VENICE

From the beginnings in A.D.697to the republic's final humiliating surrender to NAPOLEON in 1797, Venice enjoyed a pre-eminence in self-government, commerce, and naval power that for most of that period gave it dominance over the Adriatic Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. Its watery geography and its consequent development of a maritime-based culture gave it an almost eccentric worldview, we see today is the gilt-edged,a place that in my mind was-and remains-the grandest city in the world. The doge was a curiously venetian invention, to the eye in his wardrobe of rich gowns and popular in his role as the personification of official pomp and ceremony.

The tour "the visible places of the power" allowes you to find the very soul of Venice. The visit, which lasts two hours, reveal you the sumptuousness of the DUCAL PALACE which is inspired by the Venetian Byzantine architecture, and with details, corner-figures of Adam and Eve and of Noe's inebriation, which are the supreme expression of the Venetian gothic sculpture and the "PORTA DELLA CARTA", another example of the gothic art in Venice.

Near you will discover the wonderful BASILICA OF St. MARK, which will certainly charm you with architectonic elegance and its cultural specificity. You can walk under the Old and New "procuratie"(the house of the procurator at the time of the republic of Venice)of the palaces of the "cinquecento" which adorn the square, where you can find also the high BELL-TOWER, the CLOCK TOWER and the Dock of St.Mark where two granite columns welcome the foreigners.

In these images you can see:

• Saint George's Island
• Ca d'Oro
• Saint Mary
• Calle Sconta detta Arcana