day two - venice with tauck

Today our trip with Tauck began in earnest.  Our Tour Directors, husband and wife Steve and Melissa, and Stephan, were ready to take their groups on the morning's adventures.  (We, along with Mimi and Carl,and Rita and Gene, were assigned to Steve's group). Tauck uses local guides in each city they visit, and they vet them well.  Each guide we had on this trip was well-informed and had obviously worked with Tauck many times in the past.  The company finds its favorites and then uses them  repeatedly.

Our local guide met us in the hotel lobby and we were off to see the Doges' Palace, which was almost right next door to the hotel.  We passed by the Bridge of Sighs, so named because the prisoners who were convicted in the court at the Doges' Palace (on the left in the picture below) had to walk through the bridge to reach the jail on the other side of the canal.  They sighed as they looked through the rock-carved window as they had their last glimpse of the sea and sky.  Here's the bridge from  the sidewalk:

The Doge was the elected supreme head of state and his residence was first constructed in the ninth century.  There were several fires over the years and the buildiings we see today are mainly of the 16th century.  The courtyard impresses visitors immediately, with its size and ornate design:

The magnificence of the interior's design and construction was immediately apparent as we walked up the Golden Staircase:

After touring the building and learning that the Doge was responsible for locking the gates to the city in the evening and unlocking them  in the morning (thus, the importance of being given the "keys to the city"), we crossed over the Bridge of Sighs to the old jail and exited to walk around the corner to St. Mark's Basilica.  Here's one of the views you would have had as you walked to your new residence in the prison....well deserving of a "sigh"...

The lines of people waiting to get into the Basilica stretched almost to the Grand Canal from  the entrance to the building.  Our guide, however, led us to a different door and we entered quickly, bypassing the hordes waiting outside.  The facade of the Basilica, seen below, is lovely - and the interior even more so.  Unfortunately, photos were prohibited inside.

We were on our own in the afternoon and visited the Correr Museum at the end of St. Mark's Square.  Then gelato-hunger attacked and we had tiramisu gelato from a different shop.  The ice cream  tasted very different and our first taste the day before was definitely the winner.

We then followed the suggestion of Steve and Melissa to take the Vaporetto #2 around the whole length of the Grand Canal.  Easily accessible right near our hotel, we popped on after buying and validating our tickets and went to the open-air back seats for a water's view of Venice.  Here's the Doges' Palace and the Campanile from  the water:

The entire circle cruise took us over an hour, with stops all along the way.  We passed by the Club Med 2, having seen one of its tour groups in the morning:

We saw the Rialto Bridge again, this time from  the water:

and chose a nearby restaurant to return to in the evening for dinner:

We took the vaporetto again later in the evening to reach our chosen restaurant, now that we were veteran public transportation riders, only to learn after dining that the #2 line shuts down at 8:00pm  and it's a long wait for the very local #1 line to appear at the Rialto boat stop.  Future riders, beware!