Italy > The Doge's Palace in Venice

At eight o’clock, breakfast is ready in the small hallway. In the tiny space, there are two tables, and along the walls are all sorts of knick-knacks. On one table are Buddha statues with incense. The owners point us to our table. Two tables are set, even though we had the impression that we were the only guests last night. We weren’t even sure if the owners themselves lived here. It turns out they do. The second table is probably set for them. After breakfast, we head to the station. To make sure we go the right way, the landlady comes outside with us to point out the correct turn. Verona Porta Vescovo station is less than four hundred meters away — purely by coincidence. When we booked our accommodation, we hadn’t paid attention to this. The ticket counter is closed. At the ticket machine, we select one-way tickets to Venice. We could also buy return tickets now, but we would have to choose a specific time right away, and the tickets are only valid for that time. Since we don’t yet know how long we’ll stay in Venice, we opt for one-way tickets. The cost is the same anyway. It’s quite busy on the double-decker train, but we still find two free seats. In just over an hour, the train takes us to Venice Santa Lucia station. The station is close to the city center. Right outside, it’s immediately clear we’re not the only tourists here today. Venice receives more than twenty million visitors every year, and the city is struggling under the pressure.

Italy - By train to Venice

The city council is considering charging each visitor a ten-euro entrance fee starting in 2023. I don’t think this will deter people from coming. We cross the Grand Canal via the Ponte degli Scalzi bridge and immediately find ourselves in a maze of small streets as we walk toward Piazza Roma. It doesn’t really matter whether we turn left or right — every street has something special. We cross canals via small bridges, where traditional gondoliers wait for customers. Sometimes we have to wait in the narrow streets because of the crowds. At the intersections, signs point toward the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark’s Square. The Rialto Bridge is a wide, covered 16th-century bridge with stalls on both sides. Because of the cafés along the waterfront, it’s difficult to get a good photo of it. On the other side, we continue wandering through the streets until we arrive at St. Mark’s Square, the city’s main square. Here you find the Biblioteca Nazionale, the Museo Correr, St. Mark’s Basilica, and the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale). In the middle stands the red-brick 16th-century Campanile bell tower. Tourists swarm across the square. In front of the cathedral, there’s a very long line of people waiting. We decide to visit the Doge’s Palace first. We already have tickets, so we can join the ‘Skip the line’ queue, which moves faster. We enter the courtyard of the palace. The Doge was once the head of state of the Republic of Venice, residing here. The palace was also used for political activities and as a court of law. It’s extremely crowded in the rooms, making it harder to appreciate their beauty. As in other palaces we’ve seen, the rooms become more and more impressive, and here they also get bigger.

Italy - The beautiful halls of the Palace of Venice

The Great Council Room is the highlight — a hall 53 meters long and 25 meters wide, fully decorated with 14th-century frescoes, and a gold-inlaid ceiling. It’s incredibly beautiful and unique. Because the palace also served as a court, there is a bridge connecting it to the prison on the other side of the water. This is the Bridge of Sighs, so named because it was often the last passage prisoners took. We follow the stream of visitors across the narrow covered bridge, and on the other side, we walk through the old prison cells. After about an hour, we’re back on St. Mark’s Square. From the outside, the Bridge of Sighs looks even more beautiful, with gondoliers passing underneath with their passengers. We leave the center and St. Mark’s Square in search of a lunch spot. Along one of the canals, we find a nice terrace. We brace ourselves for high prices — and indeed, it’s no better. When ordering, the waiter recommends fresh salmon, which is delicious, but at checkout, it turns out to be much more expensive. They’ve also charged five euros for cutlery and twelve percent service. In the end, lunch costs us over seventy euros, probably the most expensive meal of our trip so far. Perhaps feeling ripped off is just part of the Venice experience. We continue wandering through the streets and even find ourselves in an area with hardly any people. There are fewer shops here, and some historic buildings are neglected. We choose our path more or less at random, turning left or right depending on which street looks more appealing. We arrive at the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, an enormous church in the heart of Venice. Inside, the church radiates peace — perhaps because most tourists don’t want to pay the entrance fee. The church dates from 1333 and was part of a Dominican monastery until the 19th century. Twenty-five doges are buried here. By half past three, we follow the signs back to St. Mark’s Square. The line for the cathedral is still long, with people waiting in the blazing sun. We take another walk around the square and head to the waterfront. We buy a ticket for the water bus back to the train station. Water transport is the most practical way to get around here, and it’s fun to see Venice from the water. We can’t get on the first ferry — the queue ahead of us is too long — but we manage to board the four o’clock boat. The boat follows the route through the Grand Canal, making no fewer than fifteen stops before reaching the station. Sometimes the stops are only a few hundred meters apart.

Italy - The Piazza San Marco has been the meeting place in Venice for centuries

Although it’s busy on board, we enjoy the ride and the views. After forty-five minutes, we disembark at the station. At the ticket machine, we buy tickets for the 17:10 train to Verona. While we digest all the impressions of Venice, the train carries us back to Verona. At half past six, we get off at Verona Porta Vescovo and walk back to our accommodation. The landlady is eager to know how we enjoyed our day. Unfortunately, she speaks little English, and we speak little Italian, so we explain with a few words and gestures. For dinner, we head back through the city gate. We don’t feel like going to the same restaurant as yesterday. Yesterday, we saw a nice little restaurant on a square, but it turns out to be just a bar with snacks. They send us across the street, but that restaurant is booked for a private event tonight. We continue toward the city center. One woman is just closing her restaurant — she only serves lunch, she apologizes — but recommends a pizzeria in town. We pass a kebab place. By now, we’ve given up on finding a cozy terrace with other people sitting outside. When we pass what looks like an Asian takeaway, we decide to eat there: a noodle dish with a Chinese bottle of beer. Not the most culinary meal of the trip, but fine for now — and probably our cheapest dinner so far. We walk back along the city wall. Cars are parked all over the grass; there’s a festival going on. We don’t have the energy to go check it out. From our apartment, we can hear the thump of the music — perfect to fall asleep to.