A busy Sunday in Venice. We started early, waking up at 7:30 to go grab breakfast before heading out to the museums. First we went to Accademia (the Venice one), which was pretty cool. There was some really good art, mainly paintings though. Most people aren’t as familiar with Venetian artists, who are often forgotten amidst the many Renaissance artists from Florence and Rome. However, they are unique in their own way and obviously were all quite talented. The best known ones were Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese in my opinion, but I’m sure I’m forgetting some. Anyways, we were there about an hour and then walked back over to St. Mark’s Square. We went into the Correr Museum, which is actually combined with two other museums, and archeological one and another one that I forget the name of. We actually bought a museum pass here which got us in to the three, the Doge’s Palace and several other museums (that we didn’t end up visiting). So this museum also had a lot of well-known art, but we were most fascinated with the Archeological museum. It had rooms full of old Venetian currency, maps and weapons used in battle. Not surprisingly, we were most impressed by their weapons.

So after about two hours in this museum we boarded a ferry that took us to Murano, a group of five islands famous for their glassmaking. The ferry was about 40 minutes long and it was crazy hot. But it was nice to get on the water. So the island was filled with shops selling trinkets made of glass. I have no idea how they make those things, but they are all so cool. We had hoped to get to see them making the glass, but apparently they don’t do that on Sunday. So we just wandered the shops. Then we had to head back, so we hopped on another ferry. We weren’t exactly sure where it was going, but it ended up being just what we wanted. Amanda had to catch a train by two so she could get back to Rome to meet a friend. However, Mike, Kara, and I wanted to stay so we could see St. Mark’s Basilica and the Ducal Palace. The ferry first went by the train station and we said bye to Amanda and then ended right at St. Mark’s Square. By now, the line was ridiculously long to get in to the Basilica, and the entire square was filled with people. However, Rick Steve saved the day again. He said that if you check your back at a nearby church then you get a pass to the front of the line. We did this and walked straight in, bypassing at least 300 people. Inside is an astounding number of mosaics, most covered in gold leaf. St. Mark’s is famous for being a cross of cultures between Byzantine and Western. After Rome was sacked, mosaics fell out of favor and can mainly be found in former Byzantine churches and, of course, St. Mark’s. They again wouldn’t let us take pictures, which is a shame. We cruised through in about 30 minutes and then went back out into the square, grabbed our bags, and went to the Ducal Palace. This is where the Doge, the “elected king” of Venice would live during his term. He was elected by 120 nobles and was usually more of a figurehead, although some managed to wield legitimate power. Again there was a lot of artwork, but the best part was getting to see the splendor that they lived in. We saw more map rooms, a huge armory, which I snuck some pictures of, and our favorite part – the dungeons. We went through secret passageways that led into a new building where the prison was. It was huge and apparently was filled with political prisoners during the time of the Doges.

After spending time thoroughly exploring the prisons, we left the museum and began our walk back to our hotel. We stopped for some pizza, then gelato to cool us off from the intense heat. I sure am going to miss gelato back home. Anyways, we walked back pretty quickly, grabbed our bags, and went to the train station. We had decided not to book tickets for the return trip this time after our minor fiasco last time. It gave us more freedom, but turned out to hurt us a little. By the time we got there, all the second-class seats had been bought. So we were “forced” to get first-class! I think it was about 20 euro more, but it was soooo much better, especially since we had no choice. The seats were huge, leg room was actually existent, and the seats leaned way back. And we got free drink service. It was a fun way to end our weekend. Plus, we were on a super fast train and the trip took about four hours, rather than five and a half. I read my book, played cards and slept for a little bit. When we got back we hopped on the metro back to the apartments, and actually got back in time to catch the second half of the Euro Cup final between Spain and Germany. I was rooting for Spain, who was my second favorite from the beginning behind Italy. So I was happy when they won, it definitely seemed like they deserved it. The rest of the night was relaxing and I went to bed early to catch up on some lost sleep.