Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) Venice

Next we made our way over to the Piazza San Marco. Even being a Sunday morning it was very busy and full of tourists.

Here is an over view of the area.

The Piazza originated in the 9th century as a small area in front of the original St Mark's Basilica. It was enlarged to its present size and shape in 1177, for the meeting of Pope Alexander III and the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The Piazza has always been seen as the centre of Venice. It was the location of all the important offices of the Venetian state, and has been the seat of the archbishopric since the 19th century. It was also the focus for many of Venice's festivals. It is a greatly popular place in Italy even today.

On the eastern side of the Piazza is St. Mark’s Basilica

The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (officially known in Italian as the Basilica Cattedrale Patriachale di San Marco and commonly known as Saint Mark's Basilica) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice. It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture.

Here is Shannon in front of St. Mark’s Here I am – still not feeling (or looking) well Shan got with me taking a picture of the Basilica Here are some close ups of some of the painting on the outside of St. Mark’s Basilica.
Here is a close up of some of the architecture

Next up we went over to the St Mark's Campanile which is the bell tower of St. Mark’s.

St Mark's Campanile (Campanile di San Marco in Italian) is the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy, located in the square (piazza) of the same name. It is one of the most recognizable symbols of the city. The tower is 98.6 metres (323 ft) tall, and stands alone in a corner of St Mark's Square, near the front of the basilica. It has a simple form, the bulk of which is a plain brick square shaft, 12 metres (39 ft) wide on each side and 50 metres (160 ft) tall, above which is the arched belfry, housing five bells.

Me with the Campanile

Shannon with St. Mark’s Campanile. From the opposite side of the piazza. Also in the Piazza is the St. Mark’s clock tower. It is the most important clock in the city. Here is a close up of the clock. The clock is located in one of the building that make up the rest of the square which are now museums and shops.

Here are those buildings. Many of the shops had beautiful glass works in them. Here is one of the glass chandeliers.Connected to St. Mark’s Basilica is the Doge's Palace
Here is where they join. The main section of the Palace.

The Palace faces the water, here is a market area outside of the Palace.

Here is the Palace and Basilica looking from the water area.

To this point we had been in Venice for quite a while and had not seen one gypsy. After all we had heard about the gypsies in Venice we were a little disappointed. So Shannon decided to take a picture of this beggar, the closest thing we saw to a gypsy.