Each and every one of you must be here in Venice with us…

…because it’s that crowded. All is good within the confines of our hotel room, aside from the fall hazards, but when we step outside, we enter a swarm of (mostly) Americans, extremely intent on getting somewhere and we are definitely in their way.

We started our day at the Doge’s Palace. The Doge of Venice was the leader of the Venetian republic and the palace originally dates from 1340. The picture below is not mine as my camera was definitely on the fritz today – and the lawyer in me wants you to know that the Doge’s Palace below is a copyright-free download.

We took a tour called the Secret Itineraries – and we got an in-depth look at the prison and legal system of the Palace. The cell pictured below was an accommodation offered to the upper-class prisoner – to be differentiated from the cells reserved for the true riff raff due to spaciousness and higher floor within the building (less flooding and fewer rats!)

My favorite part of the tour was that we walked for an hour through warrens of hallways lined with cells like this:

Continuously complimenting Ron for ducking:

And then we walked out of the prison side of the building into the fancy Palazzo side, using this super cool fake door below. It’s designed to look like a wardrobe.

Here’s one picture from the inside on the Palazzo side, just to give you the contrast. This is the Chamber of the Great Council – the meeting place for the most important political body in the Venetian republic.

From the Doge’s Palace, we went over to St. Mark’s Basilica, from about 1094:

According to all the tour books, the coolest thing about the inside of the Basilica are the mosaics, which span 85,000 square feet and document Bible stories, allegories, and Venetian history. If I had to synthesize and summarize the impact of all of this, I would conclude that the mosaics are quite pretty:

I was reminded, though, that I have always been equally smitten with the floor of this place. I remember – on my very first visit – 22 years ago with my mom – staring, awestruck, at the floor:

Enough with the in-depth history lesson, though. Here are the other cool things I saw today.

A $4000 leather coffee maker:

These $700+ glasses:

And Ron, instructing a shop-keeper to bring him that sweatshirt in an XXL.

I will leave you with this typical Venetian view. Tomorrow we head to Vicenza – 45 minutes away by train – to see the Palladian architecture that dominates the city.