Adriatic Trip, Day 3: Venice Tour

Thursday, June 12, 2025

We began the day with another excellent breakfast and then set out to explore some of Venice’s highlights. Alexa had arranged for a private boat to St. Mark’s Square, where we met with the first of our local tour guide. The guide first took us to the Doge’s Palace, once the seat of power for the very influential Venetian Republic. There were various elaborately decorated rooms, many of which were used for meetings and negotiations with official foreign visitors. We also got to cross the famous Bridge of Sighs to the former prison across a small canal.

We then went next door to St. Mark’s Basilica for a tour. This famous church was originally the Doge’s private chapel. Its interior features a great deal of mosaic artwork, with some of the materials stripped from Constantinople in the Crusades.

We finished the morning with a ride on a traditional Venetian gondola. Each party in the group was given its own gondola, so Kenna and I had one to ourselves (plus the gondolier, of course). The gondoliers don’t sing anymore, so Tauck arranged for a few musicians to join a couple of the gondolas in our group to serenade us as we circulated through several of the nearby canals.

An optional visit to a demonstration of the famous Murano glass blowing followed the gondola ride. It was optional because it was a commercial operation, and they didn’t want anyone to feel obligated to make a purchase. However, we opted in and gained an understanding of how the Venetian glass artisans work. There was little pressure to buy anything, but we decided to buy a Christmas tree ornament anyway.

The afternoon was set aside for us to do as we pleased. We got some pizza at a nearby cafe, and then browsed some of the shops before the “obligatory” (for me) afternoon gelato, especially since it was a rather warm day. After stopping by the hotel for a bit to relax and clean up, we went to one of the small restaurants on the edge of Giudecca Island for dinner, followed by a stroll across Giudecca’s canals into some residential parts of the island. Since transportation in Venice is primarily by boat (cars and even bicycles are prohibited), we walked past many parked boats belonging to the residents.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Italy, Greece, Albania, and Croatia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.