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Upon arriving from Florence at the Santa Lucia train station in Venice, we rode a vaporetto from station #1
to the Accademia Bridge stop. From there it was just a couple of hundred feet to the Hotel Galleria
where we were staying.
The vaporetto ride to the hotel took us down the Grand Canal, the most important canal
in Venice and prime real estate from the 13th to 18th centuries.
Along the way we saw gondoliers, beautiful palaces, and the Rialto Bridge (top-right) which crosses the Grand Canal near its midpoint.
The Grand Canal is the primary transportation artery through Venice.
Many of the palaces on the Grand Canal were undergoing restorations.
This was the view of the Grand Canal in both directions from the top of the Accademia Bridge.
After checking into our room, we went to go see Venice's main attraction, the Piazza San Marco.
The Basilica San Marco, where the bones of St. Mark reside, lies at the east end of the Piazza San Marco.
Venice was a major trading power in the
9th century, but still needed a religious hook to become a real city of importance. Supposedly, a group of Venice merchants stole
the remains of St. Mark by wrapping them in pork,
so the Muslims in Alexandria
wouldn't detect their smuggling. The basilica, a mix of Byzantine and Roman styles, has existed in some form on this
site since 828.
The Venice Campanile replaced an ancient lighthouse that was constructed in the 9th century and eventually fell in 1902.
When it was rebuilt in 1912, an elevator was added, and this spared us the effort of climbing to the top (where we had
great views of Venice and its lagoon).
St. Mark's Square is famous for its large number of pigeons. Although the city adds birth control to the feed
sold in the square, there still seem to be plenty of pigeons. We saw this group surrounded by pigeons (upper-right) before we
ascended the tower, and we noticed that they were still mobbed after we had arrived (lower-left).
We walked around Venice, getting oriented and enjoying its beautiful canals. We also caught our first glimpse of the Doge's Palace (lower-right),
which we were planning on touring the next day.
On our first night in Venice we wandered around amazed by the city. We were glad we had brought our
tripod, so that we could capture some of its beauty.
The next day, after walking through St. Mark's Basilica, we went to the Doge's Palace. In the 7th-18th centuries, the Doge was the
elected chief magistrate and leader of the city of Venice. Although photography was not allowed in the Doge's
Palace, we took a couple of nice shots outside.
After the Doge's Palace we followed the primary shopping/tourist route to the Rialto Bridge.
Carnevale (Mardi Gras) has been celebrated
in Venice since at least the 13th century. Since at least the 15th century, a large part of the celebration has involved the wearing of masks, and
consequently mask shops can be found throughout Venice.
We wanted to spend some time just exploring Venice, so we wandered among the shops north of St. Mark's Square and
eventually found our way to the Rialto Bridge. We took some pictures from the top (above), came down the other side, and bought some fresh
strawberries and pineapple to help cool ourselves off.
On our walk back to our hotel from the Rialto bridge, we would pass near the Frari Church, which Rick Steves said
was his favorite example of seeing 'art in situ' in Venice. We arrived
there with just enough time to look around for a bit before it closed. This 'Assumption of Mary' (right)
in the Frari Church was painted by Titian, the famous Venice Renaissance painter.
The Frari Church has many famous works of art like Donatello's carving of 'John the Baptist' (left) and Bellini's
'Madonna and Child' (right).
Canova, the famous 18th century Italian sculptor, has only his heart buried here (left) in the Frari Church.
Titian also has an elaborate tomb (right) in the Frari Church.
Giovanni Pesaro, the one hundred and third Venetian Doge, died only seventeen months after his election in 1658. Despite his short term he has this elaborate funeral monument (left).
Titian painted the Pesaro Madonna (right). Jacopo Pesaro,
Bishop of Paphos in Cyprus and commander of the papal fleet that defeated the Turks in the Battle of
St. Maura (1502), commissioned the painting and is shown kneeling before the Madonna in the foreground.
While walking around Venice, we saw a few girls playing 'hide and seek'. We tried to give this girl a hint as to where
her friends where hiding, but we think our Italian was so bad that we just confused her.
When we were planning our trip to Italy, we tried to keep our hotel rooms under 100EUR a night, but we made an exception for the room in Venice. We
really wanted a room with a nice view on the Grand Canal, and we couldn't find anything in that price range.
We spent a little bit more, and we were rewarded with a great room and this beautiful view (left).
One advantage to staying overnight in Venice is the freedom to go visit the crowded touristy areas after they have been abandoned
by the day-trippers. We loved walking through the Piazza San Marco at night listening to the two 'dueling' orchestras competing for customers.
After dinner, we wandered down the canals of Venice, taking pictures with our mini-tripod, including
one looking over the Accademia in each direction (bottom).
Although we were a few weeks too early to see Biennale, the front desk of our hotel recommend
Sequence 1, a nearby modern art exhibit.
After 'Sequence 1' we walked to Santa Elena where Biennale would be held in the upcoming weeks.
Along the way we saw these views of San Giorgio Maggiore across the lagoon from Venice.
Santa Elena felt different from the rest of Venice. It was originally separated by an arm of the Venetian Lagoon,
but the island has since been expanded to fill in the gap and is linked to Venice with three bridges.
Santa Elena consists primarily of residential areas and a large park. We wandered through the its streets, enjoying the chance to experience a part of
Venice almost untouched by tourist dollars.
It was unseasonably hot, and we were lured in by one of the ubiquitous gelato shops. We stopped at
San Giorgio's Gelateria on Via Giuseppe Garibaldi. We were glad we did, because the gelato we had was
our favorite in all of Italy. We tried to convey this in Italian to the owner, who happily posed for a picture (left).
We left Santa Elena with enough time to squeeze in the Guggenheim before dinner if we hurried.
Although photography was not allowed inside, we took some pictures in the sculpture garden. Peggy Guggenheim is buried in this garden with her pets by her side (upper-left).
In the morning, we checked out of our hotel and walked down to the Grand Canal to catch our water taxi. The water taxi was a great way to end our trip in Venice.
It was sad to say goodbye, but we were exhausted and excited to be heading home22. We passed a large outdoor sculpture (upper-right) made from a "jumble of stainless-steel pots,
vessels and cooking utensils" (Very Hungry God by Subodh Gupt) that was part of the 'Sequence 1' exhibit.
We noticed several buildings with these giant purple alligators attached (left). We later determined that they heralded the beginning of Biennale.
Our ride out of town took us through a less seen side of Venice. More of the buildings were falling apart or were moldy and rotting on their ground floor.
Our last view of Venice. Arrivederci Bella...
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