Piazza San Marco, Basilica, and Doge's Palace

Hi Everyone!
Today, Thursday, we got up early, ate breakfast in the charming patio and started on our way by 8:00 am. We hoped to get to the Piazza San Marco ahead of the large tourist groups, which we knew would be arriving as soon as the cruise ships opened the doors and let the hordes out. It was lovely and calm as we walked through narrow, little streets, which twisted and turned and we commented to one another, "Wouldn't it be amazing to live here?" (We must have had a momentary lapse of judgement). It took around 25 minutes to walk to St Mark's Square. When we came onto the square, we first noticed a tourist with a huge mop of gray, curly hair and a purple T-shirt that read Prague Hard Rock Cafe, bouncing around and doing morning stretching activities on the Piazza.
What can be said about the stunning beauty of The Basilica Di San Marco and the Doge's Palace? The Basilica overlooks the expansive Piazza San Marco, and the Doge's Palace is attached.
I can give a little information about these places because they are truly a wonder to behold. Basilica Di San Marco (St Mark's Cathedral) is the most famous of the many churches of Venice. I have never seen so many churches! Every time you turn around a corner, and come out onto a different Piazza, there is a church - many of which have a gothic or Byzantine look. St. Mark's is located just off the Grand Canal, which adds to the beauty. At certain times of the year, (autumn and spring) the Scirocco winds blow north along the Adriatic sea and cause flooding in Venice. It's referred to as Acqua Alta, which means "high water". Because of this surge of water, you'll see drainage areas in the Piazza. Water comes up through these drains, and seeps back out the same way. It's fascinating, because when it floods, there is a whole elevated walkway system that has to be constructed in the Piazza so people can get around. Everyone in Venice has rubber boots.
Now - The Doge's Palace or "The Palazzo Ducale" if you are Italian. This is another enormous structure. It's in pink and white marble, with Venetian Gothic style windows. When I look at it, I feel a sense of wonder. This Palace was the seat of the government of Venice for centuries, and as well as being the home of the Doge (the elected ruler of Venice) it was the venue for its law courts, civil administration and bureaucracy. Transgressions were taken seriously. Offenders were interrogated with the aid of red-hot pincers, the rack and the thumbscrew (who wouldn't confess?). Inside the Doge's Palace on a wall in the Hall of Compasses is a Bocca di Leone (Lion's Mouth) known as The Mouth of Accusations. This is where citizens of Venice could lay complaints anonymously against others. They would come with a name written on a note, as well as the crime committed, and slip it into the mouth of the Lion. Proof of guilt was not necessarily required. The Doge witnessed many public executions.
Mark Twain said "These were the terrible Lions’ Mouths. These were the throats down which went the anonymous accusation thrust in secretly in the dead of night by an enemy, that doomed many an innocent man to walk the Bridge of Sighs and descend into the dungeon which none entered and hoped to see the sun again." - Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad (there are people who disagree with this). This is one of the reasons why the Doge's Palace can give a person the creeps. Another reason? There's a prison underneath the Palace. This prison is also referred to as "The Wells". If you tour these depths, you see rooms that look like caves, with immense wooden doors and heavy bolts that locked the prisoners in darkness. You have to see the size of these doors to believe them. Sometimes people would drown while being held captive here, due to flooding...all reasons why we should be glad we live in the 21st century. You can almost feel the despair in the walls.
So, we did arrive early enough to get our photos. Sadly, part of the Basilica is under restorative work, and we couldn't see it in all its true splendor. When you come to see famous places in the world, you just never know when this might be the case. Half of the monument may be draped. Although restoration is necessary, you do hope it's not taking place when you're there.
At this point, we decided to do our favorite thing and stop for cappuccino. I can't even remember the name of the place. You can always tell an establishment that is used to hooking the customers, without even having to do a thing (they usually face the Canal). The waiter barely makes eye contact with you, is distracted while taking your order and busy chatting it up and calling out to friends who are either passing by or sitting around smoking and drinking free wine at a corner table.
As we sat at a table facing the Grand Canal, we could see the people beginning to trickle towards St. Mark's and very soon,large groups started marching along towards the Piazza. They dutifully followed guides who held long poles up in the air with different colored pom poms. People paused here and there to take photos, and excited voices rang out "Say Cheeeeeee!" Some wore masks as they plodded along after the guides.
There were men pulling immense carts full of knick knacks across the piazza to park and open up for the long day ahead. Two young girls sat on empty, plastic cases smoking before the start of their long day. Beside them, gigantic hooped red and purple dresses were propped up. Suddenly they jumped to their feet, donned their regalia, stepped up onto the boxes and started their day. Their dresses sparkled in the sun, and they used small, delicate fans to cool themselves and then the parasols popped open for shade. They looked like southern belles. Little pans were placed at their feet for collections.
An interesting side note was that Roberto, who is at the front desk of our hotel, announced that starting Friday, there would be seven cruise ships arriving in Venice. Each ship holds 2,000 people. That's a lot of tourists flooding onto the streets!
We started walking along the beautiful Grand Canal in the opposite (east) direction from where we knew the masses would soon be. Earlier, we had decided that we would spend as much of the day as possible walking in different areas (until our feet fell off. The further we walked away, the quieter and lovelier it was. The air was still fresh and cool.
We came upon a beautiful, lush park called Giardini Publicci. It had huge trees and there were benches along the walkway. There were old statues poking out of bushes and shrubs. I did not know such a place could exist in Venice.
We left there and came upon a fascinating street called G. Garibaldi. There were shops, and caffes, etc. A small canal divided the street. Boats loaded with fruits and vegetables were "parked" along this narrow canal to serve the locals and the establishments in the area. Only in Venice! It was wonderful to find this part of Venice.
We then walked into Chiesa di S. Martino Vescovo, a beautiful gothic structure on the back streets of San Garibaldi in Campo San Martino. Again, in this fascinating city which is full of dark, mysterious walkways, you have to always be sure to look right and left as you walk along - because if not, you could miss the most delightful treasures such as a second hand bookstore called Acqua Alta (which means High Water). It's called this because of the flooding which occurs at different times. "The water come in, but then the water go out!" the owner laughed. I have never seen seen a bookstore like it. The books were not in order of any kind. Old posters laid around which were wrinkled from humidity and dampness. There was a stairway made from books. Books were stacked to create walls. (These were glued together). An old gondola laid in the center and contained books of every kind tossed willy-nilly, here and there. A large cat flashed bright, green eyes at you if you happened to see him perched on the shelf by the cash register.
After this we found a small restaurant called Osteria al Mascaron on Santa Maria Formosa (we try to pick restaurants that have less then seven languages printed on the menu). We had spaghetti pomodoro. It was a very busy little place and again the waiter kept drifting over to where his old pals sat at a table and stood around drinking wine with his buddies, while the poor, exasperated cook kept bringing plates out from the kitchen, looking around the place trying to figure out what went where! You just have to laugh about the system sometimes. We waited for the stubborn waiter to finally mosey on over with our bill "conto". A service charge of 3 euro each was already added to the bill. (Go figure!) We have learned not to be burned by these sorts of things. Here - you leave a tip on top of a service charge, only if the service is exceptional. We left and starting making our way back to our hotel, which was quite a distance. Our feet were aching by this time, and we knew we would be traipsing back through crowds to get to our hotel.
We finally and happily reached our hotel, cooled off for a few hours. Roberto gave us a recommendation for dinner at a local restaurant called Aperto. It was small and very crowded. Since we had no reservation, we had to wait to get a table for 9:00 pm. It was a very lively place, full of loud voices and passionate people. Our waitress, Ariana, was so helpful and friendly. I had a spinach, ricotta and tomato pizza. Ron had pork loin appetizer, and spicy spaghetti scampi, all accompanied by cold, sparkling Prosecco. It was a fun, memorable evening.
Then we left and walked through the dark, narrow streets. I must say the streets are a bit eerie at night, and it makes me wonder what it was like in the days when people wore capes and robes...and it was foggy and misty...