Alan & Sandra’s Incredible Cross Country Adventure
Turkey - Istanbul
Croatia - Zagreb and Plitvice Lakes National Park
Slovenia - Ljubljana and Piran
Italy - Trieste, Vicenza, Verona, Padua and Venice
Istanbul
Overview – Istanbul’s old city is wonderfully chaotic. Filled with bustling streets and busy bazaars offering an exotic mixture of sights, sounds and smells. Istanbul, which sits as the gateway between Europe and Asia, was the capitol for two of the worlds greatest empires. The city of Constantinople (as it was called then) was founded by the Romans in 324 and became its eastern capital, and at one point was the biggest and richest city in the entire world. But all good things must come to an end and by the 1200s the Easter Roman/Byzantine Empire began to decline eventually falling to the Ottomans in 1453. The Ottomans made the city their new capital until their empire also came to an end in 1922. As you can imagine from its rich history, there is a hell of a lot of things to see in Istanbul. Walk the streets of this beautiful cat filled old city and you will find a unique mix of Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern architecture integrated together. We spent five days in Istanbul and only saw a fraction of the sights.
Demographics – Istanbul is the largest city in Europe, with a metro population of 15.8 million people with over 90% of its residents being Sunni Muslims.
Getting Around – Most of the sites are accessible with long walks. Because traffic in the old city is often so backed up, walking is usually the best option. Istanbul has both a subway and tram system. We never used the subway, but the tram lines that passed near our hotel traveled on dedicated roadways. So, they were modern, fast and efficient.
Getting There – The reason we choose Istanbul as our port of entry was because Turkish Airlines offered the most convenient and cheapest flight options out of Chicago to this part of Europe.
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Sultanahmet Neighborhood – Sultanahmet sits at the eastern tip of the peninsula that made up the ancient city of Constantinople. Most of the major historical sites are located within this neighborhood. This is also where most of the tourists choose to stay. We stayed at the quaint and friendly Marmara Guesthouse which provided an amazing rooftop view of the mouth of the Bosphorus and the Asian suburbs beyond. They also offered the most awesome hotel breakfast we ever had. The assortment of Turkish foods was endless. Holiday Inn breakfasts will never look the same to us again.
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Beyoglu Neighborhood – Across the river to the north you will find Beyoglu, one of Istanbul’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan districts. It is home to a diverse range of people, from artists and musicians to students and professionals. Beyoglu is a much newer community. Here the buildings only date back a mere 800 years. This is where the European traders and government delegations came to do business with the Ottomans. Beyoglu quickly became a melting pot of cultures, and it shows with the variety of architecture you can see here. For the best views of Sultanahmet go to the top of Galata Tower which was originally built in the 1200s as part of a Genoese colony. If we were ever to come back to Istanbul for a more extended visit, this is probably where we would stay.
Mosques – The Istanbul’s skyline is dominated by the minarets of nearly 3,000 mosques pointing upward into the sky. These places of worship range from grand edifices on sprawling grounds to unassuming wooden buildings on side streets. Istanbul’s mosques display the best examples of Ottoman art and architecture; each one offering a unique experience. All of these mosques loudly compete with each other five times a day with their calls to prayers starting at 4:30 in the morning. These contrasting levels of melodic mastery seemed to be coming from every angle of the city, creating a chaotic at times discordant concert of sounds. Sandra always traveled with a shawl because head coverings are required for women entering these houses of worship.
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Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosoque) - Built in the1600s
Suleymaniye Mosque - Built in the 1500's
Nuruosmaniye Mosque - Built in the 1700's
Hagia Sophia (Santa Sofia) – Ancient, beautiful, and humongous. Santa Sofia, built in the 500s, was the most spectacular church in Christendom and the largest interior space in the world until the construction of the Seville Cathedral a thousand years later. After the city fell to the Ottomans the building was converted into a mosque and reborn as Hagia Sophia with added minarets and plaster covering over all the Christian mosaics. Today many of the mosaics can be viewed during tourists visiting hours and then temporarily covered up during prayer services. Step inside and marvel at the magnificent central dome high above and wonder how they could have built something so massive fifteen hundred years ago that would so perfectly survive the ravages of time, including five earthquakes.
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Topkapi Palace – This palace, now museum, is where the Sultans lived and held court in opulent splendor from the 1400's until the 1800s when they moved across town to a new European-style palace. Topkapı is a large complex of pavilions, kitchens, audience chambers, and sleeping quarters built around three enclosed garden courtyards. Off to one side of the complex lies the Harem which the Sultan and his family shared with hordes of ambitious courtiers, beautiful concubines, and scheming eunuchs all jockeying for attention and power. A Sultan could have as many as four wives and 300 concubines. This is the most popular tourist destination in the city, and long lines start to form early in the morning.
The Sultan's Bedroom
The Sultan's Bathroom
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Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnici) – This subterranean water filtration structure dates back to the 500s and is the largest surviving Byzantine cistern in İstanbul. This chamber is large enough to hold the water from 32 Olympic size swimming pools. Today there is only a couple of inches of water in the chamber and you can explore the entire area on raised wooden platforms. Because of the intense colored lights that enhance the atmospheric quality of the space, walking through the cistern can be a trippy experience.
Zagreb
Overview – Most tourist visiting Croatia head directly to the Mediterranean coast to cities of Dubrovnik, Hvar, and Spit. We would have loved to visit these areas, but we did not have a easy way of getting there via Istanbul and the cost of a Chicago-Istanbul-Zagreb ticket was just a few dollars more than a Chicago-Istanbul ticket, so off to Zagreb we went. I would not have put Zagreb high on my list of places to visit, but we enjoyed the three days we spent there. This city is the center for Croatian culture and history, so there is a lot to see and do here. We also found plenty of places to stop and relax with yummy gluten free delights.
The old city is a charming area with many of its streets converted to pedestrian malls. Most of the structures in this district are fairly modern with a mash-up of secessionist, neo-baroque and art deco buildings. But you can still find many great examples of gothic architecture dating back over 900 years. We noticed that most of the buildings on our list of places to visit were closed and covered with scaffolding. We later learned that in March of 2020 the city was hit by a huge earthquake, and that work on these buildings might not be completed until around 2027.
Demographics – Zagreb has a metro population of 1.1 million people with 87% of its residences being Roman Catholic.
Getting Around – Almost everything worth seeing in Zagreb is in the old city within easy walking distance. We only needed to take an Uber just a couple of times.
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Plitvice Lakes National Park
Overview – Plitvice Lakes is considered to be Croatia’s most beautiful park. The park consists of a series of turquoise lakes with hundreds of small to large waterfalls and cascades flowing between them. The mineral-rich waters carve through the rock, depositing tufa in continually changing formations. It is an easy walk to cover the 11 miles of wooden footbridges and pathways that snake around the edges and across the rumbling water.
Getting There – There is a three-hour bus from Zagreb that takes you directly to the park entrance. We felt that six hours in a bus plus a long hike would have been too much for one day. So, we opted to rent a car for two days and explore the very green countryside between Zagreb and the park. As it turned out, the day we arrived, half the park was closed because of flooding, and besides Dubovac Castle in the town of Karlovac we did not find any interesting stops on our way back to Zagreb. In hindsight, it would have made more sense to take the bus.
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Ljubljana
Overview – The time we spent visiting Ljubljana was extra special because we were joined by Sandra’s niece Malena and her daughter Arushi who flew in from their home in Paris to be with us. The old city of Ljubljana is absolutely gorgeous. With the Ljubljanica River, the many bridges crossing it, the beautiful Vienna architecture and every street and plaza being picture perfect. However, venture in any direction just one block outside of the district, and you would find yourself in a sea of uninteresting (some might say ugly) soviet era high rises. The old city is filled with museums and art galleries and is culturally vibrant, especially in the summer. We spent two full days visiting the city and one day exploring the nearby countryside and were able to see almost everything on our wish list.
Demographics – Ljubljana has a metro population of 540,000, with 72% of its residents being Roman Catholic.
Getting Around – Everything worth seeing, including the central bus and train stations is within easy walking distance. Ljubljana’s old city is extremely walkable, with many streets being converted into pedestrian malls.
Getting There – There is both a train and bus service between Zagreb and Ljubljana. We chose to take the bus and enjoyed the three-hour ride through the beautiful countryside.
Ljubljana Old City – The long narrow old city is sandwiched between Castle Hill and the banks of the Ljubljanica River that twist the old city into a “U” shape. The two banks are connected by a series of beautiful bridges. The most famous are the Dragon Bridge and the Triple Bridge. Some of the buildings within the old city date back nearly 500 years. However, most of the outstanding architecture that defines the old city was designed by the Sloven architect Jože Plečnik in the early 1900s. His style is associated with the Vienna Secession style of architecture which was the Austrian response to Art Nouveau.
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Ljubljana Castle – Ljubljana’s main attraction, built in the 1400s, sits high above the old city, and can be reached by either driving, climbing the steep walkway or by taking the 210-foot-long funicular. Entrance to the castle is free, but if you want to see the Slovenian History Museum, the Puppet Museum, and climb the outlook tower, you need to purchase a combination ticket that includes the funicular ride. Our seven-year-old great niece was absolutely fascinated by the Puppet Museum and so were we. And you do not want to miss climbing up the tower, because it is the highest point in the city and offers fantastic views.
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Lakes Bled & Bohinj – The only way to see both lakes is by renting a car. Driving through the Alps, which begins just an hour away from the city, was amazing. The road snaked through a series of picturesque valleys and villages. Lake Bled is a bluish-green lake with a picture-postcard church on an islet, a medieval castle clinging high above on a rocky cliff, and some of the tallest peaks of the Julian Alps sitting in view in the background. Bled Castle is the model for how most people would imagine a medieval fortress to look, with towers, ramparts, moats and a terrace offering magnificent views of the lake below. Just a half-hour further west is Lake Bohinj, one of Slovenia's largest lakes, a much less crowded, more pristine glacial fed lake. At the base of the lake there is a pretty trail leading up to Slap Savica a very beautiful waterfall in an enchanting setting.
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Piran
Overview – Because we were not able to visit the popular Croatian Mediterranean coast. I wanted to have at least one Mediterranean experience, so we went a little out of our way to visit Piran which sits on a narrow peninsula jutting out into the Adriatic Sea. This small town is known for its beautiful coastlines and narrow alleyways, and is considered to be one of the best preserved historical towns anywhere in the Mediterranean, with some buildings dating back 700 years. Piran was controlled by the Republic of Venice for over 500 years, so most of its existing buildings have a Venician flair to them. People just come to Piran to bask in its beauty and visit the neighboring coastal cities. It was a very nice place to chill for a couple of days mid trip, before the rush-rush of our Italian adventures.
Demographics – Piran has a population of just 4,000. Previously, because of the limited job market in the area, Piran was not considered to be a desirable place to live. This has now changed with the growth of the tourist industry. Today, nearly 370,000 tourists visit Piran a year. Most of these tourists seem to spend their time hanging out in the numerous establishments along the shoreline. We saw very few tourists during our walks along the winding interior alleyways.
Getting Around – The only way to get around Piran is by walking. The town only has a couple of miles of roadway, and only vehicles with passes are allowed into the city. Everyone else must park their car outside of the town and walk in. To explore the surrounding countryside there is a footpath following the north shore of the peninsula to Moon Bay and another following the south shore to Seca. Both trails are connected by interior footpaths to allow you to make a 30-mile loop. Unfortunately, we only had enough time to explore just a portion of this trail system.
Getting There – Because Piran and its neighboring coastal communities are such popular tourist destinations, there are numerous express buses from Ljubljana. We were advised to buy the tickets at least one day in advance. Good thing we did. Not everyone waiting to get on our bus was able to get a seat.
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Vicenza
Overview – Vicenza is a very beautiful city. Almost as picturesque as Venice minus the canals and hordes of tourists. But it does have the Bacchiglione River running through it with several charming bridges crossing it. When visiting, it is recommended that you purchase a Vicenza Card. For one low price you can tour the best museums, attractions, and churches in town. Surprisingly, many of the most popular churches in Italy charge an admission fee. We hustled and managed to see everything the card had to offer in the two days we spent in the city.
Demographics – Vicenza has a metro population of 330,000.
Getting Around – Most of the attractions are in the small old city and the one site we saw outside the district was within easy walking distance. Our hotel, located in the center of the old city, was only a twelve-minute walk from the train station.
Getting There – Train service in Italy is excellent. It is fast and frequent. The ride from Trieste to Vicenza was scheduled to be only 2.5 hours. Unfortunately, we chose the one train that day that broke down and the ride took an additional hour. It would appear from the tension mounting among the locals in our car that this was not a normal occurrence.
Trieste – On our way to Vicenza we visited the coastal city of Trieste for half a day. The main attraction here is Saint Giusto Castle which houses an Armory Museum and Lapidarium crypts below the castle filled with precious monuments from the Roman period. Piran to Trieste is not a popular route, so there is only one bus a day leaving at the ungodly hour of 6:45 am. However, if we had arrived a month later, we could have taken a ferry that runs between the two cities, six days a week during the peak season.
Vicenza Old City – Some of the buildings within the old city are over 1,100 years old. However, most of the beautiful architecture on display today is credited to the work of Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio who lived here in the 1500s. He was a prolific architect who also designed some of the beautiful buildings we would later see in Padua and Venice. Palladian architecture as it is known today developed from Palladio's own concepts of symmetry, perspective, and principles of formal classical architecture he borrowed from ancient Greek and Roman traditions.
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Piazza dei Signori (Lords Square) – The square is a beautiful spot in the heart of the old city where tourists and locals come to relax with a drink after a long day of touring and working. Here you will find the massive Basilica Palladiana, also know as Palazzo della Ragione, built with dazzling white Piovene stone framing a series of dark archways and capped on top with an enormous copper dome reminiscent of the hull of a ship. Next door, standing 270 feet tall is the Torre Tower which was built in the 1100s.
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Teatro Olimpico – Built inside an abondoned fortress in the 1500s, Teatro Olimpico is believed to be the oldest surviving theater in the world. This was Palladio's last work and was completed after his death by Scamozzi. The stage set was modelled on the ancient Greek city of Thebes with five streets leading to the backstage that give the appearance of receding into a sprawling city towards a distant horizon.
Churches - Being that Italy is the center of Catholicism, it’s no surprise that it is home to many of the world’s most beautiful churches. Most of Italy's prominent churches fall into four different major architectural styles. These are Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque. The Romanesque style was predominant between the 600s to 1200s, Gothic from the 1200s to the 1500s, Renaissance 1500s and 1600s, and the Baroque style was favored in the 1600s and 1700s. Throughout our visit to Italy, we saw many great examples of all four styles of architecture and the great works of art they house. Even for Sandra who is an architect, seeing one amazing church after another proved to be a bit of a sensory overload experience.
Church of St. Mary of Mount Berico - Built in the1600s Baroque Style
Duomo di Vicenza (Vicenza Cathedral) - Built in the1400s & 1500s Gothic Style
Museums – Vicenza is home to numerous world class museums. My favorite was the Palazzo Leoni Montanari. If you are into Baroque art, this former palace built in the 1600s would totally blow you away. All of its main rooms were covered wall and ceiling with ornate carvings and paintings. A interesting recent addition is a sculpture entitled “fall of the rebel angels” that is carved from a single block of marble and features no less than 60 battling angels and demons. Sandra was in awe of the ornate excess, but enjoyed more the Museo Palladio which highlighted the legacy of the famous architect.
Verona
Overview – The time we spent visiting Verona was also extra special because we were joined by Sandra’s sister Alicia and her daughter Daniela who took a train from their homes in Geneva to be with us. Verona is best known as the location for the story of Romeo and Juliet. Actually, Shakespeare was not the original author of this story. His inspiration came from a story written by Luigi Da Porto, an Italian writer. But the bard's version was probably much better. Here you can visit Juliet's House and join the hordes of tourist in the courtyard taking selfies below the famous balcony. And for a mere $13 you can enter the house and pose and become Giulietta on her balcony. For me, this is bizarre, being that Juliet was a fictional character, in theory, any random period appropriate building could be "Juliet's House". But perhaps because this love story has been enchanting people for so many centuries, having a place to visit, even if it is fictional, can be meaningful experience.
Demographics – Verona has a metro population of 710,000.
Getting Around – The old city of Verona is another pedestrian friendly area. The only time we used an Uber was to access the train station.
Getting There – It was only a 40-minute train ride from Vicenza to Verona.
Verona Old City – Nicknamed Little Rome, Verona’s narrow streets are a rich collection of well-preserved Roman, Renaissance, and baroque architecture. Roman gates, portions of the original city wall, and other ruins can be found everywhere. The core of the city consists of the old Roman town nestled in the loop of the Adige River. Verona’s old city is much bigger than the one in Vicenza and has way more attractions to see. On almost every block you can find a pretty piazza, alleyway, church, or museum to explore. We spent three days in the city and could have easily stayed a couple of more without running out of things to see.
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Piazza delle Erbe (Herb Square) & Piazza dei Signori (Lord’s Square) - In the heart of Verona, the two city squares of Erbe and Signori, separated from each other by only one block, are the city’s centers of social, religious, and economic life. Piazza delle Erbe, is an enchanting setting to relax and have a drink with friends and admire the square's unique collage of palaces, towers, statues and architectural elements of various ages and styles. This includes the 276-foot-tall Lamberti Tower. Piazza dei Signori, is ringed by a series of elegant Renaissance palaces and government buildings.
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Verona Arena – With a seating compacity of 30,000 when it was built, this amphitheater is half the size of the one in Rome. But unlike the Roman Colosseum, the Verona Arena is still being used for live concerts, two thousand after being built. Today’s performances, however, are limited to only 15,000 spectators for safety reasons. Every summer the arena hosts a three-month opera festival that is attended by over half a million people.
Castelvecchio (Old Castle) – Hugging the Adige River and bristling with fishtail battlements, this castle built in the 1300s, is a powerful compact fortress. Severely damaged by Napoleon and WWII bombings, the castle was reinvented as a museum with a masterful renovation by Carlo Scarpa, including newly constructed bridges over exposed foundations, glass panels to fill in gaping holes, and a statue of King Cangrande balanced above the courtyard on a concrete gangplank. These modern reworking of the interior provides an interesting dialog with the austere medieval exteriors of the castle.
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Churches – Verona is home to some of the most stunning churches in Italy. These churches stand as beautiful testaments to Verona’s rich cultural heritage offering glimpses into the city’s spiritual and artistic past. A whole day would not be enough to visit and appreciate them all.
Duomo di Verona (Verona Cathedral) - Built in the1100s Romanesque Style
Church of Santa Anastasia - Built in the 1200s & 1300s Gothic Style
Church of San Eufemia - Built in the 1300s Gothic Style
Giusti Gardens - These sculpted gardens are considered a masterpiece of Renaissance landscaping consisting of a mix of both manicured and natural vegetation. The rear of the gardens ascends steeply to an area with great views of the city. According to local legend, lovers who manage to find each other in the gardens' labyrinth are destined to stay together.
Padova (Padua)
Overview – Even though this ciy is only 30-minutes away from Venice, Padua is overlooked by most tourists. Padua has a lot to offer, but on this trip, it had stiff competition. Compared to Venice, Vicenza, and Verona, Padua came in a distant fourth place. We spent three days in the city and could probably have seen everything in just two.
Demographics – Padua has a metro population of 700,000.
Getting Around – Most of the interesting attractions lie within a half-of-a-mile long band that begins just a 10-minute walk south of the train station. There is a very nice tram system connecting all this area.
Padua Old City - Padua was founded over three thousand years ago, making it nearly 500 years older than Rome. Its old city is made up of a patchwork of architectural styles and artistic influences spanning many centuries. Walk the coble stone streets and you will come across Roman ruins, medieval structures, walls covered with Renaissance frescoes and buildings in the Liberty style. College students make up one-fifth of the old city’s population. So, there is vibrant social life here with countless cafes and bars lining the main historic squares and pedestrian thoroughfares.
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Padua University – Padua U was founded in 1222, making it the fifth-oldest university in the world. The oldest was founded just a few years earlier in Bologna in 1190. Padua played a leading role in the identification and treatment of diseases and is home to the world's first anatomical theatre. We were not allowed into the balconies where the medical students once stood but were permitted to stand looking up from the spot where the corpses were dissected. Padua’s other claims to fame is that it had Galileo on its teaching staff, and that it awarded the world’s first college degree to a woman, Elena Cornaro Piscopia, in 1678, immortalized below in marble.
Frescos – If your passion is 14th century frescos, then Padua is the place for you. The Giotto frescos on display in the Scrovegni Chapel are one of Italy’s most beloved art treasures and are considered to have sparked the artistic expressions of the Italian Renaissance. This chapel and an additional seven other religious and secular buildings scattered around the city have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Scrovegni Chapel
Domus Opera
Church of San Antonio – Built in the 1200s originally in a Romanesque style with gothic and baroque elements added later, San Antonio is considered to be one of Italy’s most beautiful churches and pilgrimage destination to honor the patron saint. Walking through this church is an overwhelming sensory adventure. Everywhere you turn you find another amazing mosaic, statue, or fresco. Enough art to fill numerous world class churches and museums.
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Venezia (Venice)
Overview – Seeing Venice has always been high on my bucket list. And I imagine that it is the same for the other 13 million tourists that visit the city every year. Venice was originally settled in the 5th century on a lagoon containing 118 islands. Because of its success as a trading hub, Venice became one of the wealthiest cities in Europe and the center for arts and culture for many centuries. There is so much to see in this city. We spent six days in Venice and could have easily spent another six.
Demographics – Venice has a metro population of 850,000 but the old city is home to only 55,000 residents (down from 175,000 in the 1950s), and up to 120,000 tourists on any given summer day.
Getting Around – As you can imagine, the only way to get around the old city of Venice is on foot or by boat. During our entire visit, except for an hour spent on Lido Island, we did not see a single car, motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle. Venice has a good boat transit system that circumvents the main islands and goes to the outlying islands. An hour-and-a-half pass would put you back $10. We walked everywhere for four days and then purchased unlimited two-day passes for $38. On our last day, one of these boats, for an additional $16, took us directly to the airport.
Getting There – There are numerous trains going to Venice. So many, that when we arrived at the station fifteen minutes early to catch our express train, there was a train to Venice already at our platform. We got on without thinking, only to discover later that it was a local train. What we also did not realize was that the day we choose to travel was the beginning of an Italian three-day holiday. The train was totally packed, and when we arrived at the station, we had to wait forever to catch a vaporetto waterbus that took us within a five-minute walk to our apartment.
Venice Old City – Visiting Venice is truly a unique one-of-a-kind experience. Unlike the other old cities we visited, almost all the buildings we saw appeared to be of vintage construction. Walking the city’s alleyways felt like stepping back in time to a period before the horseless carriage. Over half of all the visitors to Venice come for just the day, so they only have time to see the main sites in the San Marco and San Polo districts. Walk just a few blocks away from these popular sites and thoroughfares, and the city can be surprisingly quiet.
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Canals and Gondolas – In Venice it is rare to walk in one direction for more than a couple of blocks without hitting a canal. There are 177 separate secondary canals lined with multi-story residential buildings creating narrow canyon ways crossed by 391 bridges of different shape and sizes. The 2.3 mile long Grand Canal is a bustling waterway that is lined with some of the city’s most opulent mansions and structures. There are only three bridges crossing this canal, so depending on where you are, it could be a long walk to get across. If you are not up for the walk, there are numerous gondola traghetti ferries crossing the canal. A one-minute ride would cost you $2 per person. These are not the luxurious gondolas you imagine when thinking about Venice. The swanky gondolas are strictly a tourist activity. A local might only take a gondola ride on their wedding day. These gondoliers are all owner operators and are regulated to charge $87 per group for a half-an-hour ride, and extra if you want the rower to sing to you. We thought that this was a little pricy, so we took a pass.
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San Marco Square, Tower, and Basilica – By far the main attraction in Venice is Piazza San Marco where you will find the basilica and its campanile (bell tower) of the same name, the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s/Duke's Palace), and numerous museums. We could have easily spent the whole day exploring this one square. We arrived at around 8:00am and found the square surprisingly empty, but by 10:00 the area was covered with wall-to-wall people. The square offers stunning views of the best examples of Venetian architecture and stands as a testament to the grandeur and splendor of the former Venetian Republic that was ruled from this location. On the east side of the square, you will find the Basilica San Marco, considered by many to be the most beautiful church in all of Italy. This massive church was built from 829 to 976 to house the corpse of St Mark after Venetian merchants smuggled it out of Egypt in a barrel of pork fat. It was used, unbelievably, only as the doge's private chapel until the fall of the Republic in 1807. This church’s claim to fame is the eight thousand square meters of luminous mosaics scattered throughout the interior spaces that glisten in the daylight. Even that it was a rainy day, we stayed long enough to catch a glimpse of this magic.
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Doge’s Palace and Prison Building - On the outside, the palace is a masterpiece of Gothic and Renaissance architecture covered with colonnades and geometrically patterned facades in white Istrian stone and pale pink Veronese marble and adorned with extensive loggias. Inside we were overcome with the over-the-top ornate grandeur of the doge's private apartments (now used for art exhibits), council chambers, and courts that seemed to endlessly loop throughout the massive building. We began our tour in the Great Council Chamber where the Senate would deliberate which is considered to be one of the most beautiful rooms in Europe. We then continued weaving our way past one amazing room after another until we reached the Bridge of Sighs which was used to transport condemned prisoners to the prison just across the canal. So named from the sound prisoners would make as they were exiting the palace into their new dark abode. The dreary bleak prison cells were a stark contrast to the ornate rooms we have just witnessed a few minutes earlier. After returning to the palace, we continued passing through a maze of rooms until we reached Consiglio Maggiore Hall, a vast space containing one the of the world’s largest canvas paintings called “Paradise” by Tintoretto. Touring the palace was an amazing and overwhelming experience but it was way too much to take in.
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Jewish Ghetto – Originally Jews were not allowed to live in Venice. This ruling was changed in 1516 when they were permitted to occupy a small Island that could be reached by crossing one of three bridges which were locked at night. This Island took its name from the copper foundries that were previously housed there. The Italian word for foundry is geto. The name was pronounced ghetto by the first German settlers. The original Island and the two neighboring ones that were later added eventually became extremely crowded housing five separate communities from Portugal, Spain, Italy, North Africa, and Germany, each having their own synagogue. In 1797 Jews were allowed to live outside of the ghetto, and almost all of them chose to relocate. Even that today only a handful of Jews remain in the ghetto, it continues to be the center of Venetian Jewish life housing the cities two remaining synagogues and Kosher restaurant.
Murano and Burano Islands – Murano and Burano are two of the ten islands that are accessible by vaporetti (waterbuses). Depending on where you catch the ferry, it could take you 50 minutes to get to Murano. Burano is an additional 35 minutes further in the same direction. If your passion is glass blowing, you would be in heaven visiting Murano, and if you are just intrigued or curios about it, a visit will not disappoint. In 1291 all of Venice’s glassmakers were required to move to Murano out of fear that their hot furnaces could burn down the city. Since then, Murano’s beautiful and complex glass creations have become more and more popular throughout Europe. Here you will find a glass museum and a myriad of glass studios and galleries ranging from fine arts makers of historic fame to souvenir shops for tourists. with many offering demonstrations. Murano was less affluent than Venice so the so the architecture here was much plainer. But it was still quaint and enjoyable to walk through.
Burano’s claims to fame was its outstanding lace making that was incredibly popular amongst the wealthiest royal families of Europe. The simple architecture here is brightly painted in a rainbow of colors giving the small town a very playful feeling. Another surprising find was the leaning tower of Burano which is the bell tower of St Martin's Church.
We did a lot on this trip, but there is still plenty more to see. We just can't wait to go back and explore more of Turkey, Italy, and the Croatian coast.
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