Venice

Yet another extra hour in bed as the clocks were turned back overnight!

The ship arrived around mid-day but the excursion didn't get underway until after lunch at 13.30 when we boarded a shuttle boat to take us to the city quayside.

We headed through the extremely busy walkway and over a couple of bridges crossing canals flowing into the sea to the Piazza San Marco...

...where we visited the Saint Mark's Basilica. I really don't know why you are not allowed to take photos or video in such places. I now have nothing to remember this part of the visit by.

Next door to the Basilica is the Doge's Palace, (the Doge being the supreme authority of the Republic of Venice,)  and here you are allowed to take photos and video...

...and what an incredible building both inside and out it is. One advantage of an organised excursion is that in both the Basilica and the Palace we were able to bypass the very long queues of visitors and just go straight in.

Here we are in front of The Giants' Staircase with Mars and Neptune on guard at the top.

In the photo above is the ceiling of the Golden Staircase which links the Doge's private apartments to the public rooms.

The ceilings of the rooms in the Palace are wonderful featuring works of art by the most famous painters of the time beautifully framed by very ornate carving. Each room is better than the previous one - breathtaking!

We walked over the Bridge of Sighs in the photo above on our way from the Palace on the left to the New Prisons built in 1614.

After our visit we explored Saint Mark's Square with the Basilica and the clock tower of 1499 behind us.

It was getting dark pretty quickly but the canals looked lovely...

...as did the silhouette of the buildings.

Back on board it was time for our last evening meal of the cruise with our friends Maria-Luisa and Ricardo.

What a week of unforgettable experiences!

If you want to see a slideshow of the photos from the complete trip, click HERE.

If you want to see my video of the complete trip, click HERE.