The Heart of Venice p14

The Big Plaza

This was the biggest plaza that I remember seeing. There were always tons of people and pigeons. It was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that the place wasn't just skillfully painted on a flat surface, like at Six Flags where the street pretends to go on, but is really just a painted wall.

The whole plaza was skirted with tables and chairs at the expensive restaurants that surrounded the place. Tourists were everywhere, but so were the Italians. One of the days I was really worn out from all the sight-seeing and mom still wanted to go to the museums nearby. I decided to sit it out and relax on the steps, leaning up against a column. I just watched everyone go by. Some asian group of chitchatty girls sat down next to me, but a street-sweeper shoo-ed them away with her broom. There was a family with 2 little boys, and one was busy chasing the pigeons all around the square. It was absolutely adorable. A couple teenage girls were feeding the pigeons with very animated ractions whenever one landed on them. It tickled me to watch them try and hold a pose for a camera when you could tell they just wanted to burst out with giggles.

One evening we got to eat dinner very nearby and watched all the action take place in the square. It was definately a 'holy-cow-I'm-in-Italy' moment. The food was good, too. The waiter cut the bones out of a fish for the lady sitting at the table behind us. A toddler-aged beautiful young girl was trying to impress her dad and anyone else who was watching by carrying her mom's oversized backpack around on her tiny figure.

In this picture, St.Marks is right behind you.


Doge's Palace

This is basically the center of the government of Venice. To the left of this building is St. Mark's, as well. The place is huge. Its got a kinda creepy prison in it. Thing is, its not like the worst, scariest place. I certainly wouldn't want to be locked there, within arm's reach of Venice, yet not enjoying any bit of it. Anyhow, I generally behaved myself in Venice, so I didn't have to worry about it. I don't remember much about the rest of the palace. I think the stairs were pretty cool and everything was really decorated ... but really, what wasn't?

Our last evening in Venice, we were walking across from the Doge's place and heard a live band of string bass, piano, accordian, mandolin and trumpet, I believe. They were playing very typical Italian songs for the people eating at the outside cafe. A crowd gathered all around and one lady in particular even danced. It was an extremely lively atmosphere and made our evening complete.

Okay, so I'm starting to remember some about the Doge's Palace. It was prettymuch a courthouse. Lots of rooms for guys dressed up in white curly wigs. They tried people for crimes in here, and held elections as well. There is a room that seems straight out of 'the merchant of venice' ... the part at the end. Also, there is a HUGE ballroom type room. Very open (really reminded me of anastasia where she dances with the imaginary ghost-people.) One mom and her daughter were kinda chasing eachother all around the place. My mom was not chasing me around the place, and instead educating me. She said the room was where all the men of age would gather to hold elections. Venice was democratic, I guess, and held open elections like this.

Some other points of interest in the Doge's Palace were the armories wehre tons of weapons were displayed (I heard rumors of a viscious chastity belt, but we didn't seem to run across it.) There was also a little opening in the wall that had a slot on one side, where you could anonymously turn in peoples' names for crimes they had committed ... its best to be nice to everyone in Venice.


Look at the Stone!

This is just one relatively little 'plain' wall at St. Mark's. Behind it, is the relics, if I remember correctly. We had to wait in line for a while to get into St. Mark's and I was enjoying all the different building materials that went into it. You know they put bookos of money into it. Just this wall alone, I can't even imagine how many quarries and how many different countries they had to retrieve the different types of stone from. Generally, it weathered pretty nicely ... considering, even, that Venice floods often, and puts this church's floor under water.

Everything was pretty elaborate in the church. I literally got dizzy walking through it. SO MANY MOSAICS (Kristen, eat your heart out!) The floor was all mosaic ... very intricate designs. At the postcard shop afterwards, there were postcards of prettymuch every mosaic in the place, and i spotted one of a peacock. I hadn't seen it when I went through the first time, so I had to sneak in a second time. I actually got yelled at by some German lady leading a tour. But I got to see the peacocks. There were actually 2 pairs of them. Both about 5' wide by 3' tall on the ground. made with square tiles about 3/4" each. I dont know how I missed them. Each peacock was different, too. Yeah, of the whole decorated church, I liked the floor the most. Something else that interested me is that these mosaic floors weather a lot better than big marble slab floors. The little tiles can shift and move some, yet the larger slabs of marble just crack.