Guido showed us the fastest way to cross the Grand Canal from our hotel…the gondola taxi. We learned that locals stand, but it is okay to sit and that if you should fall in, don’t worry too much about swimming just be sure to keep you mouth closed! The fish and fruit and vegetable markets are just across the canal from the hotel and typical of the markets all over Europe. Everything is fresh and displayed in a way that makes you want to buy.
After visiting the market for several minutes and learning about the different fish and seafood, we followed the crowd to the Rialto Bridge, stopping to buy hats and to learn about the ancient city of Venice. Missing from this cluster of built up islands is greenery so many of the balconies are decorated with flowers.
After twisting and turning through the narrow streets we arrived at St. Mark’s Square where Guido walked us past the long lines to the tour entrance to the Doge’s Palace. In the palace the ceilings and walls were highly decorated with gilded plaster and paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. Not only was the palace the residence for the doge, it was also the political courthouse and the seat of the doge’s government. The history of Venice is quite interesting and extensive, too long and complicated for this blog! 
Political prisoners were tried and convicted in the palace and taken immediately to the connected prison across the covered Prisons’ Bridge where they spent the rest of their lives chained by their legs to the wall of the prison, 4 to a room, with only bread and water as sustenance. When Lord Byron was here in the 19th century he renamed the bridge, the Bridge of Sighs. 
It was from this bridge that prisoners got their last views of the bright and sunny outside and they sighed. The Bridge of Sighs was immortalized in Canto IV of Byron’s lengthy narrative poem, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.”
The next stop on our tour was St. Mark’s Basilica, the most famous of the city’s 120 churches (there are 118 islands that make up the city of Venice). 
The church’s exterior is adorned by a collection of war trophies from conquests throughout Europe, like these horses from Constantinople. Our tour progressed back to the Rialto Bridge where we said, “arrivederci” to Guido and began our search for an air conditioned place for lunch. We settled on Ristorante Malibran (not very air conditioned) and had a good Ventian lunch before winding our way back to the Foscari Palace for a nice long and cool nap. Dinner was on the roof of the hotel with the expectation of a tour of the Grand Canal. After lightning and a few sprinkles, we finished dinner inside the hotel and the tour was postponed until tomorrow night. We had a great view of the city rooftops and enjoyed a serenade of laughter from the laughing gulls on our rooftop.
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