The Oxcliffe Vixen: St Mark's

The quiet end of St Mark's Square

Our first main day was spent around St Mark’s Square.

I suppose if you are going to Venice it is the must see place to visit. Certainly it seems to be the place most tourists seem to go to. We certainly discovered the crowds. Various guided groups followed held up umbrellas, sticks etc. Clearly some of the groups were off the numerous cruise liners that stop at Venice. The square was filled with people from all nations, all colours, all languages.

It was a lively scene, with the myriad of colours of all the people, the live music playing at some of the cafés & bars in the piazza. The piazza itself is huge. One end is dominated by the Basilica of St Mark’s and the next door Doge’s Palace (though strictly speaking the place is not on the piazza but on the piazzetta) and the towering campanile.

St Mark's Basilica

The Doge's Palace

We had hoped to see inside both the basilica & the palace but one look at the long queues snaking through the piazza put us off. As far as we could see, the wait would have taken hours & then you would have been herded through to make room for those behind to come in – not our idea of fun, we like to take our time to see things.

The Clock Tower on St Mark's Square

Instead we ventured through the clock tower & down some of the side streets inland. In a much smaller square we found a bar with reasonably priced drinks and sat a while, refreshing ourselves. We watched the crowds milling around.

The busy chopping streets seen from our bar

Everything is delivered by boat, with the result that men were wheeling great trolleys laden with goods. The shouts of “Permesso” & “Scusi” resounded as they tried to speedily get through the crowds lost in their own world of wonder at all around them.

After that we wandered around some of the streets behind St Mark’s Square. They include all the most prestigious names, interspersed with a few aimed at the more ordinary tourist. We strayed away from our map & found some pretty little squares. However, we soon found the bridges too.

A pretty bridge over the canal

The frustration got to us after a while & we made our way back to St Mark’s. This time we made through the piazza and the piazzetta to the canal side & turned towards the Ponte della Paglia. From this bridge you can get a view of the Bridge of Sighs which so many, including Casanova, crossed as they were taken from the court in the palace to the prison on the other side of the canal. The Ponte della Paglia is one of the few bridges where the Venetians have endeavoured to improve access by ramping one side with rubber (so as not to ruin the impressive stone work). However, much had been worn away by the numerous people crossing the bridge. It did mean even I, in my wheelchair, managed to get up to see the Bridge of Sighs properly.

The Bridge of Sighs

The canal side at the end of the Piazetta San Marco

By then we felt we’d had enough. We decided it was time to get the vaporetto back & have an afternoon zizz before we set out to locate dinner.

St Mark’s Square & its surrounds are impressive, but for us it would have been more impressive with a few less people in it. The details on some of the buildings are interesting. I’ll leave you with a few of them.


The two Egyptian granite columns that mark the entrance to the piazetta from the lagoon.	The one on the left is topped by a winged lion with his paw on a book symbolising St Mark; the one of the right topped by St Theodore, the former patron saint of Venice with his crocodile