San Marco Square

One of the first places we went in Venice was to San Marco square.  We had seen it from the ship, but it was even more awe-inspiring and beautiful in person.  And CROWDED!  We learned our lesson- go early in the morning!  It was a short Vaporetto ride from our apartment, maybe 20 minutes.

This is the Palazzo Ducale, or the Doge's Palace.  We took a tour of the inside, and it's just huge.  The tour took hours!

When you look to the left you could see this tower, called the Campanile.  You could go up to the top, but the kids were tired and hungry, so we decided not to.

It took so many tries to get this picture, people kept stepping into frame!

The detail on this building is just incredible!

I wish I remembered who these statues are!

This is some detail on the St. Mark's Basilica.  Part of it was scaffolded, and you couldn't see a lot of it.

More details and paintings!

This clocktower is at one side of the square, and has some really unique things I've never heard of before.  The men on the top that are striking the bell- one is old and one is young, to show the passage of time.  Then below that is the winged lion of Venice (the symbol).  Below that is part of the clock face, where the hour is shown on the left in Roman numerals, and the minutes on the right, in Arabic numerals.  Below that is more of the clock that shows the positions of the sun and moon, and the signs of the zodiac.  In other words, it's REALLY COOL.

This is part of the view inside the courtyard of the Doge's Palace.  There are "No Pictures" signs everywhere, and it was making me nervous.

Hard to imagine somebody really living here!

This is a ceiling inside the Doge's Palace.

Stairs up to the meeting rooms.

All the detail for the ceiling of some stairs!  Wow!

Next you'll see some of the yummy foods we had in Venice!