Doge's Palace Skip-the-Line Guided Tour with Prisons Venice

St. Mark's Square and the Gothic façade of the palace

You meet your guide in St. Mark's Square, the great square of Venice framed by arcades, the bell tower and the domes of the basilica. A few steps away, along the Piazzetta and the waterfront, rises the Doge's Palace, one of the masterpieces of Venetian Gothic: its pink and white façade seems to float on two levels of delicate arcades and loggias.

Before entering, your guide points out the ceremonial gate between the palace and the basilica, decorated with sculpture, through which visitors to the Republic once passed. While the queue for the Doge's Palace often stretches along the waterfront, your group walks straight in through a separate entrance, which is why a Doge's Palace skip-the-line tour saves so much time.

The Doge's Palace: halls of power

For almost a thousand years the Doge's Palace was the seat of government of the Venetian Republic: the residence of the doge, the meeting place of the councils and the seat of the courts. Your guide leads you up the Golden Staircase, with its gilded stucco ceiling, into the rooms where ambassadors were received, the Senate debated and the feared Council of Ten met in secret.

Larger-than-life paintings by the great Renaissance masters of Venice cover walls and ceilings, glorifying the Republic and its victories. You also see the Hall of the Great Council, one of the largest rooms in Europe, and the stone boxes where citizens could post secret denunciations. These stories make the Doge's Palace guided tour far richer than a visit with a map alone.

The Bridge of Sighs from the inside

From the courts of justice you walk onto the Bridge of Sighs, the enclosed white limestone bridge built in the early seventeenth century over the Rio di Palazzo to link the palace with the new prisons. From outside it is one of the most photographed sights in Venice; from inside it is a narrow passage with small stone-barred windows.

Through these openings prisoners had their last glimpse of the lagoon and the island of San Giorgio before entering the cells, and the Romantic writers of the nineteenth century imagined them sighing at the view, which gave the bridge its name. Crossing it yourself is the moment most visitors remember long after the tour.

The New Prisons

On the other side of the bridge are the New Prisons, built from the late sixteenth century as one of the first buildings in Europe designed specifically as a prison. Your guide takes you through narrow corridors of thick grey stone, past heavy wooden doors and small barred cells where those sentenced by the Venetian courts were held.

The contrast with the gilded halls you have just left is striking: here you see the harsher side of the Republic's justice and the conditions of the prisoners. If you are wondering whether the Doge's Palace prisons are worth seeing, this part of the tour gives the most complete picture of how Venice was governed, from its splendour to its severity.

The St. Mark's Square museums

Your ticket also gives self-guided entry to three museums on St. Mark's Square. The Correr Museum, in the wing facing the basilica, presents the history and art of Venice; the National Archaeological Museum displays Greek and Roman sculpture collected by Venetian families; and the Monumental Rooms of the Marciana Library show one of the finest Renaissance library halls in Italy.

You can visit them after the tour or on another day, as the entry is valid for three days. Closing times are usually around 16:00 in the low season and 18:00 in the high season, so plan ahead if your tour finishes later. Other options of this tour also include a guided visit of St. Mark's Basilica.