You can find the beauty of Venice, Italy, everywhere! There are many sites in Venice, Italy. So many that you could spend weeks walking the streets and floating the canals taking in all the beauty it has to offer. The people, buildings, restaurants, significant sites, and sounds make this city one of the most beautiful in the world. One of the things I like to do best is wandering the tiny streets taking pictures of the many unique buildings. Each building has its character, color, balconies with flowers in terra-cotta pots, and more (photo two above).

St. Mark’s Square

Then there’s St. Mark’s Square with hundreds of pigeons seeking food from the visitors. They have banned feeding the pigeons. However, we found kids with food in hand and birds sitting on their heads and shoulders; kids laughing is pretty standard.

St. Mark’s Basilica

St. Mark’s Basilica (photo one) is a fantastic place both inside and out. The exterior with its domes, spires, colored marble columns, and mosaics are lovely in itself but step through the doors of the Basilica, and you will be in awe of the magnificent interior. You cannot take photos, which is OK. I was once told that we tend to take too many pictures and don’t appreciate the beauty before us. There are multi-colored columns of marble, rich dark-colored wood, and sparkling mosaics over the entire ceiling. The Basilica is a site that should be seen in person to appreciate it’s beauty truly. The first building was to be temporarily built, in 828, to hold the stolen relics of Mark the Evangelist. Another replaced that building in 832 and after a fire was rebuilt in 978 and 1047.

Venetian merchants brought columns and friezes from the orient to use on the exterior. Make sure you check out the Greek Horses in the St Mark’s Museum in the Basilica. The replicas are on the exterior above the main entrance. The Horses of Saint Mark were installed around 1736, taken to Paris by Napoleon in 1797, and returned to Venice in 1815. Even the replicas are impressive.

The Doge’s Palace & the Bridge of Sighs

The Doge’s Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, and the prison are just around the Basilica corner. The palace is a must-see. We rented a phone that you could listen to as you walked through to appreciate better what we were seeing. Fire destroyed the original buildings and rebuilt a few times. It was renovated and given to the Venetians in 1923 to be used as a museum.

The oldest part of the palace is the facade overlooking the lagoon. Photo 3 above shows the many columns and sculptures that adorn the outside. Filippo Calendario and others created the 14th-century sculptures.

The courts and prison were once in the Doge’s Palace, but a new building was built to house the prisoners, including the famous inmate Giacomo Casanova. A bridge called the Bridge of Sighs (photo four above) connected the palace and the prison. The bridge began construction in 1614. The bridge has two separate corridors and enclosed and covered on all sides. The name refers to the sighs of prisoners who pass from the courtroom to the cell, and they took one last look through the barred windows out to Venice. Prisoners took their final look before entering their cells.

Venice is an amazing city, full of wonderful people, sites, food, and drink. It’s a must-see if you travel to Northern Italy!

St. Mark’s Square with the Basilica on the right

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