Venice Part 2

One of the first things we did in Venice was to visit the Naval History Museum in Venice.  This was a really cool museum.  Given that Venice was a major world power for several hundred years, and the navy had a lot to do with this, and given that the city is on the water, naval operations have been of major importance throughout the history of the city.

First off was these cool, huge anchors outside. 

Me for scale.  Those of you who know me know that I am not a small guy...

The museum had many scale ship models.  These depicted all kinds of ships, even dating back to galleys and other ancient ship types.

There were also lots of cool globes.

And sea chests.

Ship model.

Sabres

Near the museum is also the entrance to the Arsenale, which was the shipyard where the ships were made.  It's still an active naval base, so you can't go in, but you can see the very cool towers that once held the gates.

The entrance to Arsenale.

Lion taken as a war prize.

The lion above was taken as a war prize from somewhere in Greece if I remember correctly.  There was a display on it in the museum showing how it has viking runes carved into the side of it.  Quite a few in fact.  They were added later, carved into the stone.  You have to admire that kind of dedication to your vandalism.

One of the first things we did was go up into the bell tower in Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square).  This provides an amazing view of Venice, and it happened to be one of the very few sunny days we had.  Well worth the 8 euros.  Check out these views.

Closeup of the winged lion on top of the column.

Here's a video of the view.

More to come.