Venice - San Marco and Murano

We got up early for our big day of sight seeing, heading along the corso and lining up to see St Mark's Basilica. The queue was already quite long despite us being early so we waited in the sun and watched all the different kinds of people who were wandering around the piazza. Tourists, beggars, workers and locals all rubbing shoulders and avoiding the dive bombing pigeons and sea gulls. 

Once we were in the basilica we craned our neck to look at the gold mosaics that lined the ceilings, vaults and domes. It was amazing to think that it was all done by hand. We paid a small entry fee to go up to the altar and see the Pala d'Oro, a large gold and jewel encrusted screen behind the altar that hides the tabernacle from the eyes of the plebs in the main nave. The screen was intricately detailed and inlaid. It also sat on a swivel mechanism so that the ornate screen could be turned around on special occasions so that the masses could see it (the Pala d'Oro faces the back of the basilica so one can see it from the pews).

We headed out of the Basilica and made our way next door to the Doge's Palace. This amazing building was the seat of government in the Venetian republic as well as a home for its elected leader, and a prison for the cities criminals. 

We entered the cloistered courtyard before heading upstairs to see all the rooms and council chambers. These richly decorated rooms were mind blowing, and as we progressed each room was more lavish that the one before. Every ceiling contained murals, friezes and sculpted figures, and nearly all the rooms had benches skirting the walls where the various councillors would sit to conduct their duties. It was surreal to sit in the same place where ministers and dignitaries would have sat hundreds of years ago. 

The penultimate room was that of the Major Council, an extremely large room (apparently the largest in Europe being 50m x 25m) extending the length of the palace decorated with artworks by Tintoretto and Veronese. 

We then descended into the prison and over the "Whispering Bridge" where prisoners were ushered after their sentence had been passed down. And then on to the Armery where we passed through a collection of swords, armour and firearms covering the history of Venice. We whizzed through this as we wanted to head off to Murano before lunch.

We exited the palace and made our way to the San Marco ferry terminal where we jumped on a ferry to Murano. The ferry took us around the eastern edge of Venice, and we stopped at the Lido island before heading on to the glass blowing capital of Italy.

Alighting at Colonna, the central town we made our way through some empty streets till we came upon the central canal crammed with restaurants and glass shops. We window shopped for a bit before sitting down for a midday pizza and wine accompanied. There was even a guy playing the accordion for tips, it was so cliche it made your skin crawl. After lunch we continued down the canal and stopped for a coffee, but the weather closed in so we headed back to the ferry stop to make our way back to Venice. We saw some locals returning from their day in Venice, loaded up with supplies - one lady even had a weeks worth of meat in the undercarriage of a pram.

The ferry ride over to Murano was a bit rough for Mick; so Mick, who is prone to a bit of self-medicating (prescription drugs only),took some sea sickness tablets before boarding the ferry home. The tablets knocked Mick for 6; he got so tired that his 10min nap before dinner turned into a deep sleep, and he could hardly drag himself out of bed once Damo was ready to go. Dinner was rather quiet, with Mick spitting out half sentences in between yawns. We definitely were not going out for post dinner drinks that night. We have one more night left to see the nightlife of Venice,we aren't hopeful!

Ciao