- Golden Staircase (Scala d'oro) -

The Doge's apartment only occupies one of the Palace's three floors and to get to it you climb the beautiful Golden Staircase, begun halfway through the 16th century by Sansovino. The stairway owes its name to the spectacular golden stucco decorated vault and was formerly only used by Magistrates and important people.

Today this apartment has no furnishings, as they were partly stolen by Napoleon's army, but is still a kind of precious casket with masterpieces painted on its ceilings and magnificent stone fireplaces. It gives us an idea of the Doge's lifestyle and of the atmosphere that reigned in these rooms for centuries.

On the second noble floor you find the meeting rooms used by the highest state authorities.