Best of Venice Walking Tour with St. Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace
Best of Venice Walking Tour with St. Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace. What to do in Venice? Join us for a guided walking tour of Venice, with skip the line access to St. Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace.
Our Best of Venice tour is perfect for visitors who only have a limited time in Venice or those who want to get the main sights done and dusted early to leave time to explore more off – the-beaten-track sites. With a few less anticipated gems thrown into the mix, this trip brings in all the highlights of Venice on foot. We cut out waiting time with Skip the Line access so you can spend more time exploring and less time queuing and enabling your devoted guide to readily whisk you from one highlight in Venice to the next.
We’re going to make our first stop at one of these highlights. The Rialto Bridge is a favorite of many- a vast marble beauty that went far beyond its budget, yet when the sunlight dances on its smooth stone and its reflection shines in the water below, every penny is worth it.
Just as we began with a pop, we’re going to end our trip with a bang and visit Piazza San Marco-Venice’s number one sight. We will stand in front of the impressive Doge’s Palace where Casanova was kept in an attic prison before he managed to flee from Venice’s renowned lover and writer.
Best of Venice Walking Tour with St. Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace
Then it’s on to the main event, the amazing St. Mark’s Basil. Marvel at the diversity of Venetian culture as your guide points out the places where Eastern architecture and Western design have mixed together to produce an onion dome structure that could only have been produced in Venice. In a rare extended basilica tour you will hear about the illegal arrival of St. Mark’s remains here and see all kinds of treasures, molded in this very city or plundered during the crusades. For views over the piazza below, where string quartets play, we will visit the basilica’s second level, and waiters bustle around piazza-side cafes.
Finally, we’re going to have the Doge’s Palace complete guided tour. Our palace trip visits all the finest attractions that are accessible to the public. Marvel at the ceilings frescoed by Tintoretto to demonstrate Justice presenting herself to the Doge while you think of all the feet that shuffled on the tiles on which you stand; the ambassadors were waiting nervously at this very place for an audience with the Doge in the Four Doors Hall.
Then there are the numerous flattering works produced on demand by the masters of the time; in the Council Room, “Virtues of the Republic” was Veronese’s rosy outlook on the state of his nation, while in the Senate Hall, “The Triumph of Venice,” Tintoretto paid his dues on a high ceiling.
In the Council of Ten Chamber, your guide will point you in the direction of a dark corner, dwarfed by the vibrant masterpiece, as you marvel at Veronese’s Juno bestowing her gifts on Venice. This unassuming slot was where friends and enemies condemned each other in the form of accusations that were subsequently investigated and acted with fearful violence.
The trip finishes at Rialto Bridge.
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