ST MARK’S BASILICA AND DOGE’S PALACE TOUR

• Venice

With St Mark’s Basilica tour  you will visit the two most-visited sights in Venice combined together. Jump the queue with skip-the-line tickets! Tours in English every day. Six more languages available.

OVERVIEW

A must-do of Venice escorted tours, the St Mark’s Basilica Tour  and Doge’s Palace Skip the Line Tour is a great way of combining two of Venice’s top sights: the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica. For both, you will be able to avoid the long queues outside the main entrances thanks to the skip-the-line admission tickets.

Meet your group and the local expert guide at least 15 minutes before the  St Mark’s Basilica tour departure time at the meeting point in St.Mark’s Square. Start with a short walk through Venice’s main square to reach the Doge’s Palace.

This was the epicenter of political life and the place from where the Doge (highest authority of the Venetian Republic) governed the richest and most powerful city of the Middle Ages. From its dominant position overlooking the lagoon, the Palace was the first sight merchants from all over the World encountered on their arrival in Venice. The city for centuries was the main trading point connecting Europe and Asia and nearly all silk, wool and spices arrived here and then dispatched to markets around Europe.

You will visit the opulent apartments where the Doges lived and the decorated rooms filled with great works by artists like Tintoretto, Veronese and Tiziano. Admire the largest oil painting in the World (22 by 9 meters), courtesy of Tintoretto. Move over to the Giants’ Staircase and the Golden Staircase, before visiting the Opera Museum and its treasures. Then cross the famous Bridge of Sighs, the baroque bridge that connects the Palace’s jails to the institutional rooms where criminals were judged. In case you wonder, the name comes from the sound the prisoners made as they walked through the bridge and caught the last glimpse of the free world.

The tour includes a visit to the Doge’s Palace jail. Do you know that the notorious womanizer Giacomo Casanova, was locked here? He spent inside one year of a five-year sentence before he audaciously escaped from the roof of the jail and landed on a gondola in the canal, before ultimately managing to disappear and go as far as Paris, where he wrote the book that made him famous.

The second part of the tour is dedicated to one of Venice’s top wonders: the St Mark’s Basilica. This majestic cathedral encapsulates all three main artistic influences, Byzantine – Gothic – Roman, making it a display of greatness and probably the most recognizable landmark of Venice.

Take time to admire the amazing golden mosaics that depict the life of Saint Mark; the view is simply breathtaking and no wonder it is nicknamed ‘the church of gold’, as the entire ceiling (8,000 square meters!) is covered with mosaics, gold, precious stones and glittering Murano glass.

And if you still not had enough with St Mark’s Basilica tour move over to the stunning Pala d’Oro (Golden Pall), an altar screen of characteristic Byzantine style covered by hundreds and hundreds of pearls, garnets, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, topazes and many more precious gems.

ADDITIONAL INFO

FREE for children aged below 6 (proof of age required)

This tour runs every day (except on Sunday).

Languages:

From 1 April to 31 October: English, Spanish, French, German (every day) – Portuguese (Monday, Friday) – Russian (Monday, Thursday) – Italian (on Saturday).

From 1 November to 31 March: English (every day), French (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday), Spanish (Wednesday, Saturday), German (Monday, Friday).

Headsets provided when more than 10 participants.