Day Fourteen: 5/6
We got up and started walking when we decided
we were starving. We headed towards the
Hotel
Monaco. We sat on the patio, which was next to the water. We had a great
view of the gondolas loading.
The breakfast at this hotel was way
expensive. Do not bother to go and eat there. A yogurt and an omelet were like
$40US!!! And it was not very good.
Avoid this place like the plague, unless you are staying at the hotel. The food is included if you are a guest of
the hotel. We didn’t know that.
We went into the St. Mark's
Basilica museum. There are quite a lot of gold mosaics here. The church was having a sermon, so we could
not visit the rest of the church. This
church is most famous for the mosaics.
They are everywhere. They are on
every wall, floor and ceiling. I would hate to be the person that has to polish
them.
We had an incredible view from the top of the building. You can see the four horses that are the
trademark of the Basilica. On the top
of the building, there is an inside museum that houses the older four horses
that were replaced outside.
After the Basilica, we toured the Doge's Palace.
This is the home of the Venetian government. This place is incredible. There are so many famous and unique things
to see here. The most famous things are
the “largest painting in the world” (pictured left) and the bridge of sighs.
The bridge of sighs
is the only bridge that connects the Doge's Palace
with the prison. All of the prisoners
were taken over this bridge and 
most
of them were never seen again. The picture on the right is the view from inside
the bridge.
One of things that Steve really liked was the outside staircase. It took us almost ten minutes to get a good
picture without anyone walking into the shot.
Steve was very patient and we finally got a great shot shown to the
left.
After the tour of the palace, we found a place to have lunch. Our lunch
was overlooking the water. Angie was studying our next move for the day.
After lunch we went to the Museo
Correr. This museum had quite a lot of artifacts and paintings. The most interesting was their collection of
playing cards. There were games that
dated back to the 10th century in the museum. This was another
museum that you had to follow a pre-laid out path. You could not just wander. There were some fabulous chandeliers, but
the lighting was so bad, I could not get any good photos.
We headed back to the hotel for a quick nap.
We asked the hotel for a recommendation for dinner. They suggested Trattorie
Alla Scala. I guess all the hotels recommend this restaurant, as lots of people
were there from other hotel recommendations as well. The food was very good,
but the service sucked! And when I say sucked, it’s an understatement! The
waiter took our wine order and came back two times without it. After we ate we
asked for our bill and waited 20 minutes for it. We had to ask again. It was
not like the waiter was busy in the kitchen. Lots of people around us had the
same problem. The waiters just seem to have a very short memory. If you have nowhere to go in a hurry, this
is a great restaurant otherwise.
Sitting at the next table to us, was a guy
who Angie thought looked like Liberace. He appeared to be with a large group of
cruise ship passengers. He also knew the owner. Steve thinks he was a
businessman that does a lot of business in Venice. It didn’t help that he also
had three huge rings on one hand made of gold and diamonds.
After dinner, we strolled back to the room. One of the things that
Steve noticed on this trip was that Saint Mark’s square was filled with
pigeons. Last time he was here, there were not that many. It was almost like wading through them. There was a little girl covered in pigeons as
they ate seeds out of her hands. Hope
she had wash and wear clothing. On the left is a picture of the St. Mark’s
Clock Tower. It was closed for repairs.