...I'm coming out of the Doge's Palace, I see a sign saying: "prisons"
After a few steps I find myself in the prisons, called "Piombi".
I am under the incredible and rich rooms I have just visited.
I feel the humidity of the water flowing near where I am.
The corridors are narrow and there are no windows.
At a certain point I see a bit of natural light illuminating the narrow passage with a dim light ...
The light filters through the small windows that overlook the canal, then on another bridge and in the background you can see the island of San Giorgio.
When a criminal was incarcerated, the guards trotted him along the path I am doing.
It is called the Bridge of Sighs because from these windows the prisoner would have seen for the last time the sunlight and Venice and continuing sighing sadly.
Finding myself here I think of Giacomo Casanova, famous adventurer, seducer and libertine.
Giacomo was imprisoned July 25, 1755 for possession of prohibited books of alchemy and magic.
It is the night of the last day of October 1756.
The sky is clear and just veiled with fog, the climate still warm despite the late autumn.
Giacomo Casanova, taking advantage of the help of a monk, Father Baldi, decides to try his luck challenging a prison that, even for its central position in the city, hardly allows an unnoticed escape. But many elements go the right way.
First it manages to create a tunnel in the ceiling of the building and then move the lead plates that make up the roof, being outdoors.
![Spaccato_prospettico_delle_Prigioni_del_Palazzo_Ducale_di_Venezia.png]
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Perspective view of Doge's Palace with the Bridge of Sighs on the left.
At that point Casanova finds a skylight with an iron grate that can easily fade and a window with "round glasses joined by strips of lead", which without difficulty, while hurting his hands several times, manages to break, "removing the glass from the plumbing ", and finally a ladder on a terrace at the dormer abandoned by some workers that just in those days.
Thanks to this it manages to fall into the attic, otherwise unattainable from the place where it is located.
His flight companion, Father Balbi, stuck astride the roof ridge, but lost his hat: if he had fallen inside the Doge's Palace would have been certainly noticed by the Arsenalotti on guard and the entire escape would have been discovered.
Still a stroke of luck, the headgear falls into the canal to the east of the palace, passing unnoticed.
Despite the tension and fatigue, despite the danger of slipping, Casanova stops to admire the spectacle of the San Marco Basin and the Church of the Doges that is shown in front of him. He tells it himself:
"After passing fifteen or sixteen plates, I found myself on the ridge of the slope, on which, spreading my legs, I placed myself comfortably astride.
We turned our backs on the islet of San Giorgio Maggiore and in front of us we had the numerous domes of the great Church of San Marco, which is connected to the Doge's Palace.
It is the chapel of the Doge and no king of the earth can boast an equal".
Coming down from the roof and out of the palace, he embarks on a gondola and gets transported to the mainland.
In Venice it can no longer find refuge, even the Churches can not "give asylum to those who have offended the civil or criminal code".
The escape is complete.
The umpteenth "undertaking" of Giacomo marks the beginning of a long exile, often saddened by a yearning nostalgia for his Venice, which lasts uninterruptedly until 1774.
It's getting late, I get out of the prisons and step near the Stairway of Giants...
It was the official entrance to the Doge's Palace and was erected between 1483 and 1491 on a project by Antonio Rizzo.
Its name derives from the two marble statues of Sansovino depicting Mars and Neptune, placed here in 1567, representing the power and dominion of Venice on the mainland (Mars) and on the sea (Neptune).
I'm out of the building, now I'm standing next to Piazza San Marco.
Before returning home I want to see the Bridge of Sighs from the bridge that I saw through the small window.
Here it is, you can clearly see the two small windows ... who knows how many criminals have looked at Venice for the last time from there...
The visit to the Doge's Palace is over, other beautiful adventures will follow, stay tuned!
Thank you for the comments you have written to me up until now. I really appreciate them!
I wish you a good day!!