Mediterranean - 2 - May 14 2023 Rainy day in Venice

This is our only full day in Venice and the weather forecast is 100% rain, and it was right with rain morning through mid-afternoon, then again late afternoon.  Temps in the high 50's. We opted to checkout the  Doge Palace in the morning,  against the advice of the travel guides that said to wait until late afternoon when the crowds thin. The timing worked in our favor, lucky us.  Later, when the weather cleared for a while, we had a lovely gondola ride.  

                                           

Our hotel provided breakfast, it was  room service style as they don't have common space. Breakfast was promptly delivered at 8:30am, Italian style breads and coffee and we also opted for the eggs, fruit and pastries.  Oh so good.

A few shots of our room.....

Doge Palace served  the most important council ruling body in the Venetian Republic. Within the Palace all rooms which were used to exercise justice were connected vertically.  From the Wells (ground floor prisons) to the Advocates offices above.  

We got in line about 10:30am to enter the Palace, we had prepurchased "skip the lines" tickets.  The line was for security check, I guess we skipped the purchase lines??? It took about 10 minutes for security.  Later in the day that same line was 4 times longer. Imagine  waiting 40 minutes in the security line if you'd purchased skip the line tickets!

This woman checked our ticket.  A lot of people had thick black specticle frames.  Looks Italian!

The famous Bridge of Sighs is where prisoners could wave one last time before they were locked up in their cells.  Their women could wave back at them as the passed over the bridge of Sighs.

  Here is the Bridge of Sighs.

This is the view the prisoners had from inside the bridge, where they could wave good bye to their loved ones.

This is the inside walkway to the bridge, a photo opp for many, creating a tourist traffic slow down.

Here is a lower level prison walkway and  a prison cell.  Each cell housed 3 people.

The tour ended at the gift shop, we browsed but didn't buy anything.

For lunch, we stopped at a homemade noodle stand, take out only.  A cup of noodles with a sauce of your choice was 8-10 euros.

We've seen people drinking one drink everywhere: an orange drink, served in wine glasses. It is called a Spritz.  We founnd an indoor place to test drink one as it was still cold and damp outside,  it has Proseco and Aperol.

Later in the day, we stopped to watch this couple carry, bounce, drag their suitcases up the stairs over the canal.  They each had two sets of big roller bags.  This staircase did not have the side ramp, which makes it much easier.  They left the biggest suitcases behind as they pulled the first sets over.  Mean while two other couples where managing their own rather bulky cases over the bridge too.  Phil wanted to help, but it could have turned into a full time job and we are on vacation. 

When the rains stopped we found the gondola rides.  It wasn't difficult as they were everywhere along the main canal and side canals too.  We learned: gondolas always lean to the right (Phil was afraid that he'd tip over board), there are 433 gondolas in Venice all owned by one company (that explained why the costs were standard @80 euros per 30 minute ride with max of 5 passengers.)  In any case it was a lovely ride and it went by way too quickly.

Rialto Bridge from the Gondola

Melissa sent a screen shot of our location.  We were in the hotel, after a long busy day: 14,335 steps, and 17 flights of stairs.

Tomorrow late morning we say goodbye to Venice and find the bus to take us to Chioggia Italy and the Viking Star ship. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!