- Multilingual Language Multilingual
- Guided Guide Type Guided
- 2 Hours Duration 2 Hours
Explore the historical areas of “The Floating City” with this essential guided walking tour of Venice! This tour transports you to the Venice of centuries ago,
Quick Details
Discover the 16th prisons of Piazza San Marco, created in 1500 and linked to the Doge’s Palace through the famous Bridge of Sighs.
An amazing itinerary in which you will be accompanied through places never visited until now: enter in the in the imposing courtroom and in the dark cells, you will discover the lifestyle of the prisoners, what they ate, drank and where they slept.
See the authentic graffiti left by the inmates and listen about the exciting Casanova’s jailbreak: he managed to escape from the maximum-security jail known as “Piombi”!
The Palace is “populated” by life-size figures of the Lords of the Night, prisoners, Judges, Lawyers and all characters who worked in the Prisons made meticulously drawing them from ancient manuscripts.
You will enter also in the scarry torture rooms with real torment itmes used by the Venetian Police and judges to make the criminals confess!
Listen to the myths and legends that still live inside these cold cells and halls. Along the route you’ll enjoy the explanation of the powerful “Council of The Ten”, composed by the highest Venice Politicians that oversaw the justice in all Venetian domains.
Since the birth of the Republic, Venice has been always careful to the administration of justice, of which used to do proudly with own judicial system. composed by courts, lawyers and magistrates. One of the main points was the Lords of the Nights: the terribile Venetian police used to resolve fights and punish the perpetrators of crimes.
You will discover the alternative that prisoners had if they wanted to stay in a cell or serve their sentence on board a Venetian Galley, each year of boarding as Galeotti was worth as having been 2 years in a cell.
The route arrives until today and the many cultural activities that take place in.
Nowadays the Palace, that overlooks the stunning Riva Degli Schiavoni, is home of an important Venetian cultural institution.
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- Guided tour of secret itinerary of the Prisons
- Skip the line entrance
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- Doge’s Palace
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- English, French and Italian. The tour could be multilingual
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- For Covid-19 precaution the use of the mask is MANDATORY. So, please bring your own.
- TO ACCESS ANY INTERIOR (MUSEUM, CHURCH, PALACE, RESTAURANT, WORKSHOP ETC.) ALL PARTICIPANTS OVER 12 YEARS OLD MUST PRESENT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
-PROOF OF FULL VACCINATION
-PROOF OF FIRST VACCINATION ADMINISTERED AT LEAST 15 DAYS AGO
-PROOF OF A COVID-19 INFECTION IN THE PAST 6 MONTHS
-NEGATIVE TEST TAKEN NO MORE THAN 48 HOURS BEFORE THE ACTIVITY STARTS - ATTENTION: the access to the Prisons is on the first floor.
- Unfortunately, this tour is not fully accessible for wheelchair users or people with walking disabilities.
- Comfortable shoes suggested.
- Maximum 15 people per visit
- The tour is not private but it could be shared with other participants
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- Palazzo Delle Prigioni, beside the Doge’s Palace in Piazza San Marco. Please be at the meeting point 15 minutes before the departure time.
HOW TO REACH THE MEETING POINT
- In Piazza San Marco, with the Doge’s Palace in front of you and the S.Mark’s Basin at your back, go on the right, cross the Bridge (from where you see the Bridge of Sighs) and then look on the left, you will see the entrance of the Palazzo delle Prigioni.
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- Bookings can be cancelled with no charge up to 24 hours before the service.
- The tour does not operate in case of exceptional high tide (in this case it can be postponed later or to the day after otherwise it will be refunded).