Me in Venice with camera, hat, reading glasses and map.

Most important accessory, wallet, not visible.

On our last legs

Literally. Ronnie's feet are too sore to walk any more. I just went out to the market and getting over the one bridge between here and there was a chore. And it's hot, and ridiculously crowded, (though thankfully not where our hotel is. It's an excellent location, close to everything but in a calm neighborhood) and just not quite worth it at this point. Good thing we're coming home.

Today, and I'm ready to face the consequences for saying so, we went on the Secret Itineraries tour of the Doge's Palace. The secret part is that it was a secret area in the age of the Venetian Republic. These guys were obsessed with secrecy and checks on everyone's power. You couldn't be named Doge (head of the government) until you were old so you wouldn't rule for too long. They had boxes where you could deposit a letter accusing someone of some crime and 3 judges would look at it simultaneously (to keep someone from destroying an accusation against himself). The people who wrote copies of treaties and important documents were required to be illiterate and could only have the job for a short time so they couldn't learn to read. Very sophisticated and well thought through.

Most of the tour was of the secret administrative offices and the prison, with an emphasis on the imprisonment and eventual escape of Casanova, the famous lover who escaped from the prison and relocated to Paris. It was pretty cool. Then we looked at the rest of the palace. At some point, when the decorator said, let's wallpaper this room, someone else said no, let's paint it instead. And they did, to the point where it was, "Oh? Another Tintoretto or Veronese? My feet hurt, let's go." There were incredible, huge works of art everywhere, including (especially) the ceilings. Amazing.

We walked home and that was it. Aside from my visit to the market, which only happened because we had gelato for lunch and I got hungry, we've not moved for the last 3 1/2 hours. It's enough. Back later with some photos and additional thoughts.