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Published: April 2nd 2014
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To avoid two blogs I’ve incorporated my comments in blue into Ann’s comments .
It is hard to believe that our 6 weeks in Italy is almost over. What a blessing God gave us at this time in our lives. We have packed quite a bit into this last week. Last Thursday we went to the very well know Uffizi Museum. We saw Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Michelangelo’s Holy Family. Most of the paintings were from Florence masters with just a few foreigners represented. The periods of art in this museum are not my favorites so we checked out the sculptures and left. The museum starts on the 2
nd floor and winds back down to the ground floor. As you would expect, it is filled famous paintings and sculptures. I’m sure you’re not surprised I didn’t see much I liked there. However, to show that I was there and walked through it I can verify that to start the tour you walk up 126 steps separated by 4 landings (yes I counted them). After the museum we walked around Florence, had some lunch at Za-Za again and headed back to the school.
Friday we
got up early and caught the rapido “fast” train to Venice. What a treat.
It is a two hour trip by “fast” train and it was fast. We cruised at speeds of 170 kmh (105.7 mph) and reached speeds of 300 kmh (186 mph). It was a smooth ride and didn’t seem like we were going any faster than 75 or 80 mph. We took, Peggy, one of our fellow workers with us. Peggy is a beautiful 72 year old woman who had never left the U.S. and had never ridden on a train. The whole trip was a joy watching her light up with each new experience. All she could say was WOW!
Venice was great. The train station is on the Grand Canal so when we exited the station we were right where we needed to be to catch our water bus. Ann did a great job, as usual, in getting us to our pensione, a family-run hotel. We started our exploration just minutes after we got to Venice and checked in to our 800 year old pensione. The Pensonie Guerrato was built in 1288 and restored in 1985 and is very comfortable. We were near
the famous Rialto Bridge, one of only 3 or 4 bridges that cross the Grand Canal. Our first destination was San Marco. We started with the Basilica; I am not sure why it is not called a Cathedral. (I will be quoting some of our guide books to describe what we saw because it says it much better than I could and I will use quotation marks.)
The Basilica “is nothing less than a holy shrine of the Venetian state. An ancient law decreed that all merchants trading in the East had to bring back from each of their voyages a new embellishment for St. Mark’s. The result is a glittering robbers’ den, the only church in Christendom that would not look out of place in Xanadu”. Saint Mark is supposed to be buried here. The church is very different than any others we saw. It was built in 1094. It is filled with beautiful mosaics with lots of gold. Besides the mosaics there is a quartet of 4 bronze horses that date between the 3
rd century BC and the 2
nd century AD. These “were the most powerful symbols of the Venetian Republic, part of the ‘triumphal quadriga’ taken
Our Pensione
Ann led us right to the front door by Constantine the Great from Chios to grace the Hippodrome of his new city, only to be carried off in turn by the artful Doge Dandolo in 1204 Sack of Constantinople.” I think they are glorious. The horses were on top of the church but now reside in the museum because of pigeons and pollution.
Next to the Basilica is the Doge’s palace, the Doge was the “ruling duke of the most powerful half-acre in Europe for 400 years.” Over the canal between the doge’s palace and the prison is the Bridge of Sighs. The story is that when a condemned prisoner passed over the bridge he would take one last look at freedom and sigh.
We were told of a church in Venice by Retta, one of the workers in our group, that she said was worth visiting. So we made the effort to find it. Boy, am I glad we did. It is now my favorite church in Venice and one of the nicest I’ve visited on this trip. The name of the church is the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari. (1330-1469). This beautiful church has a wood statue of John the Baptist by
Donatello, the most human (as opposed to religious) painting of the Madonna and Child by Bellini I have seen and a couple of paintings by the artist Titian. After visiting this church I would not look at any other church because I didn’t want to corrupt my memory of this church with details form other churches. Anyone visiting Venice, this is a “must see”. I know that many if not most of you are not interested in churches but I was thinking that maybe one day you might be on “Jeopardy” and you might get a question about Venice. Right now the only thing propping up Venice is petrified pilings and tourists. It has lost half of its population in the last 30 years. “Even the most hopeful city planners worry that in a few decades Venice will not be a city at all, but a museum, a cultural theme park, a decaying Disneyland for adults.” I hope they are wrong.
The rest of the time we spent walking the streets and crossing the canals of Venice. As you can see from the picture of us on the Grand Canal we took time to have coffee, pastry, gelatos and
John the Baptist
Donatello 1438. Wooden. Depicted gaunt due to diet of locust and honey good food. This is one place that Mike and I would return to if given the chance.
Sunday it was up and off to church, then to the town of Lucca. We tried to visit Lucca earlier but were rained out. On the way we stopped at a Trattoria, a small family owned restaurant, called the Blue Lagoon where we had lunch. They served special dishes that we hadn’t seen anyplace else and it was delicious.
Monday it was back to school and working with our students. I led the Monday night bible study on Romans 15 & 16. Tuesday, we visited the “Villa”. This is one of the places Harding students come for a semester abroad. (Paige Spiller came here.) The villa was built in 1492, yes, the same year Columbus sailed the ocean the blue. The property has several olive groves and produces its own olive oil which we were able to sample at lunch. I have included several pictures. Thursday will be one more trip into Florence, a coffee and pastry and then return home. This will be our last blog as we leave for home on Friday.
I hope you have enjoyed traveling
with us. Thank you for your comments.
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Linda Hill
non-member comment
Wonderful Trip
Thank you so much for sharing it all. We are looking forward to your being back in Virginia. Love Linda