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Published: November 27th 2007
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Beautiful day here in Venice. A little chilly but pretty comfortable sweatshirt weather. I thought for awhile it might rain but then blew over so that was good. Started out the day meandering my way down to St. Mark’s. There were some bridges I wanted some photos of so made my way that route. I found Venice’s version of a leaning tower and snapped a couple of photos. (Actually, they have several leaning towers as a result of the sinking of the islands over the centuries.)
I had purchased a Church pass which allowed me to get into a number of churches without paying the individual fees. If you’re a tourist, you typically pay 2.5-5 euros per church. If you’re visiting the church for services, etc. you don’t pay anything. Kind of an honor system. With an 8 euro church pass, no guilt and lots of churches to visit if you want to. Although I’m not particularly religious, I always enjoy visiting churches because they so often are the oldest and most beautifully built buildings in a community.
Along the way to St. Mark’s, I also visited the churches of Maria Formosa and also Giovanni in Bragora. After that,
I was at St. Mark’s where I grabbed a waterbus over to San Giorgio which is located on an island separate from the main part of Venice and directly across from St. Mark’s. Am loving the waterbus. Giorgio is a fairly large sized church for Venice. It has a campanile with it which was unfortunately closed. You’ll see in the pictures that this was when it looked like a storm was rolling in which did not come to be. The inside of San Giorgio is high, high ceilings with white walls. Not very ornate at all. Very peaceful as a result than when things get too crazy and overly ornate. It was built from about 1565-1610.
I then grabbed the waterbus again and after a stop at Zitelle, I made my way to Zaterre stop. Located there is the Santa Maria del Rosario Church/Gesusati. This is a very Baroque style church of smaller size. It was one of my favorites of the day. The interior columns and walls are white and shades of light and dark gray. The altar was made of dark brown and dark blue marble with beautifully painted ceilings. Also had a number of sculptures. Very
pretty and very tasteful. Not allowed to take pictures, however. I then crossed the Ponte Academia Bridge which crosses the Grand Canal. Not as large or fancy as the Rialto but I can say that I did.
After crossing to the other side of Venice, I proceeded to visit the churches of San Stephano, San Mose and San Maria del Giglio. All were very small churches and photos not allowed inside. The San Maria del Giglio has an extremely ornate outside in Baroque style while San Stephano was very low key with a brick exterior and just a few statues on the top. It was then nearing lunch so I made my way to the Rialto to enjoy lunch in that area. After a plate of ravioli and some tiramisu, I headed off to see some more churches located in that area.
I visited the San Giovanni, San Polo, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari and San Rocco. The Giovanni and Polo are small churches. The Polo looks very weathered on the inside with small columns. It was built in the 9th Century so that could explain why! It also has paintings representing the 14 stations of the cross
in a chapel located off the main church. The paintings are very powerful and more graphic than you normally see. I also noticed that it had the same orange and off white marble tile that several churches I had seen today had. Not sure why that was.
The Frari is a very large church. One of the larger in Venice. It was built in the 14th Century by the Franciscan Friars. Very tall ceilings and not overly ornate. In an off chapel, it has an altar of relics which is something I have not ever seen before. It also has amazing woodwork in the are surrounding the pews by the altar.
Along the way today I also saw the exteriors of a couple famous palazzos (palaces) for Venice. One was Palazzo Barbarigo. Built in the 15th century but remodeled over the years until the 17th, it has a very unique outside for Venice. Another was Ca da Mosto which still retains features from the 16th century.
Haven't done much for shopping. I'm not a huge shopper anyway but the low value of the US dollar makes it pretty depressing to shop a whole lot so have concentrated
my time on site seeing and sipping cappaccinos.
This city is an amateur photographer’s dream. The buildings are so unique and cover such different styles. No two are alike. Combine that with bridges and water and it’s hard to take bad pictures! Although I certainly succeed!
Tomorrow…I’ll be visiting a few museums. A number of the private collections were closed today which is why my schedule was heavy on the churches. Last day in Venice tomorrow and last day of my vacation.
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Luis E. Estrada
Great Images with Character!
I like very much all of your pictures in this blog. Cloudy skies typically compel people not to take any pictures, but you used the rain clouds to your advantage and gave your images an almost abstract quality. Great work!