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Adventures Ashore Port Guide VENICE About Your Port Guide >> An Overview of Venice This is your guide to Venice, specially prepared The bewitching city of Venice has always treachery of the over-eager Venetians has by Princess Cruises. This guide is intended to considered itself to be “married” to the poisoned relations between the two peoples assist you if you are on a shore excursion, sea. Overseas commerce and investment ever since. It also became a major source of touring independently or doing both. made the metropolis wealthy and the great rift between the Eastern and Please note that the information provided is powerful, and much of the city’s unique Western Christian Churches, which general in nature and is subject to change. charm comes from the reduced noise and continues to this day. slower pace of life along the canals. But Today Venice spans 118 islands, with a don’t be deceived; the Venetians are well-planned web of 150 canals and 400 second to none in their astuteness, vigor, bridges. Although the motorboat or AUSTRIA and capacity for hard work. SWITZ. HUNGARY vaporetto is well accepted today, the SLO. I Venice CROATIA Venice was founded originally by refugees gondola is the more traditional means of from the mainland seeking a safe haven transportation. A surprisingly agile craft, T BOSNIA & HERZ. Pisa Florence from the Huns, then later from the Franks each gondola is lovingly built like a piece A Livorno d A r i a t between the 5th- and 8th-centuries. At one of fine furniture, sometimes requiring i c S L e Rome a time Venice controlled Cyprus, Crete, and more than a year to complete. Naples Y much of southern Greece. Centuries of Gondoliers belong to a centuries-old Sorrento SARDINIA naval warfare with the Ottoman Turks cost guild, steeped in tradition, and are quite Ionian T yrrhenian Sea Venice control of those areas, but they adept at moving their boats easily with a Sea N didn’t lose their commercial edge until single oar. The tall mooring poles with W E SICILY S Napoleon abolished the Republic in 1797. distinctive spiral striping are the original TUNISIA SM models for barber poles. © MAGELLAN Geographix Santa Barbara CA Because of its strategic location at the head of the Adriatic Sea, Venice quickly became One thing that strikes you immediately is Italy At A Glance >> a transit port for trade between central the wide use of Venice’s characteristic Europe and everywhere in the emblem, the winged lion of St. Mark the Mediterranean, but especially the Holy Evangelist. The saint’s bones were brought SIZE 116,303 square miles, about the size of Florida and Georgia combined Land. Much of the commercial and from Alexandria in 823, and reburied with POPULATION 57,772,000, about one-fourth military traffic during the Crusades was honor in the Basilica. Symbol of the patron the U.S. population carried by Venetian ships, which acquired saint of Venice, St. Mark’s lion has been LANGUAGE Italian untold wealth for the city’s merchants. The used to identify outlying possessions of the CAPITAL Rome Crusaders also helped to expand the land city ever since, and is found all over the controlled by the Republic to islands and eastern Mediterranean. TYPE OF GOVERNMENT Republic coastal enclaves along the Balkan peninsula CURRENCY Euro, formerly Italian Lire The heart of Venice centers around St. and the Aegean Sea. TIME ZONE GMT +2 Mark’s Square, which has been called “a In 1204, the Venetian Doge Enrico great, marble salon” open to the sky. The Dandolo led a powerful army to piazza is huge yet harmonious, with covered Constantinople and captured it from the galleries all around, sheltering luxury shops Byzantine Empire. Some of Venice’s and cafes. greatest artworks and treasures were The Basilica San Marco was built in 830 to violently looted from the East at that time, accommodate St. Mark’s tomb, and then and triumphantly brought home as booty. rebuilt during the 11th-century in its Although the Greeks were able to recapture present Byzantine style. Built as a Greek their city within just a few years, the cross with several eastern domes, the Basilica is so richly decorated they are uniformly splendid. The tall Rialto Bridge, in the heart of that it is called the “golden church.” The acoustics inside are so the business district, is intentionally arched to allow fully armed intricate and unique, that musical works by Venetian composers galleys to pass underneath. Venice’s large Jewish community was like Vivaldi and Monteverdi do not sound the same when concentrated on the island known as Ghetto, and flourished performed elsewhere. because of the many commercial contacts all over the The four bronze horses above the central doorway were among the Mediterranean. The term “ghetto” for a Jewish quarter originated prizes brought from the Hippodrome in Constantinople. They in Venice. are antique bronze sculptures, once considered the work of the The famed Arsenal helped defend trade routes by servicing the ancient genius Praxiteles. Anyone who climbs the tall, graceful fleet of warships. In its heyday, the Arsenal could fit out a small Campanile or bell tower will have a wonderful panorama of the galley in a single day. The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore entire city, which is shaped like a lute. stands on an island, facing the Customs House and the mouth of To the right of the Basilica you will find a smaller extension of the the Grand Canal. Andrea Palladio designed San Giorgio in the square called the Piazzetta or the “Broglio” (the Intrigue), since 1566, and it remains one of his greatest works. entry was restricted to noblemen each day for two hours before Venetian Islands noon. It was the ideal time and place to exchange gossip and Further offshore are the fascinating islands of the Venetian hatch intricate plots. To the left of the Basilica is the commanding Lagoon. Torcello was actually established as a lagoon settlement Clock Tower, with its large 15th-century dial with signs of the earlier than Venice, and traces of its prosperity remain. The zodiac. Atop the clock are the famous Moors, gigantic bronze romanesque Church of Santa Fosca was built on an octagonal figures who have been striking the hours for five centuries. Most pattern in the 11th-century. Nearby is the Cathedral, with a of the other buildings around the square are law courts and offices. wonderful inlaid pavement, Greek marble columns, and some very The Palace of the Doges became the heart of Venetian government fine Byzantine mosaics. from the 9th-century, even though the present Venetian-Gothic The island of Murano once had a near monopoly on fine blown masterpiece was not constructed until the 14th-century. Venice’s glass, beginning in 1292. There were so many varieties of colors, chief executive was a Duke, or Doge, an elected official with lusters, and exotic shapes that Murano glassblowers jealously sweeping powers over life and death. The palace, decorated with a guarded their methods. Although the secrets are now open to all, delicate geometrical pattern in pink and white marble, was not the skill of today’s workers is quite evident in their beautiful only the Doge’s residence but the actual seat of civic power. accomplishments. The island of Burano is a delightful fishing Assisting the Doge was the Grand Council, elected from the community with cheerfully painted houses. Lacemaking is a well- wealthiest families of the city, and the far more powerful Council established craft here. of Ten. Known also as the Black Counselors because of their dark Brenta Canal clothing, members of the Ten watched over security for the On the way to Padua, on the mainland, you will pass the so-called Republic with a network of spies and secret agents. Inside the Brenta Riviera, a series of opulent villas built along the Brenta palace is the model of a “Lion’s Mouth” where written notes Canal. Fashionable Venetian families vied with one another over denouncing traitors could be left secretly and anonymously for the the wealth lavished on these summer palaces. Palladio built the Counselors. Criminal judgments that the Ten imposed did not Villa Foscari in 1574. A member of the Foscari family banished require the presence of the accused. Sentences were carried out his wife there, giving it the nickname La Malcontenta. Lord immediately, and were not subject to appeal. Byron also stayed there during his travels. The Villa Pisani at Stra The upper floors of the palace have gorgeously decorated meeting shows some of Tiepolo’s finest painting, as well as remarkable chambers for these councils, as well as the Senate and visiting gardens. ambassadors. Paintings here are among the greatest masterpieces Padua of the local artists Tintoretto, Veronese, and Titian. The upper The city of Padua became Venetian in 1405, and contributed gallery is also lined with many small columns; you may notice two much to the Republic. It is actually an old University center, of these painted a dull red, just to the right of the entrance. This where Dante, Petrarch, Copernicus, and Tasso studied, and Galileo is where an official, standing between them, would announce the was a professor. The town is also known for St. Anthony of Padua death sentences. who died here in 1231, though he was born in Lisbon. The The graceful Bridge of Sighs links the Doge’s Palace with the dark Basilica dedicated to him is an imposing church, built in a old prison building, on the far side of the Rio de Palazzo.

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