The Bridge of Sighs

We started the day very slowly and gently explored more alleys, took more photos and shopped in the Rialto area. After lunch and a rest at 'home' we caught a 'bus' boat on the grand canal so that we could arrive at St. Mark's square by water which was spectacular. We timed it so that we we were permitted last entry to The Doge's Palace as we'd researched that it was much quieter in the afternoon as most tourist trips come in the morning. This proved to be the case and we walked straight to the front and apart from a few others we were free to roam about at our own pace which was lovely.

The visit to the upper floors starts in the extraordinary courtyard which was a kids dream for hide and seek (a big plus when trying to keep the kids entertained and enthusiastic!), from where you pass up to the Loggia on the first floor (where the Doge’s Apartments are located) and then to the Institutional Chambers, throughout the first and second floors. The Institutional chambers were incredible and vast and then we headed to the Armoury where we explained about the swords, shields and body armour on display. The kids seemed to really enjoy looking at all the weapons so it wasn't surprising that they then started pretending to be knights and 'fighting' each other!
From here we crossed the famous Bridge of Sighs to get to the prison cells. We had stopped to take photos of this from the outside a couple of days ago from the bridge that you can see in the above blip, so it was cool to actually be inside it and looking out. Legend has it that 'the view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells.' I'm not sure that this was actually the case but I can understand it if it is true as the views in both directions are lovely.