Friday wrap-up and Saturday's brief bit

After our very full sight-seeing schedule Friday (and very enjoyable), we headed back across the lagoon, picked up some panini style sandwiches and, oh joy, a bag of ruffle potato chips and headed back to our hotel for lunch.  I was pretty well tuckered out by then and decided to stay in and try and catch up on the blog while Chris went out to see more.

When he got back around 6:00 and after relaxing a while, we decided to try a restaurant Chris had noticed because it had black spaghetti (squid ink) in the window.  So off we went.  They had an extensive menu and it took me quite a while to figure out what to order and for some strange reason I went with something to do with crab.  He explained to me what it was but we were sort of coming at it from two different ideas.  I wanted to know if it was a whole crab and he said "yes" and then, of course, I wanted to know if like a whole lobster there was green stuff inside which tickled him but he said no, no green stuff, so I decided okay, I'd live dangerously.  And it turned out to be probably one of the best dishes I've had in my visits to Italy.  It was absolutely, succulently, delicious.  The reason he said it was whole was because they remove all the meat from the shell, shred it very finely and mix it with whatever deliciousness they mix it with (although no pasta was involved that I could see).  It was wonderful and I ate every single bite and mopped up the juice.  We again shared a bottle of wine and so were quite ready to head back to the hotel where we packed up for our Saturday departure, I blogged a bit and went to bed.

SATURDAY...

We had to catch a 2:15 train to Florence but we managed to hit 2 more spots before we left.  Checked out of the hotel and left our luggage and then started our trek to our destination.  I got a couple of nice photos during our walk...

This picture shows the back of our hotel and the hotel's garden which we peeked out on but it was too cold to sit out there.  They were getting to decorate it for Christmas on Saturday.

 A view of two bridges from a third bridge where we were standing.  That last bridge that is enclosed and up high is the Bridge of Sighs I posted about following our Doges' Palace visit.

 And below is the passenger portion of the interior of a pretty fancy gondola.  Not so fancy gondolas are also used for deliveries and other business purposes although so are motor boats.

We visited the Santi Giovanni and Paolo basilica which is very old.  The congregation and first building were established in the 3rd century!  And the current building was completed in 1343.  When we got there, it turned out they only took cash and we didn't have enough on hand so I waited while Chris took his pictures.  That's why I don't have any pictures of the church.  The church is, I think, somehow connected with a scuola which I thought was the word for school but this turned out to be a medical library connected to a very large hospital/medical compound.  You only go in the library of course, but there are all the typical departments that a large city hospital has and they are all in various buildings around the scuola.  I did get a couple of pictures there of the (wait for it) ceiling and books.  But I'm only posting one of the ceiling and one book because the picture that I thought included a drawing of an almost sawed off arm and was pretty gruesome did not include that drawing.  The books were on display in glass cabinets which also displayed the tools necessary to saw off arms and other medical procedures.They're all antique of course, and it really was an impressive and interesting place.

Here is the ceiling...

The glass cases hold the books and tools...and below is one of the books open to some pretty painful looking treatment or condition or something.

We're pretty certain this is Mary and the babe but it sure looked like Mary Poppins to me.  No idea why it's where it is, but it's kind of dear.

So that was it.  Got ourselves back to the hotel to get our luggage and walked back over to the water bus stops, got on ours, got off right at the train station (a miracle - no bridge to cross!).  It left right on town and was the quietest and smoothest train ride I think I've experienced.  We got to our hotel probably between 5 and 5:30 and the young man who was there to check us in wanted to tell us all about Florence which was nice but went on a little longer that it needed to.  I wanted to get to the room and do my "nesting".  :)  Can't remember dinner that night - that might have been the night I had ribollita (a thick, hearty and filling vegetable/bean/bread soup that is so good and Chris had a dish (can't remember what it's called but it's another Tuscan classic) of bread and very pureed tomatoes with garlic that just sort of turns into a delicious mush as it cooks.

And I think that was it for Saturday.  I don't remember anything else after that.  And I'm still 2 days behind on my postings and it's making me crazy cause I lose track of things, forget things, etc., but maybe not that I'm in a place I know I'll do a little bit better.

Friday - our final full day in Venice

and, boy, did we see a lot of wonderful things.  We had our regular breakfast in the hotel and in a way it's a good thing we're almost ready to leave because I haven't liked them very much since the first one and each day I seem to like them a little less.  So one more morning and then we're done.

Today was another water bus day which meant getting to the "but stop" which meant going up and down over I think 3 bridges.  We went first to the Santa Maria della Salute church which was pretty wonderful.  The ride itself was a pleasure because it's on the Grand Canal with all the beautiful old palazzos lining it.  So, several pictures of that first...

 Waiting on the dock....

 and off we go!  (that's the railing of our boat...)

 Almost there.

And, we're here.

 Took this while waiting for Chris to take his pictures.  Lots of seaweed - you can see it growing under the water.

I tried to get at least half the floor in a picture so I could say double this and that's how big it is - really big.

This shows the huge floor with the chandelier hanging dead center above it from a chain that goes way, way up.  That's the high altar in the distance.  The pillars were all wrapped in red so it was very different looking than the normal marble or stone pillars.  Chris thought probably it was for some special occasion.

This is a papal chair.  I've noticed several churches having one - when a pope comes to visit, he has a chair waiting for him with his name and the date.

A really long tapestry and I cannot remember what part of the church it was in, nor can I identify the scene.  But it's here mostly for my needle working friends. :)

The high altar up close and look at the beautiful fabric on those pillars.  The red fabric and candle cups really lit up the basically whitish interior of the sanctuary.  Of course the gleaming gold helped too.

The very plain dome way up high where you can see the chain starting its trip down to the chandelier.

Leaving San Salute, we've arrived at Ca' Rezzonico Museum which is a combination of art gallery and "authentic" rooms.  I really enjoyed this visit.  The art was wonderful and the rooms were very nice too and full of interesting furniture.  The picture below is from the water bus dock.

This first painting I know nothing about but I loved it.  Her dress is so unusual and so very pretty.  I don't know if she's supposed to be Mary or not.  We wondered about the little people at the bottom picture and the only thing I could come up with was that she could be ascending to heaven leaving the others behind.  But I doubt very seriously if that's what it's portraying.

 A life-size or larger painting of a doge - I thought the pose interesting ...

Now I'm into the authentic rooms and this was a bedroom with this delightful little cradle and the bed in the next picture with its surely one-of-a-kind headboard.

 

Just not real sure how well I'd sleep with all that hovering over me.   The picture below is from a room filled with beautiful porcelain.  I chose this one for a photograph because I love the 3-D blue flowers sprinkled all over the pieces.

 And below, we have a very long harpsichord on very big legs.  The information card said that the legs were from something else and they look like it - they'd look better on a concert grand than a spindly little harpsichord.

A beautiful painted chest for which they are collecting donations to restore the drawers!

 A delightful little stand of Murano glass.  There were so many massive Murano chandeliers in most every building we visited and I was a little ashamed to admit I didn't care for them very much.  But this piece is just so whimsical and doesn't seem to have any real purpose except to make you happy.

Another beautiful ceiling...This house had lots of them but the rest of the ceiling was usually plainly painted with fairly subdued moldings which was a nice change from the very busy gold ones.  I like them both - just hadn't seen much of this kind before.

 I'm not sure what this is but we're thinking it might have been an artist's model of a proposed altar with the empty space between the angels holding an icon or painting.

The two pictures below are of a writing desk and then a close-up of the top.  All the inlay work is ivory which is pretty unbelievable.

 Either another papal chair (although the others have been in churches) or a doge's chair.

 A stand carved out of wood specifically for these pieces of porcelain.  I don't understand how it could have been done because there's no way I could see that they could now be taken out.

 This was a stone inlay decoration in the middle of a large floor.

 A very beautiful chandelier...

And a gorgeous door.  This door was obtained by the family and added to what I think was probably an open doorway because from the side you can see where they built a wooden framework to which they attached the door.  What a treat to the eyes it would be to live with.

We left Ca' Rezzonico and I think walked to San Giorgio Maggiore another church with a bell tower that has an elevator (hallelujah!)  Below is a portion of what might be the choir seating?  Not sure.

 But it's beautiful and here you see it wrapping around behind whatever that is in the center.  Couldn't get close enough to really see it.  So then we climbed the bell tower and the view was fantastic.  Below, you're looking at Santa Maria della Salute (our first stop of the day)

And looking out another direction, you see the tower of St. Mark's with the big light rectangle building beside it being the Doges' Palace.

 Seen from the tower.  I assume this is glass but it may not be, particularly if it is a special bienniale installation.

 Looking up the tower to a couple of the bells.  You can't see it in the picture but they are beautifully decorated with bas relief.

 I can't remember where this wonderful wood carving of the winged lion was - had to be something to do with the church though because below is my final picture of the day.

It is the altar and I think is the only one I've ever seen that is black metal.  Attractive though when seen "in the real".

Since this is my last picture I'm going to post this even though there's a bit more to write about.  I'll add it Saturday's post which is short.  And I apologize for any typos but I need to get to sleep!

An ending for Wednesday

Hope this will go a little better today.  I think this is my first time blogging using my MacBook Air and it has photo features I'm not at all crazy about...

And I was right of course about doing more on Wednesday than just the Doges Palace.  When we finished there, we had a late lunch of cichetti which is Venice's version of Spain's tapas basically.  I had read about them and thought "oh, that's something I have to try" so we did and they were good altho where we got them, they weren't as inexpensive as they are some places I think.

Then we went back to San Marco Basilica and visited two of their three "payment required" places but no pictures are allowed anywhere in the basilica and that's why I didn't have any more pictures.   So no pictures in this post.

The two paid places we visited were the Pala d'Oro and the Treasury.  The Pala d'Oro is unbelievable, breathtaking, and spectacular.  It is gold, gold, gold and what isn't gold is cloisonné like I've never seen before.  Even though you're not supposed to take photos, apparently a lot of people have because there are many, many on Google if you'd like to get an idea of it.  Like so many of Venice's treasures, it was brought back from Constantinople.  I don't know what its purpose was in Constantinople but in a Catholic country I would have thought it would be the altar panel but, at least when we saw it, it was behind the altar so during a service the only people seeing it would be the choir.  At any rate, it was a truly beautiful piece of artwork and I'm glad I got to see it.

The treasury has many, many reliquaries (storage places for saints' bones or bits of bone).  Some are quite large (saw one with a shin bone in it) and some are smaller.  But they were all made from gold for the most part and often jeweled, etc.  We saw one large round one where you couldn't see the bone and I had to say to Chris I wonder if it's a head.  It was a little higher and a little less wide than hatboxes (if they still make them).  A strange practice it seems to me but there it is.  They also had other ancient, ancient pieces - a fair amount of glass dating back to I think 1303?  And they had individual coins and two mounds of coins - one of which was found in metal can by a farmer in the 1900's.   So all in all, it was quite interesting and quite worth the small fee to enter.

This entry is about done and for anyone visiting my trip journal, I am sorry there are no photos but I write it mainly for my own diary of the trip.

We came back to the hotel for a breather, then went to a restaurant almost right across from our hotel which was packed every lunch and dinner time so we hoped that meant it was a good spot and it was. Rossopomodoro is what it's called and even though it is very crowded, we were seated fairly quickly which was nice.  We ended up both ordering a pizza because they have a wood-burning oven.  Chris got one with Italian sausage (we wondered if it would be different from ours and it was somewhat) and I forget what else was on his and he's asleep.  I had a bit of his and it was delicious - the sausage was smaller around and firmer and had a delicious flavor.  I ordered one with escarole, black olives and pine nuts of all things - there were no tomatoes and just Parmesan cheese.  It was very good also although very mild.  We were sitting right next to a table with a mom, dad and two boys who were clearly American and I finally thought of some excuse to say something to them and we ended up having a delightful little visit with them.  They were from Connecticut but the woman grew up in Kentucky.  The two boys were 15 and 13 and I was impressed with how comfortable they were talking with perfect strangers.  The 15-year old especially seemed very confident and assured.  I wouldn't be surprised if he went places because he had a wonderful smile and was very confident but polite.  Seemed genuinely happy to join in the old folks conversation.  And the 13-year old was clearly headed in the same direction.  So a nice family to run into.

After dinner, Chris wanted to show me a bookstore he had discovered on his trip here in February - The Gondola Bookstore.  There can't be another one like it anywhere.  Books piled everywhere in no discernible order and down the center of the store are various sized gondolas stuffed with books, the reason being that during aqua-alta (when the lagoon rises and floods all the walkways, basements, low buildings, etc.) the gondolas float and the books are saved.  I doubt if it's really a very efficient system and they also had stacks and stacks of books which had suffered severe water damage - not really sure why they would keep them and surprisingly enough, there was no mildew smell.  Anyway, it was all a bit of a hoot and obviously necessitated a stop for a cup of gelato on the way back to the hotel.

And that is it for Wednesday!!!  Thank heavens!  And I've already edited all of Thursday's photos and have them exported to my blog file.  I will probably work on it on the train to Florence tomorrow and get it finished up tomorrow night.  That will still leave me two days behind but that's all right.

Buona sera!

Wednesday in Venice

Okay, first off,  my sister let me know that my Tuesday post ended abruptly in mid-sentence.  I went back into it and added the rest of the pictures (only 3 or 4) with not nearly as nice descriptions, etc., but I can only say I had a full day Wednesday with 102 pictures to consider!  So if you revisit Tuesday, you can see the rest and I apologize for whatever happened. :)

So, now Wednesday - much of the day (in fact most) was spent in the area of the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's - two of the most famous and popular sites in Venice.  And I'm certainly glad we are visiting this late in the year - I think the summer months would be almost unbearable.  There are still a lot of tourists here now, but not enough to make you feel claustrophobic or cramped.

My camera told me I took 102 pictures but I've tried to whinny them down to a somewhat manageable amount.  But you know me and pictures - I just keep snapping away.

So, we started out Wednesday morning for the Doge's Palace which I wanted to see because of what I had read about it in the guide books.  The doges were appointed by the republic (the longest running republic in the world until Napoleon came along) as the head of government.  Being a republic, the people could get rid of them if the consensus was they weren't doing their job.  One doge was very much gotten rid of - they dragged him off and beheaded him.  They also removed every trace of him - there are no paintings, sculptures, etc., of him everywhere and if he was painted onto a wall, that painting was blacked out.  Anyway...here is the courtyard of the palace showing the giant staircase which is really lovely.  An interesting tidbit is that a LOT of the materials that make up this beautiful building were plundered from other countries, cities, whatever and Venice slowly built up their territories.  They would bring back statuary, pillars, marble, whatever and use it to build their city.

All the white is the palace - all the brickwork behind (and the domes) is St. Mark's Basilica - the building that for tourists is top of the list.  Most of my pictures today are from the palace, so here we go.

After we entered the building, the first few rooms we entered were rooms of pillars, cornices from pillars, some sculpted heads, etc., all originally part of the outside "decoration" of the palace but brought inside because of damage or whatever.  And for some reason I was enthralled with them -  I think it's wonderful they saved them and can't begin to imagine how much labor and time must have been involved in getting them inside. They were all different and each room had cards in 3 languages(!) saying what the cornices were and it was fun trying to match them with the information. The one above is either from one labeled "Solomon and seven wise men" or "Ancient kings and emperors"  There were 6 different pillars with cornices in that room.

I wish you could put notes on the photos in your camera because I knew I wouldn't remember these.  This particular pillar looks like there are women on it and there were a couple of mentions of women on the cards.  This one may be "Heads of western women".

This room had 38 pillars along various other "bits and pieces".  The cornice below shows the winged lion and the one below that is "Men with shaved heads" - who knows why that needed to be immortalized but it just tickled me.

 Have no idea what this one was - maybe "Men who were terrified"?  No, probably not...

 Now, this is the sculpted head of one of the doges and it is amazingly lifelike - all the wrinkles, sunken eyes, pouches, etc., vividly detailed.  I love it!

 Now we're back outside and getting some close-ups of the magnificent giant staircase - the staircase inside is called the Golden Staircase and you'll see why in a bit.

 The marble is so beautiful - it's not shiny and has what I think is really unusual coloring.

 This is looking up the staircase and every surface that isn't beautiful marble has been carved with attractive designs, the stairpost above being a good example along with the delicate carving on each and every stair riser.  They sure didn't stint!

 Above we have St. Theodore, Dragon Slayer and Warrior.  A number of the "parts" for this statue came from Venice's sacking of Constantinople in 1204.  Once assembled he was named St. Theodore and became the patron saint of Venice until St. Mark became patron saint of Venice

 And here's my "I'm really here" picture for this trip. :)

 Above is a corner section of the Doges' Palace with St. Mark behind and the corner of the Giant Staircase on the right.  We went inside this entrance and it led us to the Golden Staircase and with the picture below, you will see why it's called that.  There's a lot of gold leaf, probably some gold paint, and it is really breathtaking.  There are two flights of stairs, both with two of these vaulted, gold-leafed gorgeous ceilings.

 There is some sort of designer/arts thing going on in Venice and all over the city are sometimes strange, often huge, "installations" which will not be permanent - they'll be taken down and I don't know what happens to them then.  But they're both outside and inside buildings and it's been kind of disconcerting to be in museum rooms looking at beautiful artwork and come across something like the above with my master photographer son lying on the floor taking a picture of it.  A couple of them stopped me from being able to take the picture I wanted because they were between me and what I wanted to shoot.  But, there's plenty of other things I can take pictures of, that's for sure.

 A beautiful wood door in the palace...

 I've taken more pictures of ceilings than anything else, so far, I think.  They are so spectacular.

 This was in the justice section of the palace and is a slot through which citizens could tattletale on their neighbors or lodge complaints, etc.

  I think there was an armory section in the palace or at least a military section and I was really surprised to see these weapons which I'm pretty sure are automatic, repeating type guns.

 Above is a not great picture of the major council hall where the doges and up to 2000 members of the aristocracy met to do whatever that many people do in a meeting.  It is a huge room with a platform area under mural on this wall with chairs where most likely the doge sat surrounded by his major aides.  The rest of the room is bare floor space except for around the other three walls where there are built in seats for I think up to 100 people.  I haven't found the dimensions of the room anywhere yet but it mammoth.  The picture below will give you a bit of an idea as to its size..I'm standing close to the back wall and the people up near the front wall are very small.

 I was up high enough that I could get a closer shot of the fancy top corner of the Palace in front of the many domes of St. Mark's.

 And there's St. Mark's bell tower poking up above it all.

This is a photo of the Bridge of Sighs which connects the Doges' Palace on the left of the canal to the prison in the building on the right side of the canal.  It got the name from the idea that prisoners having been sentenced to prison probably sighed as they walked across and peered through the little openings for a last look at their beautiful Venezia.

 So we walked across the Bridge of Sighs and peered through a few of the openings and this was about as much of a picture as I could get.  The bridge you see in the distance with a lot of people is where they stand to take pictures of the Bridge of Sighs.

They have somehow managed a way to preserve panels of graffiti from the walls of the cells such as this one.  Some interesting artwork down there. :)

A hallway of cell doors...

The exercise courtyard.  This was totally enclosed on all four sides by the four levels of cells. The picture could only get in three floors.

Quite an ..ancient and massive door...

One cell showed the "beds" the prisoners were supplied with.

And this is a peek walking back across through the bridge to the Grand Canal side of the bridge with people again taking pictures of "our" bridge.

I really like this and this is my best picture of it.

I'm going to post this now and tomorrow will find out from Chris what else we did besides this.  These are all the pictures I have from Wednesday so it may be we just wandered around a bit although even then I'd think I'd have pictures.

Right now I have to say buona sera because it's way later than it should be and I have been wrestling with photos and my Mac AirBook photo program most of the night rather than catching up on posting.  Saturday we leave for Florence and I'll know way more about what I'm seeing there and maybe things will get easier.  I hope so.