Oct 7 Day 3 Venice

This is the secret mailbox at the Doge's Palace where people placed notes about other people, the start of tattling, and got them into trouble.  The main purpose was to find out who was skipping out on paying their taxes, but apparently other types of secrets were revealed.  They were pretty harsh between the 9th and 15th centuries!

After wandering around the local markets near Campo San Polo and loving the slow, wandering feel of it, I toured the Doge's Palace and then had a wonderful private tour of St. Mark's Cathedral by Msgr Ferme, former dean at Catholic University.  The basilica is truly gorgeous, with over 40,000 square feet of mosaics all over the ceiling, beautiful sculptures and chapels, and lovely marble, tiles, and designs.  Of course Constantinople would not be too pleased, since much of what is in the cathedral was taken from him, but oh well, too bad.  The Pala d' Oro is one of the most magnificent things I've ever seen - altarpiece made of gold and precious jewels.  The Doge's (Duke's) Palace is also just too much to take in, from the largest painting in the world to the torture chambers.  Up the Giant's Staircase - where the doges were always crowned - are two marble sculptures:  Mars and Neptune (Mars is quite the hunk).

After tea at the famous Caffe Florian (with its wonderful orchestra) I checked out Harry's Bar but did not see any celebrities.