Italy Vacation, Part 9 - Venice

5/17/15

Our tour did not start until the afternoon, so we had some time to kill on our first day in Venice.  We used this free time to explore the city.  Mom somehow convinced dad to consent to a gondola ride, which he thoroughly despised.  Ask him about it if you want to hear a 10 minute rant about Venetian gondoliers and how the fake canal rides in Vegas are better.

Exploring before the tour.

Rialto bridge.

The infamous gondola ride.

We started our tour at Saint Mark's Basilica, which is located in the Piazza San Marco.  Who woulda thunk it?  By this point, I was a bit tired of churches and I wasn't really very excited about visiting the basilica, but I was blown away by the interior of the church.  It fully lived up to its nickname, the Church of Gold.  This basilica is covered head to toe in gold and is the final resting place of Mark, hence the name.  Our tour guide explained to us that Venice decided that no one would take them seriously unless they had a church containing the body of a saint, so they just went to Alexandria, Egypt, and stole the body of Mark in the early 9th century.  Pretty ballsy.

Outside of the basilica.  

That's at least $14 worth of gold.

Random picture.

After checking out the surprisingly rad basilica, we walked a whole 4 feet to the Doge's Palace.  After checking out the interior, which was pretty cool, we were taken past a big pile of artifacts, including chastity belts, suits of armor, claymore swords, old pistols, AND A GUN SWORD!  IT'S LITERALLY A GUN AND A SWORD COMBINED!  SO FREAKING COOL. Afterwards, we walked through the Bridge of Sighs, which is how they transported prisoners from their trial at the Doge's Palace to the jail.  Here, we saw where Casanova was imprisoned, not for being a slut as rumored, but for blasphemy.  He later escaped because that man can only remain celibate for so long.

Chastity belt.
What happens if you have to take a poop any size larger than "dainty"?
This thing had to smell like shit, literally.

This is the prison where the Venetians threw Casanova for just
crushing it waaaaay too hard.

Bridge of Sighs in the background.

After our tour concluded, we grabbed a quick dinner at Quadri at Piazza San Marco before heading to a play (in English) detailing the history of Venice.  The play was pretty funny and much more entertaining than our attempt to be cultural in Florence.  After dinner, we stopped for drinks at Cafe Florian, which was directly across from our dinner spot, Quadri. Quadri and Cafe Florian had a dueling orchestra set up, which was really cool.  Allison, Wilson, and I stayed for a while after mom and dad went to bed and I got stuck with a $400 drinks check.  Apparently it costs a pretty penny to drink in the plaza when the weather is perfect and good music is playing.   Ouch.

Quadri.

Wilson asking the violinist if he can get dirty with it and
fiddle him some Charlie Daniels.  There was a slight language barrier.