A Rambling Writer Rerun: Italy, part 24: What Happened to Casanova?

Your Virtual Italy Vacation continues in Venice as Thor and I take the Secret Itinerary tour through the Doge’s Palace and the adjacent prison where Casanova was held.

NOTE: For a virtual vacation and time-travel, join Thor and me in 2008. Italy! Starting with highlight photos posted here on Saturday, June 15, I’ll continue this rerun series every week, with occasional interruptions for other Geezer Adventures. Join us in Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Venice, and Milan. Buon viaggio!

Thor is always fascinated with the dark and mysterious sides of life — after all, he still teaches his WWU online course in Monsters (animal and human). So he signed us up for the Secret Itinerary tour that exposed some of the unpleasant history beneath (sometimes literally) the glamor of Venice. Politics and prisons!

Since I somehow lost my journal and photos, I’m relying on Thor’s sketchy notes and a few photos. He did get a good shot of the exterior of the ornate Doge’s Palace where the tour started. Near the Basilica, the palace began in the 9th century as a fortress, then was really spiffed up in the 14th and 15 centuries, and it combines Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance architecture. It was the official palace of the 120 doges who ruled Venice from 697 to 1797.

These heroic statues guard the courtyard entrance. I guess it’s a cloak that one of them is holding….

I’m posting my complete blog entries on my own author website at www.sarastamey.com, where you can finish this episode and enjoy all the accompanying photos. Please continue reading by clicking on the link below, then you can return here (use “go back” arrow above) to comment, ask questions, or join a conversation. We love your responses!

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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s novel from Book View Cafe is available in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection — a near-future thriller set in the Greek islands. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?”  The novel has received the Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara is at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com