• Secret Itineraries of Doge's Palace. Avoid long lines at the museums! Our exclusive online Booking Service allows you to reserve your visit to any of the museums in Venice on the day and time that you want. This way you go to the front of the line with your pre-paid reservation and have more time to enjoy inside the museum. Delight in all that the museums have to offer with all the time that you would have spent standing in lines!
• Secret Itineraries of Doge's Palace. Guided Tours: Discover the museums of Venice (Doge’s Palace, Accademia Gallery, etc.) with the experts! Our expert-guided tours are given in the language of your choice. For those who don’t feel up to visiting the museums on their own, or for those who want to hear the inside stories, join our group tours for our special treatment. Guided itineraries include the most important sites and museums that you shouldn’t miss.
Doge's Palace - Secret Itineraries
The Secret Itinerary through the Doge’s Palace covers the rooms and chambers where the delicate work of some of the most important bodies in the Venetian administration was carried out. The tour offers an interesting insight into the civil and political history of the city, its public organisations and administration of justice.
The visit must be pre-booked, and can only take place - at certain times and conditions - in the company of a special guide who will explain all the special features of each individual room.
One starts in the rooms of the Ducal Notary and the Deputato alla Segreta. Interconnected, these lead into the Square Atrium.
From this room a staircase leads to the large and beautiful Chamber of the Secret Chancellery, whose walls are lined with cabinets containing public and secret documents relating to the work of most of the Venetian magistrature.
Passing through the small room of the Deputy to the Chancellery one comes to the Torture Chamber, also known as the Chamber of Torment; this disturbing place is linked directly with the Prisons.
From the Torture Chamber you pass to the so-called Piombi. Though so vividly described by Giacomo Casanova, the Piombi did in fact offer prisoners much better conditions than those in the pozzi (the wells), the terrible cells on the ground floor of the Doge’s Palace.
The two, reconstructed, cells that were occupied by Casanova make up part of the tour. From the Piombi you pass directly under the roof to a tall and atmospheric attic located at the corner of the building between the waterfront and canal-side facades. This was the site of one of the corner towers of the much earlier castle occupied by the Doge. The cabinets contain a number of weapons, most of them sixteenth-century. The ceiling is decorated with works by Tintoretto, painted in 1566-1567.
Via a secret passageway within a wooden cabinet, the Chamber of the Three Head Magistrates is linked directly to the Chamber of the Council of Ten, from where one can go on to visit the rest of the Palace.
Secret Itineraries of Doge's Palace
All days in the morning. Visits in the afternoon are available only on request, for groups of minimum 15 people and an extra charge of 31.00 per group tour is due. No afternoon visits during summer time.
Guided tours in English: 9,55 am; 10,45 am, 11,35 am.
Guided tours in Italian: 9,30 am; 11,10 am.
Guided tours in French: 10,20 am; 12,00 (noon); 12,25 pm
