Lost in Venice

which apparently is the norm. Actually, we were doing really well all day until we tried to find a particular restaurant tonight. We used the map we got from the hotel which contains very few street names which doesn't matter because most streets don't have names. We even tried using google maps directions but the woman who tells you where to go kept being frustrated and finally gave up. We were surprised she didn't say "You're in Venice. Don't ask me."

Many gondolas, many canals, many bridges

We arrived yesterday after a grueling trip. What was grueling about it was the 4 hour layover in Paris. The planes were on time and very pleasant. There were no screaming babies. But neither of us can sleep on planes so the 4 hours at CDG from 6-10 a.m. were very tiring. Surprisingly, we had only one security check and even though we had to walk a couple miles to get to the correct terminal, it took only about 40 minutes until we were at the gate. When we got to the Venice airport, we did not follow the advice of a sage friend who will remain nameless who told us to spring for a 100 euro private boat. Instead, we took the water taxi which stops at every port. It didn't take that long; it just seemed long because the water on the windows prevented a view and...it stopped at every port. Finding the hotel was also a problem. I had copied and pasted the directions from the hotel website. They turned out to be entirely wrong. When we were about a block away but didn't know which way to turn, an old man came up to us and gave us instructions.  Very nice room and a great breakfast.

Yesterday, after nap time, we visited San Marco square but not much goes on at night. We had a very nice dinner at a hole in the wall restaurant close to the hotel.We were asleep by 9.

We started the day with a tour of Doge Palace. We had booked the Secret Itineraries tour but got confused by the time so toured the public part before that tour began. The Palace is huge and has been added to over the centuries. Its main purpose was to house all the administrative offices and courts and also included a prison. The prison part does not contain the beautiful art found in the other rooms of the building. However, the court mandated only two people to a cell so when they were full, they just added more cells. Plus, administrators often visited the cells to hear prisoner complaints and make sure everything ran smoothly. Although capital punishment existed, it went out of favor by the 1500s; the tour guide said they had a total of 18 in one century and then got rid of it altogether. We were also told  the story of Cassanova who was supposed to serve a five year sentence for espionage but escaped after one year.

One of the ceiling in the Doge; most were painted by Tinteretto and friends

 The biggest surprise of all the artwork was going into a room and feeling like we had stepped onto an Escher painting:

All the floors in the Palace and also in San Marco Basilica  are magnificent but this was the only floor with this design. The tour guide said we could get dizzy looking at it.

After the tour, we walked to the Rialto Bridge, the long way on purpose. We did not get too lost on that journey because we encountered a lot of squares which are marked on the maps. We saw the Accademia, the Opera House and yes, this:

Harry's Bar behind bars

From Rialto, we took a water taxi back to San Marco just to ride on the Grand Canal.  We had a great view from open air seats in the front of the boat. The canal is truly grand.

One more day in Venice; with any luck, we will find the island of Murano and maybe a museum.