This first section is a brief explanation of my Italy blog posts, which were inspired by my 2-week trip to Italy in May, 2025. Feel free to skip this section if you’ve read it before.
Dear Reader, If you read my Italy posts in the order in which they’ve come out, it may seem as though we hopped back and forth all over the country, but I have decided not to write these posts sequentially. I want to write about the things that interest me most, as the spirit moves me. For some topics, I may even combine cities. I hope that by doing so, you’ll find it a lot more interesting than if I just give you a tedious day by day description of our itinerary, as if I were your Aunt Mabel forcing you to sit down and watch all her Super 8 films of the family road trip to Niagara Falls from 1966.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about how I’m approaching this travelogue-within-a-blog, please let me know in the comments below!
My first visit to Venice was with my boyfriend at the time, in September, 2006. We took a hydrofoil from Slovenia for the day. We were only there for 5 hours at most. To only have that much time in Venice is almost cruel.
We got to wander around quite a bit, and had a delicious meal, but since we had no advance tickets for anything, the only thing we got to see from the inside was the bell tower. That, I must admit, afforded some amazing views. But the experience that stays with me the most was feeding the pigeons in the Piazza San Marco.
Yes, pigeons are disgusting creatures, and I tend to avoid close contact with them as a general rule, but this was the thing to do in Venice, after all. The piazza was full of them. And since this piazza is the primary tourist hub in the city, these birds had become rather symbolic over the decades. So feed them, we did.
Fast forward nearly 19 years, and on our first full day in Venice, what was one of the first things we did? Why, go to the Piazza San Marco, of course! I was really looking forward to seeing how Dear Husband reacted to the pigeon encounter. I mean, I was really, really looking forward to it. So, imagine my shock when the same square looked, instead, like this.
I have no idea how Venice did it. (I’m not sure I want to know.) It is probably much better for the preservation of their gorgeous buildings, because pigeon poop is very acidic. Pigeons also carry a lot of diseases, so their leavings must have added another layer of disgusting to the flood waters that periodically wash through. And I’m quite sure they were a nuisance to the outdoor cafes and the vendors. But still, I have to say, without pigeons, for me it seemed a little less like Venice.
Even so, a little less Venice is still Venice, and there is no place like this amazing city. It was definitely my favorite stop on our Italy trip. I couldn’t believe that I was lucky enough to return to this iconic city, this time for 3 nights. Such luxury.
When you stand at the edge of the piazza and gaze out at the lagoon, you can’t help but think of the hundreds of times this place has flooded. The worst in recorded history reached its peak on November 4, 1966. It rose to nearly 6 feet, 5 inches above average sea level. It is believed that just one inch more may have permanently destroyed the city. A plaque marking the waterline can be found at the steps of the bell tower in the piazza.
The bell tower was originally built to be a watchtower, and also a convenient landmark to safely guide Venetian ships into the harbor. Construction began in the early 10th century, and it grew taller over the years, until a spire was added in the 12th century. Then an even taller spire was installed in 1514, raising the tower up to its current 323 feet.
The tower has been repaired and restored many times over the centuries, primarily due to earthquakes and fires. Needless to say, it got struck by lightning with annoying frequency. That prompted the first lightning rod in all of Venice to be installed in 1776.
The tower’s bells used to keep time and coordinate functions throughout the city. These functions included public executions, sessions of the Great Council and the Venetian Senate, holy days, the elections of doges and the coronations of popes, and the deaths of dignitaries. In 1609, Galileo demonstrated his telescope from the tower, and then gifted it to the doge.
The cool little building at the bottom of the tower, called the Loggetta, has been there in one form or another since the 15th century. It was where dignitaries, procurators, and/or sentries met during various events. The original building was made of wood, but it kept getting damaged by the masonry that fell from the tower. Finally, in 1546, they built the Loggetta in stone, marble and bronze. It’s a pretty little structure. The description plaque outside its doors claims it’s built in the same style as the tower, but to me it looks like it was put there for safekeeping until its real building came along, and then they forgot to relocate it.
The base and the foundation of the tower were damaged and neglected over the years. During a restoration of the Loggetta, more damage to the base occurred, and in 1902, the entire tower collapsed. It seems to have primarily caved in on itself, falling straight down much like the twin towers did. Fortunately, the piazza was evacuated in time and no one was hurt.
The decision was made to replace the tower and Loggetta with an exact visual replica. It was completed in 1912. Of course, structural improvements were made. (Yet more evidence that Italians have construction in their very DNA.)
In 1962, an elevator was added, and it was thanks to that elevator that I was able to reach the top of the tower in 2006 without having a heart attack. What I didn’t know at the time was that the tower was already leaning nearly 3 inches. This led to yet another restoration which was carried out from 2007 to 2013. (Here’s hoping this one sticks.)
The constant flooding, by the way, prompted the piazza to be raised several times over the centuries. The most recent time was in 1726, when it was lifted up about a meter. During that time, the drainage, and drainage access, was improved as well. And yet it still floods.
Another beautiful structure on the piazza is St. Mark’s Clocktower. It was built in 1497. At the top, you have the two bronze men who strike the bell every hour, which is a sight to see. Below that is the winged lion of St. Mark, which is the symbol for Venice. Below that is the virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus, with the hour of the day in Roman numerals on a door on one side, and the minutes (in 5 minute increments) in Arabic numerals on a door on the other side. These doors only open twice a year, on the Epiphany and the Ascension, and a procession emerges from one door. It’s an angel, followed by the three Magi. They walk past and seem to acknowledge the virgin, and then they enter the other door and disappear. (They originally came out at least daily, but they kept breaking down.) Then you have the clock face with one arm that indicates the hour in a 24 hour cycle, along with the zodiac and the phases of the moon.
If you’re ever feeling overwhelmed while in the Piazza San Marco, I recommend you go the the Piazetta de Leoncini, on the north side of the Basilica. It’s a quiet little offshoot of the piazza, and you can almost always find a place to sit on the wall or the fountain there. And it’s usually shady, too.
Another iconic feature of the piazza is the twin granite columns on the waterfront. The one on the west is topped with a statue of Saint Theodore holding a spear and standing on a pseudo-crocodile to represent the dragon which he was said to have slain. (That one is a copy. The original, in the photo below, can be seen in the Doge’s Palace.) The second column is topped by a winged lion, the symbol of both Saint Mark and of Venice itself. Public executions used to take place between these two columns. And gambling was allowed between them as well.
According to one of my favorite websites, Atlas Obscura, there was actually supposed to be a third column, but one fell off the ship that was transporting all three. It is somewhere in the lagoon, but its exact location is unknown. Some say this is a myth. Many have searched for this column, to no avail. There is no substantive record of where these columns came from. The two that now stand were erected around 1268.
There’s much more to see in the Piazza San Marco. The two places you absolutely should not miss are the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica, but those two places each deserve blog posts of their own. Stay tuned for those.
But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few more fascinating historic events that took place here.
- From the Middle Ages to the 18th Century, bull hunts were held in the piazza during Carnival. Bulls were released into the square, and skilled men attempted to subdue or kill them. Sometimes it was the hunters or the spectators who got killed, which was a big part of why these events finally came to an end.
- In June, 1934, Mussolini met Hitler in this piazza. You can see a video of it here. Seeing the entire area packed with cheering Italians is disturbing. In fairness, they also cheered there in April, 1945, when they were liberated from Fascist-Nazi occupation. (It is encouraging that people can learn from their fascist mistakes. Pray that that is still the case, America.)
- On July 15, 1989, someone had the bright idea to hold a free Pink Floyd concert on a barge in front of the piazza. 200,000 people overran the city, and the infrastructure could not withstand it. There was not enough security, toilets, or first aid facilities. Many places closed because the police couldn’t guarantee public safety. Afterward, the city was covered in garbage and excrement, especially the piazza. You can see the disgusting morning after here. (Unfortunately the video is in Italian, but it’s still worth watching for the footage. It also shows a clip of the fall of the Berlin Wall.)
If you ever have to good fortune to find yourself in Venice, please don’t make the mistake of thinking that the Piazza San Marco itself is “just” a square that you cross to get to other things. It is the heart of this city, and it has been for hundreds of years. If it could only speak, it would have quite a few stories to tell.
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