Italy Day 1: Venice, St. Mark’s Basilica and Dodge Palace

Venice is an amazingly beautiful place that once boasted the trade center of the world, and consequently, there’s treasures from around the globe sea captains captured and brought here. Dodge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica are equally stunning and are next to one another, so touring the two together in a half day makes the most sense.

We started in the chapel where you couldn’t exactly take pictures. But trust me, the marbled floors, mosaic designs, Christian symbolism meets Roman Gods, and the bones of St. Mark are truly amazing sites! The flooding and damage from time make this place even more amazing and brilliant, and I couldn’t believe the time and effort that went into this tribute to the apostle Mark.

Doge’s Palace was a completely different story- pictures were allowed everywhere and brace yourself for overload!

This was our first taste of saying, “Man ceiling are boring in the U.S. we need to rethink this!”

And the ceiling comments just kept coming the more rooms we entered. It was truly stunning and amazing!

The vivid color and painting within literature had us pretty amazed too. What a time to live!

Did I mention the ceilings? Seriously we could not stop looking up!

The coins were brilliant too, and I couldn’t help but think of the 30 pieces of silver Judas betrayed Christ for.

The cartography and interest with world conquering was also so fascinating to see!

And of course, the royal fashion always sparks my interest too!

Jacob and my brother were hard to pull away from the Armory- set up to intimidate and show the innovation of the Roman Empire. My two pictures don’t do justice to the walls lined with armor and weapons.

We also got to see the largest oil painting in the world, Tintoretto’s Paradise.

The Hall of the Grand Council was truly stunning- seeing where the elect met and senate congregated was truly something fit for the most royal of royals. I guess when you own most the world and its wealth you can pull of the richest buildings and paintings to be had.

It was definitely a “pinch me” kind of day! We were amazed to see the beauty, history, and dominance that is Italian cathedrals and palaces all in one day!