Three days in Venice - Part 2
10 June 2017
Final day in Venice.
We had gone on a guided tour of Venice the previous day and seen some beautiful views of Venice.
The beautiful church of St.Marks in San Marco square is the centre of Venice.
The symbol of Venice is the Winged Lion. And St.Mark is the patron saint of Venice.
Even though St.Mark did not die here and his body was buried in Alexandria, he was linked with the history of Venice to make it 'blessed' and thus important.
Two Venetian merchants with the help of two Greek monks took his body to Venice. A mosaic in St Mark's Basilica depicts sailors covering the relics (body remains of St.Mark) with a layer of pork and cabbage to prevent detection by the Muslim guards.
Inside St.Mark's is a painting of the same; which we saw later.
The queue to enter St.Mark's is always long. So it was recommended we buy a fast pass online. We bought this before we started our travel and our slot of entry was 9.45 - 9.55 am.
And since our entry into St.Mark's was only at 9.45; we decided to walk along the Grand canal towards the side we had not been - East. And we had to also find out about our boat ticket to catch our train the next day to Verona. We bought a 24 hour pass. This was valid from the first time it was used for the next 24 hours - for innumerable rides. The stop we had to board was either Zaccaria or San Marco. The former won as there was a ramp to glide over with our heavy luggage!
We saw the 'Bridge of Sighs' on the way. Many people do not enter the Bridge and most guided tours just show you this from the outside. It is worth entering! Entrance is through the Doges palace. (Sneak peek: We did enter the doge's palace and not just take a snap outside!! Yippee)
After loitering around and seeing some more things like...
The queue was long, but we had the fast pass (just 2 Euros & totally worth it)!! But this just gets us into St.Mark's. The Golden pall behind the altar is supposed to be beautiful as is the treasury upstairs. Both have separate entry tickets which need to be bought on the spot.
Upon entry we made our way towards the Pala D'Oro. The backside of the Altar is studded with precious stones and other precious objects. Photography is prohibited; but you will find images on wikipedia. It is a sight to behold. And no, the photos on Wikipedia are not doing justice.
Next we took the stairs and went up to see the treasury. Here too, photography is prohibited 'on the inside', where relics from the past and many beautiful tile / mosaic works were displayed.
Four horses of St.Mark's are placed facing the Square on the Balcony; outside the museum. They are replicas. The originals are placed inside.
Why are these 4 copper / bronze horses so important? They do look majestic and so real. But the real reason is they seem to have travelled the world! Starting from Byzantine to Venice. Then getting stolen from Venice by Napoleon and transported to Paris, France. And following the Battle of Waterloo, returned back to Venice.
Until 1980, they were on top of the Balcony, but they started getting damaged due to air pollution and were shifted inside. Replicas are now placed outside.
We left St.Mark's and headed to the Doge's palace. We had to just turn the corner. St.Mark's Basilica was after all the Doge's chapel!! Yes, the huge church was his own chapel. Not open to the public in the olden times.
We had booked the 'Hidden Treasures tour (in English)' and it was to start at 11.45 a.m. I booked this tour as I did not get to book the 'Secret Itineraries tour'. This secret tour gets booked fast. The tour we booked is fairly new; but it was well guided and informative.
Before the tour began we walked around the rooms containing the pillars. Each pillars head (top portion) has a certain set of designs; either birds or animals or young human heads or zodiac signs etched.
They had kept a real Gondola in the palace.
“S”-shaped metal decoration describes the shape of the Grand Canal. The six prongs represent Venice’s six sestieri, or districts and the prong that’s facing backwards symbolizes Giudecca, an island just south of the main Venetian island.
And we saw the 'Scala dei Giganti', flanked by Mars and Neptune. Doge's used to enter the palace using this staircase. Mars is the God of War and Neptune is the God of the Seas.
When the tour started we were given access to a restricted area. :D
Doges palace is the residence of the Doge - the chief magistrate and leader of the 'Most Serene Republic of Venice'. Venice was the world's first republic. It's head was chosen by the Great council.
The position was not hereditary. His family got to stay in the palace. And he had to have enough money to upkeep the palace, pay for the servants and hold lavish banquets. He was also expected to beautify the palace; either by commissioning artists or by beautifying rooms.
What started off as a good idea became corrupted and the position of the Doge was reduced to merely a ceremonial one with lesser and lesser power. As a Doge held the position for life; only old people started getting chosen. The later Doges were constantly kept under strict surveillance and one Doge, who had the audacity to open a personal letter from his wife, was forced to apologize to the council!
And Venice (according to the guide) was the first country to abolish Slavery and Torture!
It seems there used to be lion's mouths placed all over Venice for people to drop in their complaints. Not paying taxes, becoming a traitor, blasphemy, seduction, creating public controversy and dirtying the waters in and around Venice were unacceptable to the council. If a complaint was received, the person making the complaint would be called before a set of individuals and he had to validate his claims. An enquiry used to be ordered and if the guilt was proven, then the punishment was meted out. If not proven, the person who had filed the original complaint was punished!
If you see the picture below you will notice two small holes on either side of the door. These were the openings of the lion's mouth. Napoleon destroyed all the Lion's of Venice. So any image of Lion you see now in present Venice is a replica.
Proceeding up, is a huge corridor where the Doge and his family could look at the St.Mark's square. St.Mark's square was where the carnival took place and also executions.
All Executions were conducted facing the river in between the long twin pillars.
(All executions were conducted in between the 2 huge pillars in the distance.)
From here the guide took us to see a secret room. It looked like a room full of cupboards. But there was one door which opened to reveal steps. On top was a room where cases of seduction by church members used to be dealt with.
These are some of the artifacts collected from the churches. From here we were taken to see the only place where the Doge was really free without 6 guards taking in every movement of his. This was the place that the one Doge opened his wife's letter and later apologised to the Council.
Look at this photo again.
Ground floor was the general area. First floor was for the council and the family of Doge's. Second floor was for the servants. Top of that for the office and administrators. And at the very top....those small rounds...those were the 'Leads', i.e. the rooms that were under the roof of the Doge's Palace, covered with sheets of lead ; where prisoners were kept. The most famous prisoner was - Casanova!! And he escaped from here.
She told us how he did this.
And I have cut-paste his story from Wikipedia for you all.
He was placed in solitary confinement with clothing, a bed, table and armchair in "the worst of all the cells", where he suffered greatly from the darkness, summer heat and "millions of fleas." He was soon housed with a series of cell mates, and after five months and a personal appeal from Count Bragadin was given warm winter bedding and a monthly stipend for books and better food.
During exercise walks he was granted in the prison garret, he found a piece of black marble and an iron bar which he smuggled back to his cell; he hid the bar inside his armchair. When he was temporarily without cell mates, he spent two weeks sharpening the bar into a spike on the stone. Then he began to gouge through the wooden floor underneath his bed, knowing that his cell was directly above the Inquisitor's chamber.
Just three days before his intended escape, during a festival when no officials would be in the chamber below, Casanova was moved to a larger, lighter cell with a view, despite his protests that he was perfectly happy where he was. In his new cell, "I sat in my armchair like a man in a stupor; motionless as a statue, I saw that I had wasted all the efforts I had made, and I could not repent of them. I felt that I had nothing to hope for, and the only relief left to me was not to think of the future."
Overcoming his inertia, Casanova set upon another escape plan. He solicited the help of the prisoner in the adjacent cell, Father Balbi, a renegade priest. The spike, carried to the new cell inside the armchair, was passed to the priest in a folio Bible carried under a heaping plate of pasta by the hoodwinked jailer. The priest made a hole in his ceiling, climbed across and made a hole in the ceiling of Casanova's cell. To neutralize his new cell mate, who was a spy, Casanova played on his superstitions and terrorized him into silence. When Balbi broke through to Casanova's cell, Casanova lifted himself through the ceiling, leaving behind a note that quoted the 117th Psalm (Vulgate): "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord".
The spy remained behind, too frightened of the consequences if he were caught escaping with the others.
Casanova and Balbi pried their way through the lead plates and onto the sloping roof of the Doge's Palace, with a heavy fog swirling. The drop to the nearby canal being too great, Casanova prised open the grate over a dormer window, and broke the window to gain entry. They found a long ladder on the roof, and with the additional use of a bedsheet "rope" that Casanova had prepared, lowered themselves into the room whose floor was twenty-five feet below. They rested until morning, changed clothes, then broke a small lock on an exit door and passed into a palace corridor, through galleries and chambers, and down stairs, where by convincing the guard they had inadvertently been locked into the palace after an official function, they left through a final door.
It was six in the morning and they escaped by gondola.
A thriller which was never proved. The Guide told that this was written by Casanova in his book to make it a best seller as no hole was ever found.
Next we went to see the small chapel of the Doge.
From here we went through a set of rooms with beautiful painting to end our tour.
We decided to walk around on our own. We saw the Scala D'Oro or golden staircase.
After climbing this we went from one room to the next...lost in beauty...
In the forefront is the best thing that happened in my life. Behind him, in the background, is the best work by Tintoretto - Paradise; the longest canvas painting in the world.
The arsenal had so many weapons and nothing small ...huge heavy metal sharp objects.
How could anyone lift these heavy things and then swing it?
From here we moved towards the prison. We had to pass through the 'Bridge of Sighs'. This is called thus as the convicts used to move from the court rooms to the prisons through this bridge. and along this bridge were small peep holes. The prisoners would 'sign' looking out through these holes as they see beautiful Venice for the last time.
The prisons were just prisons.. thick walls, huge iron bars...depressing.
We had a quick lunch in the restaurant at Doge's palace and made the first use of our 24-hour pass of the vaporetti.
Our first stop - Murano.
Murano is famous for it's glass work. Tiny designs are created and then fused to make beautiful things like vases and other decorative objects.
We got to watch a glass maker make a horse and a vase.
From here we took another boat to Burano.
The most cheerful looking island in the whole world.
Look at the colour of those houses!! Crazy and eye catching!!
This island too has a leaning tower.
There is not much to see here... But this island is famous for 2 other things - it's lace and it's biscuit.
Biscuits are made here but lace-making is on the decline. It is said that because lace-making is time consuming and tourist demand is high, therefore Chinese products have flooded Burano. Sad.
We spent some time near the boat jetty awaiting our ride and I soon fell into a depression. My husband was to leave me and go on his business trip for a week. I was to stay alone and travel alone.
But the boat ride was beautiful. The sun set slowly and Venice looked lovelier than ever.
Dinner was a place recommended by our guide Maria (from the day before). The place was hard to find but my husband loved the food. I don't know if I did not enjoy it much because I was feeling low.
After Venice we visited Verona, Bologna, Parma, London, Alicante, a marriage in Elche and celebrated our anniversary in Barcelona.
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