Travel Day 17 – The Center of the World
Well I am in Italy (I promise I am) and not at the actual center fo the world, but with this title I am actually referring to the Doge’s Palace. No, not the shiba inu doge, I’m talking about THE Doge’s Palace. The Doge (who was head of the Venetian senate) was judge, jury and executioner. Well not completely but mostly along those lines. He was the person who always had final say in all decisions, and the Venetian Senate was known for its stern laws and follow through. But enough about history because I’m terrible in that subject and more about the day as it unfolded for us.
Once more, we woke up late. This time at 9:00 so an hour earlier but an hour later than we wanted too. We have literally been running ourselves dry and we need our sleep at this point. Breakfast was fast and we were off around 10:00 to head to Venice and get in line for the museum. Unlike the Tuesday when we came by, today there were about 40 people in the online ticket line so we hopped in. In less than 10 minutes we were through security and on our way around the palace. Yes, it is literally a palace. The first set of stairs leading up to the museum has gold all over the walls and roof. I don’t know if it is real gold, but it sure looks like it. As we climbed we began walking through the many rooms that held important members of state and law. Each room was more magnificent than the last, and all were very extravagant. Each room had gold all over the ceilings, encrusting the many paintings (oil on canvas) that were hung. Not just the paintings but the wood panels along the walls that had seats carved into them for the meetings were excellent to look at. Continuing after the meeting rooms, we made our way into the armoury.
I remember reading a review online about Doge’s Palace, “I don’t know why they have pieces meant to harm others in the museum but it’s very disturbing and we had to leave shortly after as I was uncomfortable. 3/5 stars.” I honestly don’t get the comment. This is a part of Venice’s history; literally half the paintings in the palace were battle scenes from Venice’s many conquests, battles and wars. Anyways I found the suits of armour, many swords, shields, crossbows, maces and halberds fascinating as these are how people defended themselves and their country 6 century’s ago. After the armoury, and the great views of Piazza San Marco and the river, we made our way into the prisons. I feel super bad for Dean on this. As soon as we took our first steps into the prisons, Dean had to start ducking to make it through. There was hardly anywhere he could stand up, and most of the places he could were actually inside the prison cells. Seems like it wouldn’t be so as, as being a guard would be so much worse for him. It was interesting seeing how most of the cells faced out towards the windows in an effort to give the prisoners “fresh air” but I can only imagine it would still smell absolutely horrible down there. Really after the prisons there’s not much more in the palace other than the gift shop, so seeing as we had an hour to kill before we headed to San Marco’s Basilica, we wandered the streets some more before we headed in.
San Marco’s Basilica is… bright. The entire roof is a giant mosaic, mostly as gold painted tiles. It radiates down on the pagans when the light shines in through the windows. It’s quite intimidating and truly is speechless once you’re inside. We wandered around admiring the wonderful ceiling and how much gold there was (because there is a lot). We paid to get behind the tomb of San Marco to see the gold work of art behind it. It’s complete gold inside this church that’s truly all I can say.
After the church I wanted to head over to Chiesa di San Giacomo di Rialto, claimed to be completed on the same day Venice was founded in 421AD and therefore the oldest church in Venice. It’s quite a simple church, and very small, but historic. Very interesting to be in such an old building, at least for me it’s incredibly interesting. Afterwards we to the east side of the island, over towards the university where we found some food (we had some more burgers but that’s all we were feeling at that point) and made our way back to the hostel afterwards. We were both beat and headed to the bar for a quick beer to meet some new folks and then head off to bed early. Honestly we still both need the sleep as the sun saps it out of us each day. Tomorrow we head to Verona to visit our BCIT friend Sophia! It’ll be great to see her and a lot of fun to explore a new city. Until then!
~Spencer
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