The Travels of Eric and Lorna

Near the end of our visit, we went to the Palazzo Ducale , or the Doge's Palace .  For those who don't know anything about Venice, the Doge was the leader of Venice for centuries, from around A.D. 700 until Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Venice in 1797.  Needless to say, as the center of power for one of the most powerful city-states in the world, it's a pretty nice place. Here's another picture of the exterior.  The place is right on St. Mark's Square, near where one would traditionally enter Venice from the sea, which was the only way to enter it for most of the city's history.  Swanky! As you would expect, the interior was just as nice.  My favorite part was the armory.  Dude had a LOT of swords. The Golden Staircase. Statue of Hercules near the Golden Staircase. This is why it's called the Golden Staircase. A moderately sized room. Pretty much all the ceilings were done like this.  Never miss a chance to bling things out

Just a quick note on some of the food we had in Venice.  If you read guidebooks, you will hear that it is easy to find bad, or at least mediocre, food in Venice.  I have no doubt that this is true, as the number of tourists that visit there makes this likely.  We were very lucky, however.  Aside from some mediocre pizza we had the first day, the food we had was very good. As a quick aside, here are some general rules to follow to find good food on vacation.  These apply particularly to Italy, but I'm guessing they work about anywhere.   The rules are as follows: Avoid any restaurant that... 1. is next to or very close to a major monument, the largest square in town, etc. 2. has someone outside asking you to come in. If the restaurant was good they wouldn't need to do this. 3. has a big sign outside with pictures of the food.  Seriously, learn a couple of Italian food words.  It's not hard. 4. has English menus.  Actually, English menus are not always a bad sign, part

While waiting outside a shop, I decided to just film people walking by for a couple of minutes.  Ok, look, I'm not Francis Ford Coppola, alright?  I never claimed to be.  YouTube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-dxt6cufgA

View of St. Mark's from the bell tower. The famous 'Bridge of Sighs' leading from the Doge's Palace to the Doge's Prison. The street leading to our apartment. The courtyard is behind the gate at the end. Chocolate mountain. The winged lion is the symbol of Venice.  Pretty cool symbol if you ask me. Little meat pigs, presumably pig meat.  You know you want one. Somehow the vegetables at the markets in Italy always look amazing.  Maybe because they typically only eat things in season? Venice's famous fish market. This was a cool 24 hour clock face. One of the wells in our courtyard.  Check out the intricate carving. Shop where oar holders for gondolas are made.  Apparently the guy quit being an astronomer to do this.  I think that's kind of awesome. Hmmm...symbolism maybe?