Doge’s Palace

I had a meeting in the morning so met up with Glenn, Ange and Oli in St Marks square. Glenn and I went to the Doge’s Palace and Ange and Oli to the American artist Robert Indiana - linked to Andy Warhol.

The Doge’s palace is where the elected Doge lived who presided over the very organised council structures who ruled over Venice from the 900s. Only the Doge kept his position until he died. The elected council members only sat for 2 years to make sure no one became too powerful and to stop corruption. This organization led to Venice becoming very powerful and rich by dominating the trade routes in the Adriatic.

The ancient buildings still stand with their amazing paintings and there is still a lot of the armory and wealth that they had over time.

This is the view from the loggia inside - and the golden staircase built to impress people on the way in.

There were ancient 15th century paintings with gold everywhere. The many famous artists included Titian and Tintoretto.

The portraits of the doge and council members were in friezes around the top. One doge had tried to cause a coup and was executed as a result. His portrait is covered in black cloth.

The armory was kept securely locked away only for use in conflicts. Weapons were not permitted in the town to reduce conflicts. There was an ancient suit of armour.

Some of the original 12th century paintings had been revealed in restoration.

The great hall was the largest in the world at the time and still has the biggest canvas picture in the world. Many pictures show the Venetian’s winning many battles with their huge oared ships and armies.

The smaller council rooms were still very palatial.

We ended up in the court room where sentences were passed. This leads directly to the prison across the Bridge of Sighs. It’s all solid stone with not much chance of escaping. There was a lot of graffiti.

This is the view from the Bridge of Sighs when crossing back from the prison to the Doges Palace.

We left the inside of the palace to see more impressive sights outside.

Here we are in the courtyard.

There was an ancient gondola there. The outside of the building had lots of marble and intricate carving.

We then went to meet Ange and Oli for lunch and a bit of light relief on the grand canal.

Included in our Doges palace ticket was the Correr Museum which contains art collections from the Doges and is contained in the Emperors palace from the 1800s around 3 sides of St Marks Square.

The palace was impressive - with more precious paintings and sculptures.

There was a huge collection of Roman sculptures. There were more weapons and armor made from buffalo hide.

There was a good view down onto St Marks Square.

Roman jewellery and pottery found in graves had been collected.

To stop competitive fighting by the residents of Venice, the leaders introduced competitions of building human pyramids. Different areas of Venice were marked out to form the teams. There were many small portraits including an Albanese - maybe an ancestor of our Prime Minister.

At last we were finished and on our walk through the narrow streets saw some gondolas weaving their way through the canals. The water was high - higher than a door onto the canal.

We got back to the apartment for a quick turnaround as we were meeting Grant and Anne with Anne’s sister Catriona and husband Colin from Oban.

We had a good dinner in a garden restaurant Al Nono recommended by our Airbnb hosts as a place where the locals eat. The food was excellent but the service was appauling by our Indian waiter who rudely hassled us to order - and then didn’t put in Colin’s pizza order as we found out when he didn’t get his dinner. He eventually got his about 15 minutes after ours.

Afterwards we went back to their hotel for drinks on the roof terrace - very nice. We then said farewells as they are leaving early tomorrow for their 10 day cruise around the Mediterranean.