By Rick Steves

By Gene Openshaw

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ebook (Digital original) $0.99 $0.99 CAD

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Rick Steves' Pocket guidebooks truly are a “tour guide in your pocket.” Each colorful, compact 280-page book includes Rick's advice for prioritizing your time, whether you’re spending 1 or 7 days in a city. Everything a busy traveler needs is easy to access: a neighborhood overview, city walks and tours, sights, handy food and accommodations charts, an appendix packed with information on trip planning and practicalities, and a fold-out city map.

Rick Steves' Pocket Venice includes the following walks and tours:

• St. Mark's Square Tour
• St. Mark's Basilica Tour
• Doge's Palace Tour
• Frari Church Tour
• St. Mark's to Rialto Walk
• Rialto to Frari Church Walk
• St. Mark's to San Zaccaria Walk

Doge’s Palace Tour

ORIENTATION

Map: Doge’s Palace

THE TOUR BEGINS

Exterior

The Courtyard and the Stairway of Giants (Scala dei Giganti)

Mouth of Truth

Golden Staircase (Scala d’Oro)

Doge’s Apartments (Appartamento del Doge)

Square Room (Atrio Quadrato)

Map: Executive & Legislative Rooms

Room of the Four Doors (Sala delle Quattro Porte)

Ante-Collegio Hall (Sala dell’Anticollegio)

Collegio Hall (Sala del Collegio)

Senate Hall (Sala del Senato)

Hall of the Council of Ten (Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci)

Armory Museum (L’Armeria)

Map: Judicial Rooms

Hall of the Grand Council (Sala del Maggiore Consiglio)

Map: Hall of the Grand Council

Prisons

Bridge of Sighs

Palazzo Ducale

Venice is a city of beautiful facades—palaces, churches, carnival masks—that can cover darker interiors of intrigue and decay. The Doge’s Palace, with its frilly pink exterior, hides the fact that the “Most Serene Republic” (as Venice called itself) was far from serene in its heyday.

The Doge’s Palace housed the fascinating government of this rich and powerful empire. It also served as the home for the Venetian ruler known as the doge (pronounced “dohzh”), or duke. For four centuries (about 1150-1550), this was the most powerful half-acre in Europe. The doges wanted their palace to reflect the wealth and secular values of the Republic, impressing visitors and serving as a reminder that the Venetians were Number One in Europe.

ORIENTATION

Cost: €18 combo-ticket also includes the Correr Museum.

Hours: Daily 8:30-19:00, Nov-March 8:30-17:30, last entry one hour before closing.

Crowd Control: Avoid the long peak-season line at the Doge’s Palace by buying your combo-ticket (or Museum Pass) at the uncrowded Correr Museum. This lets you enter the Doge’s Palace at the “prepaid tickets” entrance. You can also get prepaid tickets 48 hours in advance online. To minimize crowds, visit at about 17:00.

Getting There: The palace is next to St. Mark’s Basilica, on the lagoon waterfront, and just off St. Mark’s Square. Vaporetto stops: San Marco or San Zaccaria.

Information: Tel. 041-271-5911, http://palazzoducale.visitmuve.it.

Tours: The audioguide (€5, must leave ID) is dry but informative. The fine 1.25-hour Secret Itineraries guided tour lets you skip the line and covers rooms not included in the general admission price (€20, wise to reserve ahead: from the US dial 011-39-041-4273-0892, within Italy call 848-082-000, book online, or directly at the Doge’s Palace ticket desk). Skip the Doge’s Hidden Treasures Tour (€20)—it reveals little that would be considered a “treasure.”

Length of This Tour: Allow 1.5 hours.

Genre:

On Sale: May 16, 2017
Page Count: 26 pages
Publisher: Rick Steves
ISBN-13: 9781631217753

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Rick Steves

About the Author

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Gene Openshaw

About the Author

Since 1973, Rick Steves has spent about four months a year exploring Europe. His mission: to empower Americans to have European trips that are fun, affordable, and culturally broadening. Rick produces a best-selling guidebook series, a public television series, and a public radio show, and organizes small-group tours that take over 30,000 travelers to Europe annually. He does all of this with the help of more than 100 well-traveled staff members at Rick Steves' Europe in Edmonds, WA (near Seattle). When not on the road, Rick is active in his church and with advocacy groups focused on economic and social justice, drug policy reform, and ending hunger. To recharge, Rick plays piano, relaxes at his family cabin in the Cascade Mountains, and spends time with his son Andy, daughter Jackie, and his new grandson…baby Atlas. Find out more about Rick at http://www.ricksteves.com and on Facebook.

Connect with Rick:
facebook.com/RickSteves
twitter: @RickSteves
instagram: ricksteveseurope

Gene Openshaw has co-authored a dozen Rick Steves books, specializing in writing walks and tours of Europe's cities, museums, and cultural sites. He also contributes to Rick's public television series, produces tours for Rick Steves Audio Europe, and is a regular guest on Rick's public radio show. Outside of the travel world, Gene has co-authored The Seattle Joke Book. As a composer, Gene has written a full-length opera called Matter, a violin sonata, and dozens of songs. He lives near Seattle with his daughter, enjoys giving presentations on art and history, and roots for the Mariners in good times and bad.

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