Dodging Pigeons ... and tourists ... at San Marco

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My day started quite slowly. In the last few weeks, I have done quite a lot of coming and going on the trains that I am appreciating being in just one place for a few days.

As I was having breakfast, I was thinking that I am probably not eating enough of certain things like vegetables. It is virtually impossible to eat completely healthy on a trip like this. What I have been eating is this. Nutella … I didn’t realize that this was so popular in Europe. It is everywhere and absolutely divine on a croissant!! I actually saw a cookbook dedicated to the chocolate hazelnut wonder. Proscuttio … you would think that this stuff was being discontinued and that I was on my last chance to eat it. Espresso … I will have to have a serious detox when I get home. I will definitely have to renew my allegiance to Davids Tea when I get back. Wine … again another detox when I get home although it is probably helping my cholesterol level … with all of the cheese that I am also eating this too may become a concern!! Orange Fanta … I don’t know what it is about it but that is what I crave when it is incredibly hot and humid … which it seems is always when I travel. Cheese … oh yeah I mentioned cheese before. Gelato … like it is going out of style but then again judging from the amount of people that I see with cones on any given day ... there are others out there that share my love of a good gelato! And it's hot so ... gelato is key!

Today would be the day that I tackled Piazza San Marco. Huge tourists attractions like that scare me … that may not be the right word but I always tend to find them somewhat unpleasant because they are so crowded. And let’s face it … tourists are insane! There are some hard core folks out there.

I actually started with the Palazzo Ducale. The main part of the visit is the Doge’s Apartments which takes you through room after room. The ones that stood out for me were the Shield Room which had these enormous globes and the room was frescoed with antique maps. I love maps. The ceilings and chandeliers in many of the rooms were just incredibly ornate and quite phenomenal. You practically spend a good portion of the visit just looking up! The visit then continues with the Armoury which is a display of swords, shields and full armours. I will say it again but I just find the armours and shields really fascinating. You then make way down the prison which is underground. You essentially wind your way through these narrow corridors which ultimately ends to the Ponte dei Sospiri (the Bridge of Sighs) which is the path the condemned prisoners would take as they entered this 16th century prison.

Once I finished my visit at the Palazzo Ducale, I got in the long line to enter the Basilica San Marco. The line was moving nicely so the wait was actually quite short. Already from the outside, you can see some of the mosaic work. Thousands of tiny little tiles that make up these beautiful scenes. The basilica itself is absolutely stunning. It is jaw droppingly stunning. Because the church itself is so big, it is even difficult to see that all of the figures on the walls are actually mosaics made with these small tiles. The amount of work that has gone into this is incredible.

What is not incredible though are the crowds. They are insane and it just makes the whole experience so unpleasant. Don’t get me wrong … this is definitely a must see and I feel quite fortunate to even have the chance … but tourists … ugh. Just thinking back it makes me relive the trauma!!

So after that whole debacle, I needed to sit. I made my way around the little shops that surround the Piazza and found a quiet step to sit on and just look at people go by. There are tons of them so the people watching is really good! What caught my attention was there was this woman who was sitting there doing a small watercolour of the Basilica.

I then entered the Museo Correr. This museum is made up of a series of museums actually and the ticket for the Palazzo Ducale also gives you access to this portion as well. The visit starts with a few rooms that contain artwork and then you move to a series of rooms that touch upon the Venetian history and culture. There are libraries filled with antique books. There are enormous chandeliers made from Murano glass. They also have an almost complete set of coins produced by the Republic of Venice that start in 829 and goes all the way to 1979. There is a section of Venice at war so that has to include swords, armours and shields. There was also a section filled with photographs that were taken in the late 19th century. Part of those photographs included a whole series that were dedicated to the different trades. So it was a portrait of a doctor, a baker, a teacher, a shoemaker, a glass blower and on and on.

After a lovely lunch of pasta e fagioli soup (yum!!), I just kind of walked around with no real purpose and came upon the Gran Teatro La Fenice. I had had a chat with a Quebec couple on one of the vaporettos and they had suggested the visit so in I went. La Fenice actually stands for a phoenix … as in phoenix rising from the ashes. An appropriate name considering that the theatre burned down in 1835 and again 1996 and has been rebuilt to its original design both times. The theater proper is stunning. There is a maximum capacity of 1126 so it is relatively small but the décor is just beautiful. It’s intricate and delicate. In all, for the last reconstruction there were one million hours of work put into it and there are 12 thousand pounds worth of gold leafing. I was quite fortunate that when I made my way into one of the boxes that there was a rehearsal taking place. The rehearsal was for the opera Lucia di Lammermoor. I am not a huge opera fan but you cannot deny that those are some spectacular voices so to get a chance to sit in on the rehearsal was quite a treat. One woman hit notes that I did not even know existed! I was riveted. A sidenote for my friend Anik ... a little better than the opera that we saw in Havana ... no dogs barking backstage!!

So my aimless wandering continued and I landed this time in the very small Museo della Musica. This a free entrance and the museum was actually an old church. There was a display showing the history of Vivaldi who was born in Venice. There were also antique violins, cellos, harps, oboes and others. There was also a display that showed how a violin is actually made … didn’t realize that it was that intricate. A nice little find!

So again … more wandering with no purpose and I stumbled upon another great find. It was called L’Acqua e La Luce: Fotografia a Venezia. It was a series of approximately 100 photos of Venice that dated all the way back to the late 19th century. It was fun to see some of the well known places of Venice and to see how little they had changed. There was also a film running in a small side room. It was a series of short films that just ran in a loop. There were a couple of parts that looked familiar … they had been shot by the Lumiere brothers … I had actually seen some of the footage at the Musee Lumiere in Lyon.

And so ended a very productive day in Venice!

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Photos

4 Mail Service
Notice the bundles of mail in the back

10 Called Lunar Year
Made up of 2700 balls of Murano glass

18 Bridge of Sighs
Sadly being renovated