We decided to travel further afield today with a 48 hour pass to ride the Vaporetti throughout the Venetian islands. The water-bus, or ferry, system is extensive and is used by the locals and tourists alike. Our first trip was to the furthest tourist site, Burano, known as the Lace Island, a colorful fishermen’s village.

On the way to catch the vaporetto to Burano we had to walk through the train station and past this icon of train travel – The Orient Express! As close as we’ll get to it I think!

A half hour ferry and we disembarked at the colorful, peaceful village.

Even the lunch was colorful! Small snacks called Cicchetti accompanied by beer, wine or apertif are like the Spanish Tapas.

The many vibrant colors of the houses in Burano. Known for handmade lace manufacture the practice is dying out because of competition with less expensive machine manufactured lace.

On our walk around the small island we noticed the bell tower of one of the churches from different angles.

This view shows the tower has a significant lean compared to the first picture!

From Burano we caught the vaporetto to Murano, the Glass island. During Venice’s heyday as an economic superpower, glass manufacture was an important and well guarded craft. For safety reasons the glass factories were moved to the island to protect the wooden structures of Venice, and to more safely protect the innovation and unique manufacturing processes that made Venetian glass highly prized and valuable! The shopfronts are filled with beautiful unique art glass. Many of the shops prefer that you don’t take pictures of their wares.

I found these beautiful chandeliers hanging in a local church!

We ventured out amongst all the other tourists to visit THE main attractions of Venice, St. Mark’s Square with St. Marks Basilica and the Doge Palace. We had purchased ‘skip the line tickets’ online, but still had a line, albeit a shorter one than the ‘common’ tourists! The ticket to Basilica San Marco was for a quick walk through the main area, but it was crammed with fantastic artwork and especially intricate mosaics! Click here for all things Basilica San Marco, history and chronology especially!

The floor mosaics appear 3 dimensional!

The animal motifs caught my eye of course!

The mosaics covering the floors walls and ceilings show 8 centuries of development!

Robert and I continued on to visit the Doge’s Palace, Palazzo Ducale, the seat of government,  “La Serenissima”, of Venice during it’s dominance of the Mediterranean and especially the Adriatic from the 6th to the 16th centuries A.D. Over 1000 years! The Doge was the elected supreme authority of the Venice Republic, elected by the ruling families of the city-state, not the common people! While the Basilica is older and covered with mosaics, the Palace was built in 1340 (on the site of former palaces) and has a ‘Venetian Gothic’ style, more paintings and elaborate plasterwork. Not only was it the Doge’s residence, but it held the chambers for the various government entities that ruled the far flung empire. For all information, history, etc. about Palazzo Ducale, click here.

In the courtyard of the Palace is the ‘Giant’s Staircase’, guarded at the top by statues of Mars and Neptune, symbolizing Venice’s dominance on land and sea! This is where newly elected Doges were crowned and presented to the people of Venice.

Inside, the tour passes through room after elaborately painted room, the halls of government. Lots of paintings mixing religious and royal symbolism.

I was surprised to see astrological references too!

One room in particular held ‘The Council of Ten’, “set up after a conspiricy…to overthrow the institutions of the State. Initially meant as a provisional body to try those conspirators, the Council of Ten…ended up becoming permanent. Its authority covered all sectors of public life – from religious orthodoxy to foreign policy, from espionage to state security – and this range of powers gave rise to the legend of the Council as a ruthless, all-seeing tribunal at the service of the ruling oligarchy, a court whose sentences were handed down rapidly after hearings held in secret.” Lessons should be learned from this!!! After leaving the Judicial chambers the tour sends you down to the prison, through the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ where the convicted got their last look through the stone latticed window of the outside world. The dank, dark cells below saw many prisoners, political and economic, rightly or wrongly convicted, languish and die.

In one gallery is this picture, the last Doge.

“On May 12, 1797, with Napoleon’s troops lined up for an attack on the shores of the lagoon, the Great Council of Venice met for the last time and abdicated in favour of a revolutionary government controlled by the French military command. On May 15, 1797, the last doge Ludovico Manin left the Palazzo Ducale forever. That was how the thousand-year-old history of the Republic of Venice ended.”

Beware; We don’t have an army on our shores, but an army in our midst (including the Supreme Court) threatening to end our not even 250 year old American Republic!!

Today we traveled to Venice, a 4.5 hour train ride, arriving at about 1:30 in the afternoon. We walked the 15 minute distance to our hotel where we met our friends and neighbors Ed & Claire!

Approaching Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia, the train station on the island-city of Venice, across the lagoon from the mainland!

A reunion across the world and over 8 months since we’ve seen Ed & Claire!

After a quick freshen up we headed out to walk the neighborhood and get a late lunch at a local ‘ristorante’!

In a Mask Shop window. It’s gonna be a record breaking HOT summer across the globe I think!

Robert got up early to a beautiful clear cool morning. He quietly left the apartment with his drone and went to the east end of the village to get some drone shots from above!

Olive grove outside the medieval wall.

The crane marks the 3rd gate, Porta Perugina in the south wall.

About an hour later I went out and got this panorama shot over the lake from the south Porta Perugina gate over the south half of the lake.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Today we explored Castiglione del Lago our home for a few days.

The square with the non-working fountain, from the small balcony of our Airbnb.

After breakfast we went out to explore the small village within the medieval walls. The lane between the buildings at the top of the picture above leads to the north of the 3 gates, Porta Fiorentina. Turning left rather than going down to the gate took us two buildings over to the main Church of Santa Maria Maddalena, built in 1836 after the older and smaller medieval church was demolished.

The inside is richly decorated with geometric frescoes giving 3D impressions.

We went through another gate, Porta Senese, at the west point of the elongated oval wall circling the old village.

The gate opens onto a terrace overlooking the fountain and a stairway going down to the straight “Road to Montepulciano”.

We turned back into the village and walked to the other end (east) of the walled town.

Another smaller church is decorated with gilded frescoes.

At the east end of the wall is the fortress or Rocca del Leone, built in the 13th century on a pentagon plan resembling the constellation of Leo. It is possible to go up on the guard walkway, towers and keep for great views but we couldn’t find the route!

Inside the fortress is a theater where kids were rehearsing a play, in the muggy heat! There was also a small snack bar for a cold beer!

Also the ruins of an ancient church, where Robert was introduced to ‘Art’!

We went back to our air conditioned apartment, cleaned up and had lunch. Later, after dinner and as it cooled down after sunset, we went for a stroll around the outside of the walls.

Looking up at the west gate, Porta Senese, lit up for the night.

As we walked around we passed lots of cars parked in the parking slots along the wall. We peeked into a gated entrance into the center of the fortress at the east end and saw that the kids were presenting their play they had been practicing for this morning! The seats were filled with their family and friends!

The square under our balcony was quieting down after the football game on the TV at the bar below us!