Doge's Palace

Today was the first day of our tour extension, which basically consists of two extra days "on our own" in Venice. While still at home, Catherine booked us tickets for the "Secret Tour of the Doge's Palace," so we still had to get up on time and stick to a bit of a schedule. In the olden days, Venice was not part of Italy but an independent government run by the Doge. The Doge was elected but then held the office for life.

Venice is the site of much intrigue and chicanery. Throughout the city were mail slots (the mouth of the carving shown below) where citizens could "tattle" on one another, and those people then were interrogated and often imprisoned or put to death. At first, the informants could be anonymous, but later, they had to identify themselves, along with willing witnesses, and the penalty for false accusations was the same as it would have been for the crime.

On the secret tour, we saw the cell where Cassanova was imprisoned and where he escaped from. We also saw the room where prisoners were tortured in front of a tribunal. The general tour of the Doge's Palace is quite extensive as well. We saw the sites of where the legislatures met and the entire prison. It is not uncommon for parts of Venice to flood during the full and new moon cycles, and the lower cells in the prison were often filled with water.

After our tour, we treated ourselves to a very nice lunch along one of the smaller canals, and we got to watch many gondolas and smaller watercraft cruise by. It was an overcast, humid day today, but still pleasant by the canal. Generally, Venice does not seem stinky or dirty. Garbage is collected every day, and for the most part, it just smells like the sea.

On our way back from lunch, we stopped at a grocery store, which seem to be plentiful in Venice. A very nice woman let us sample cheeses and salami, which we had for a light supper, and we were able to buy a refillable wine carafe, which we filled with vino rosso from a spigot. Tomorrow, we can bring the bottle back and refill it.  For the most part, we have found the Venetians to be surly and unfriendly, but the people at the grocery store were very, very nice.

After returning to our hotel, Catherine made reservations at the spa for us to use the jacuzzi, steam room, and sauna, which is a perk of our five-star hotel. We plan to do the same tomorrow. Tomorrow we plan to visit the outlying islands of Murano and Burano, but we will need to spend the evening packing, so this will be the last blog entry in Italy. When we get home, we will post some information and impressions about our tour with Odyssey. Arrivederci Italia!