousands of tiles, created with vibrant colored paints, dyes, clays and probably many other materials. The most common color of tile used is a brilliant, metallic gold tile, creating a luxurious, ornate, and bright Catholic house of worship. The outside of the building, much of the flooring and some of the pillars inside are made of a beautiful marble and decorated with storytelling reliefs. The sheer size of the interior was overwhelming for sure and impossible to really take in in the ten minute limit placed on touring the structure.
After seeing the ground level, we decided to extend our visit by climbing up to the second level to view the famous Horses of San Marco. There are four gilded bronze statues of horses that arrived in Venice in 1204 from Constantinople at the end of the Byzantium hippodrome. The statues are enormous and I can’t even imagine how heavy. Thinking about how many Venetian soldiers it took to move those horses (as well as much other loot) from Istanbul to Venice made my brain hurt. The horses “guarded” the Basilica from above the entrance, until recently, when they were moved inside for preservation purposes and replicas took their place. The show of extreme naturalism – the detailed emotional expression on their faces in particular – was surprising for the time of construction. One plaque said that carbon dating placed their design in the 3rd century A.D. There’s a fantastic view of the square from where the replica Horses live and I got some great pictures from that vantage point. The original, ancient Horses were just inside the door, which was a really nice surprise. The second level also took us through a small museum about the construction of the building, the making of the mosaics and the saints and other religious figures.
After St. Mark’s, we got a quick nosh at a snack bar in the square and headed to the front of the Palazzo Ducale entrance line. I really had no idea what lie inside this seemingly interesting building. Yes, it’s impressive and beautiful and huge from the outside, but it is in no way descriptive of what it contains. The Doge of Venice reigned over the city when it was the Republic of Venice, from the ___ century until 1719 when it fell to Austrian rule. It was this Palace, built in the ___ that not only served as the ruler’s residence, but also all state political, legislative, judicial and penitent operations. The Palazzo is one giant rectangular building, with a large courtyard in the middle and connects via Fondamenta (bridge) to the prison structure to the east. We entered through the western side and saw some of the columns that were part of the original façade, about 15 feet behind the current exterior. We quickly made way through there to the open courtyard. It was brilliant weather and really felt as if I was stepping back in time. There have been many ancient, medieval, renaissance, etc. sites and structures I’ve seen on this trip, but none have truly moved me to such a place where I actually felt differently in its presence. There are three high stories to the Palazzo. The ground floor was a mix of being open staircases up to the second and some rooms used as sort of foyers or waiting rooms I suppose. There is one main staircase, called the Grand Staircase, that leads up to the second level and is guarded by two large statues. There are statues all over the courtyard of religious, political, and mythical figures and are truly amazing to see. The Basilica sits right up against the northern side of the Palazzo and it’s main dome can be seen towering above the palace. The coolest statue was definitely a Venetian warrior who has defeated some sort of serpent and is riding on top of the beast. The expression on the serpent’s face was so emotionally telling and was simply awesome.
We went upstairs to level two, where the Doge’s Apartments were. We saw various rooms that were decorated like the different Doge’s living spaces. One of the rooms on this level was my favorite – the map room. It was unclear what the room was actually used for through the centuries, but presently its walls are covered in 18th century maps of the world and there are two huge globes – one depicting Earth and one the Heavens – in the middle of the floor. I found it fascinating to see what the cartographers of the time thought the geography of the world was. I could have stared at the maps painted on the entire space of the walls for hours and hours… it also inspired me to decorate with giant maps…. Hmmm….
The next floor up was home to the state rooms where the General Assembly, Senate and Judicial bodies met. They were all enormous rooms and covered in beautiful frescoes of various events in Venetian history. The coolest thing in this area of the palace was in the room where the 1,200 – 2,000 General Assemblymen met every Sunday. Around the circumference of this room, directly below the ceiling was a timeline in portraiture of the first 76 Doges of Venice. Each had a square with their name and dates of their reign. Most looked the same and surely a good percentage was related. However, in one square, there was no portrait of a Doge. A simple black cloth with dates painted on it represented an unfortunate moment in the Republic’s history. One of the Doges was convicted of treason for some sort of deed so terrible that his punishment was not only execution, but complete expulsion of his name, likeness and even existence from the memory of Venetian history. The black cloth was all that remains of his place in the timeline. I definitely appreciate the severity of that and the remarkable follow through centuries after his death.
After viewing the entire main palace, we ventured east towards the prison. I found it quite fascinating that the prison was literally attached to the Doge’s living quarters. There is a very famous bridge that I have taken photos of nearly every week in Venice and now I was going to get to pass through it, as it serves as the connection from Palazzo to prison. It is called the Bridge of Sighs. It is so named because as the prisoners were taken from the courtroom in the palace to their prison cell and looked out from the bridge to the water, they would undoubtedly let out a sigh as they viewed freedom for the last time. How tragic and poetic. The prison building was also kept up very well and we could even enter the concrete and iron cells. After a spell there, making our way back through the armory of the palace, we left Palazzo Ducale with a ton of new information on the history of Venice.
We decided to end our museum tours for the day after almost three hours in them! It was quite hot and there is certainly no air conditioning inside, so… it was time to move on. A huge fan of opera, Pieter was very interested in going to see La Fenice, the famous Venetian Opera House. It was fairly close by and as resident navigator, I was assigned the task of getting us there. The physical structure of La Fenice itself has a very interesting history as it sustained two devastating fires, one in the 1800’s and one in 1997. Pieter filled us in on the story of the most recent one… As the building was undergoing renovations in 1997, the canals surrounding La Fenice were drained in order to give better access to the construction vehicles, etc. A small fire broke out, but there was literally no water close enough to the building. The fire department in Venice operates from boats and uses the canal water to extinguish blazes. Since the canals were drained and fire boats couldn’t reach La Fenice anyway, the building burned much, much longer than it should have. After this of course, there was a huge reconstruction of the building in the original 18th century design. We took an audio tour of the opera house and it was really beautiful inside. It’s considered a perfect example of sublime Italian design… a mix of pastel colors and gold accenting a predominantly white room make the house look clean and luxurious. Again, we could not take photos inside, but I stole some artsy (blurry) ones anyway.
After La Fenice, we went to eat along a canal and bid Sydney farewell (again) as he was set to leave for the Pearl in Alaska tomorrow afternoon. Hurrying back to the ship with a belly full of gnocchi and vino wore me out! Still, I had show laundry and the Welcome Aboard show to prepare for.
With little down time, I went right to work. The show was fairly exciting, when two of the three female dancers on stage at one point falling on their butts in sync with each other. They actually made the third dancer, who executed the triple turn, hitch kick just fine look like the one who made the mistake. It was a right kerfuffle!! The best part is that is gets replayed on the cruise television channel all week… HA!
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