Our full day in Venice started with a tour of the Doge’s Palace. The tour was called the “Secret Itineraries” tour, which is an odd name but basically means, “we’re going to take you to parts of the palace most people don’t get to see.” Our guide was Italian, but spoke passable English. “Photos are forbidden inside. Once we pass the golden staircase, no more. *smile* Sorry.” She was pretty adamant that no one touch, sit, or lean on anything which became quite a challenge as our group of 20 or so squeezed into a tiny half office belonging to the Venetian secret-keeper.
This is a shot in the courtyard of the palace, one of the few places where photos were allowed.
Apparently the Doge (ruler of Venice) chose a single commoner to protect all of the empire’s secret documents. This sounds a lot sexier than it really was; most of the secret documents pertained to contracts or war. This chancellor spent all day in a tiny little office, occasionally venturing over to a room that stored all of the documents in cabinets lining the walls. This room was filled with secretaries and other workers, none of whom actually ever saw the secret documents around them. Each document had just a single copy. What did they workers do? They spent their time making two additional copies of all of the non-secret documents.
Next we found ourselves in the Venetian torture room. Here, they would tie peoples hands behind their backs and repeatedly lift them to the ceiling until they confessed their crimes. There were always three magistrates present, along with other prisoners waiting in the wings so they could hear the agony of the one being tortured.
From there we were led through a tiny doorway (maybe 4’ tall) into a prison cell. This cell would typically hold just one or two prisoners, so it was quite large by most standards, probably 15 x 15 x 6+. It was just tall enough for me to stand up inside. Here we learned the “true story” of a prisoner who was held there.
This guy was quite a ladies man. Venetian law allowed anyone to accuse anyone of a crime by putting a letter in a drop box. As you may imagine, there were many angry husbands accusing him of adultery. He was eventually arrested, but there was no evidence of adultery. Instead, the charge was possession of magic books. He was sentenced to 5 years. He actually got off easy because his offenses had been punishable by death until 6 months before he was arrested.
The prisoner was mostly well liked, so he was allowed to have a chair (he was taller than the cell) and to walk alone in an attic on occasion. It was in that attic that he found a piece of iron and started hatching an escape plan. He slowly created a hole in the wooden floor under his bed. Just as he was about to break through to the office below, the prison-keeper informed him that he was to be moved to a new cell. When the prison-keeper moved his bed and found the hole, he went to the prisoner with his discovery. He was promptly blackmailed; the prisoner explained he would tell everyone that the prison-keeper had given him the tool for his escape. The prisoner was able to stow the piece of iron in his chair to get it into his new cell.
This new cell was different; the floor and most of the walls were made of stone. However, he was near another prisoner, a priest, in an adjacent cell. Since they had only a handful of books each, they were allowed to exchange and started passing messages. They agreed that they would work on an escape together. The piece of iron was passed to the priest inside a bible and he started making a hole in the ceiling of his cell. After gaining access to an attic space, a second hole was made into the other prisoner’s cell. Once both men were free, they simply walked out the front door of the palace.
Who was this prisoner? Giacomo Casanova. The story was apparently written by him, so outside of the escape, who knows how much of it is true.
After the Casanova story, the rest of the tour wasn’t that exciting. We saw a few other offices of judges and magistrates, and then she left us to wander through the rest of the palace rooms on our own. We eventually made it over to another prison and walked across the bridge of sighs. Even from the inside, we could tell it was mostly covered in blue on the outside.