We then headed off to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore to see the church and go up the bell tower. From the bell tower we had the most scenic view of Venice and all the little waterways that go through the city. It was breath taking. Later we went to a park and enjoyed one of the bottles of wine from Tuscany, had dinner and then I headed back to the hotel to go to sleep while the boys went on a walk. They were trying to go to Rialto bridge but kept getting turned around and ending back up in Piazza San Marco. There are so many streets and so many of them dead end at a waterway with no bridge. Add that to the fact that the street signs are lacking and the map is so small it is near impossible to tell where you are, it can be pretty difficult to get around. They did finally make it to the bridge and back to the hotel though.
Our second day in Florence we headed to San Marco's Basilica, right in San Marco Piazza. You walk in and your eyes go straight to the ceiling; 4,700 square yards of mosaic cover the entire ceiling. We also saw where Saint Mark's bones are buried. St. Mark's Basilica is also famous for these 4 bronze horses that are housed there. They are from 4th century BC and were made from a cast iron mold, which was uncommon at the time. The horses used to be attached to a chariot which symbolized the god Apollo. The horses are originally from Greece, were stolen by the Romans, then moved to Constantinople after the sacking of Rome, then they were in Venice for awhile, Napoleon took them to France and placed them on the Arc de Triumph, later they were taken back to Venice where they've been ever since. The doge, aka duke, would address the people of Venice from in between the horses atop the church.
After the basilica we went to Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, the only Gothic church in Venice. The two greatest Venetian artists are buried there. We had lunch on the pier by a fruit market and then went back to the hotel for a siesta. After siesta we went to the Palazzo Ducale where the doges used to live. Also in the palace we got to see the prison and the Bridge of Sighs, named so because it was the bridge that prisoners would cross before being executed and through tiny window slots they would see their last glimpse of Venice before death.
We had dinner at Trattoria NonoRisoto. We waited about an hour for the bill and when it finally came I went to use the bathroom. When I came back, Ben and Andrew were rushing me to leave and when we got out into the plaza I was trying to throw an airplane that Ben had made me with the place-mat. Ben and Andrew kept rushing me and I told them to leave me alone because I wanted to throw my plane. Ben finally came over and whispered in my ear that we needed to get going because they had short changed the restaurant by 8 cents. So I took my plane up and we jetted off to Piazza San Marco where we got some gelato and sat on a bench by the water and listened to the string quartets and jazz bands playing throughout the plaza.
Another interesting fact about Piazza San Marco, it has the world's first digital clock. It changes every 5 minutes.
On our last day in Venice, we slept in a bit, got lunch at the market and headed off to Milan.
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