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Venice Tour Stops:
- Piazza San Marco
- Saint Mark's Cathedral
- Torre dell' Orologio
- Campanile
- Palazzo Ducal
- Bridge of Sighs
- Santa Maria della Salute
- Customs House
- Guggenheim Museum
- Accademia Museum
- Ca Rezzonico
- Rialto Bridge
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Music . . . which fades into background as The Cicerone speaks . . .
Buongiorno! I am your Cicerone, your guide who explains the antiquities. I’m looking
forward to walking with you and exploring together this place called Venice.
Among all the cities in the world, Venice is unique . . . truly a “visual feast.” Venice
is known by many names . . . Bride of the Adriatic . . . The Queen of the Mediterranean
. . . La Serenissmisa.
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Like a magnificent ageing queen, her long reign has seen epic struggles and historic successes.
Today, we’ll learn something about that reign.
We begin our journey at the Piazza San Marco, the spiritual, political and social center of the city.
San Marco is at the far end of the Grand Canal from the train station and the parking lots.
If you walk to San Marco, there are good signs which point the way.
If you want to go by water, find your way to the Grand Canal. Take the Vaporetto, the Water
Bus #1, to the San Marco Station at the end of the Grand Canal. Buy your ticket for the day,
for we will be getting on and off the water-buses throughout the tour.
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When you are on the water, you will see the black gondolas everywhere , they are a symbol
of Venice. But the time to take a gondola is when the sun goes down . . . the lights go on . . .
and the old queen becomes a beautiful princess in a mysterious fairy tale.
For now, we will enjoy the Vaporetto. This is the transportation the Venetians use, traveling
up and down the Grand Canal like any other main street.
Before we begin, be sure you have a good supply of coins and lira for the public toilets.
Pack a bottle of water, put on your good walking shoes and let’s begin.
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As we take our tour remember that when you hear the tone, TONE SOUNDS, that will be a cue to
turn off your tour and proceed to our next stop. Meet me where the two tall granite columns stand
near the water in Saint Mark’s Piazza. Turn to your left when you exit the water bus and cross
over a small bridge. The place is marked on your map with an arrow that says BEGIN. Please be
careful as you exit the bus. The water is quite choppy. See you there. TONE SOUNDS.
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By now you have found your way to our first stop. The two tall granite columns near the water were the
front door to Venice during the city’s long domination of the sea. Arriving visitors would leave
their ships, walk through this small piazzetta, then move on to their destinations. Quite an
imposing entrance hall!
These granite columns have stood on this spot for more than eight hundred years, spoils brought
back by the Venetians from their crusades to the east. One column is topped with saint Saint
Theodore, the original patron saint of Venice. His statue is cobbled together with pieces of found
Roman sculpture. The creature that looks like an alligator is supposed to be a dragon.
The other column supports the symbol of Venice today, Saint Mark, who is represented by the Winged
Lion. This symbol, like much that we‘ll see in Venice, was borrowed from the East and adapted by
the Venetians for their own particular use.
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By the eight hundreds, Venetians thoughts Saint Theodore was not nearly important enough for their
ambitions. A secret mission went to Alexandria , in Egypt, to steal the holy remains of Saint Mark ..
a grand status symbol in the early Middle Ages. And from that time forward, Saint Mark has been the
patron saint of Venice.
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Scaffolding was once erected on these columns for state prisoners to be put to death. The condemned
were always hanged facing the sea.
The sea is Venice’s mother and her divinity. Even today, the Doge, Venice’s symbolic leader,
sails out on Ascension Day to repeat the thousand year old ceremony of throwing a ring into the water
to renew Venice’s marriage to the sea.
Because of the sea, Venice became a great maritime power, a center of vast wealth and commerce, a
gateway between the Orient and Occident through which passed a flood of goods and wealth. Other
governments based their growth and success on conquest. Venice based hers on trade.
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Venice was so wealthy and innovative for her time that she was the first city in the world to have
a bank for the deposit of money, the first city in Italy to print books . Venice published the
world’s first cookbook. Venetians introduced the west to the fork from Byzantium and coffee from
Turkey. The first newspaper in the world was sold right here in Saint Mark’s square. It was paid
for with a little gold coin called a gazeta, from which we get the word gazette.
The three most important sites in this square are the Basilica, honoring Saint Mark; the magnificent
government building called the Doge’s Palace, and the bell tower . . . all primary sites on any
tour of Venice.
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