Day 28- Venice

Day 28- 12 September 2008 Today we went to the Doges Palace in Saint Marcos square. We toured around the palace which is not much to look at in the outside but marvellous inside and has some fantastic painting, frescos, gold lined roofs and other little treasures. There are many rooms, some with art and others with medieval weapons. The palace is also home to the courts and parliament system of Venice (prior to it becoming part of Italy). There are some fantastic rooms including one which has two large globes, one for the earth and one for heaven. Deep below the palace are the prisons still in tact but now disused. It was a very impressive place and plenty to see. After this we headed by boat to the Rialto bridge which is a thousand years old and has shops on either side of it similar to the pontevehico but there is a walk way on either side of the shops and in the middle of the shops. From there we went searching for a gondolier and eventually found a nice gondola and went for a classic ride around the canal and down some very small canals. On our very nice tour we had to pass some bigger boats in some very small canals and our gondolier was very good and navigating this massive (very intricate and wonderfully presented) gondola in a safe path. We also passed Casanova and marco polo,s old houses which was interesting. After our gondola ride we checked out the rialto mercato (market) and then headed back to St marco square. We went into the cathedral (st marco bascillica) and went into the treasury which supposedly houses one of the thorns off Jesus crown that he wore when he was crucified. We also climbed to the top of the cathedral and checked out the four large horses (both the originals that are inside the church on the upper level and the recreations which now stand on the terrace on the outside). We then waited on the terrace for the clock in san marco square to chime on the hour. The weather (from sunny and hot in the morning) started to get very dark and cloudy and soon rain set in and st marcos square which was full of people was almost deserted. Later that evening we went and had dinner at a nice little restaurant in one of the back streets then went for a walk to arsenal and along the canal for another gelati stop.