SAINT MARK'S SQARE, THE BASILICA AND THE DOGE'S PALACE

PIAZZA SAN MARCO, THE BASILICA AND THE DOGE’S PALACE

Ever since its origins, Piazza San Marco has always been the political and religious centre of Venice, with the Doge Palace, headquarters of the Venetian Government, today an extraordinary museum where one can view the Institutional Halls of the Serenissima Repubblica, the apartments of the Doge, the Prisons, and admire extraordinary master pieces of Venetian art, amongst which, Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto.

The Basilica of San Marco: the “Golden Basilica” with its glass and gold leaf mosaics, the Four Horses of San Marco brought from the East, the High Altar with the Pala d’Oro covered with precious stones, and the tomb holding the remains of the Patron Saint.

The Piazza, “the most beautiful sitting room in the world” surrounded by the Procuratie, closed from the Napoleonic Wing, with the Clock Tower, where San Marco’s Bell Tower is “el paron de casa” (the landlord), Venice’s oldest and highest bell tower.

Length: 2- 3 hours

Extra charges: entrance Doge Palace; entrance to the Basilica without the queue; entrance Pala d’Oro

GUIDED TOURS: dr. Arianna Gambirasi, e-mail: info@theveniceguide.it; tel. 0039 3383511160