Venetian Mosaic

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Geo: 45.4345, 12.3384

When you think of Italians, you probably think of food ... and lots of it. Great big family dinners;
lunches substantial enough to require a nap afterwards. Breakfast, however, is almost treated as an afterthought. This is my fourth time in Italy, and I'm positive I've been served the same breakfast in each hotel: something that looks like a croissant but that has an odd apricot-y sort of flavor; a plain white roll; some spreads to mask the flavor; and juice or coffee. After the meat/cheese/egg/good bread/muesli/yogurt breakfasts we've had in the Netherlands, Germany
and Austria, an Italian breakfast is quite a letdown. However, it fills the tank, and off you go.

It wasn't raining when we left the hotel, but it soon started up. And then it would stop. And as soon as I could get my umbrella back into its little case, the rain would start up again. The cobblestone streets are, of course, uneven, so puddles form everywhere. The Venetians wear knee-high boots and think nothing of all the water. Until the acqua alta, that is. In fact, in the center of the Piazza San Marco are some low-lying drains that last night had water bubbling up out of them. This is the beginning of the acqua alta. You can see the tables and planks waiting to be put to use in each campo and along some of the larger streets. Thank heaven we will be long gone before it becomes a problem.

We were given a walking tour of Venice by Elisabetta, a local guide. She spoke English very well, but with a very strong accent, and she spoke sooooo quickly that I probably only caught about five percent of what she said. Plus, with the rain and my damp feet and this damn cough, I was feeling pretty miserable and didn't put a whole lot of effort into listening to her. Once we got in out of the rain at a mask maker's shop, however, I understood everything, and it was all very interesting. The lady showed us how she makes a mask, and then she showed us the various traditional types of Carnevale mask. Bob modeled them all for us. Elisabetta told
us that the Venetians don't much care for Carnevale anymore because it has turned into a huge party that's not their huge party. She said that if you see someone wearing a mask in Venice
during Carnevale, it is not a Venetian: it is a French person. Apparently, they stand on top of the bridges and vogue. And then they go to thousand-euro-a-plate dinners and balls. It is no longer
Venetian, but the Venetians still supply the masks!

After the walking tour, we were set free till about 8:30 tomorrow morning. I went along with Judy, Lisa, Jan, Amy, Karen and John to see the Frari Church and the Scuola San Rocco, both of which were on my to-do list anyway. Both are on the other side of the Grand Canal. The Frari is a large church with a beautiful choir stall and several lavish monuments, including Titian's tomb. There was also a statue of Mary with photos of children stacked at the base. My Italian isn't good enough, but I believe the offering box indicated that it was for Masses for the deceased. And there were so many children's photos; it made me quite sad.

After the Frari we all went to lunch at a nearby bar. I had a prosciutto and cheese sandwich that was really tasty. Also an aperitif called gingerino. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but it had a slightly orangey flavor and it was a little bitter; not at all unpleasant.

And then we went to the Scuola San Rocco. We weren't really sure what to expect, but it was amazing. It is a former meeting hall filled with Tintoretto paintings. There's one of the Annunciation (and I'm not sure if it was a Tintoretto) in which Mary looked older than she's usually depicted, and she's actually kind of mannish. But rather than that accepting, complacent look she usually has in Annunciation paintings, she's got this surprised, “Holy crap! Angels!” look on her face. Because seriously: if you were minding your business and suddenly an angel and a bunch of cherubim showed up and said “Guess what,” wouldn't you kind of freak out a little bit?

The upper floor of the Scuola was also incredible. The ceiling was painted to within an inch of its life, and you have to use special mirrors so that you can really see the art. The stalls all around the room were wooden and beautifully carved. One was carved to look like a bookshelf with old
books on it (well, they probably didn't seem old to the woodcarver), and I kind of fell in love with it. The whole was just incredible, and I think it was seven euros well spent.

We decided that it was late enough in the afternoon to walk back to San Marco, so we set
off. And on the way we ran across Grom, which makes fresh gelato with all-natural ingredients. When it was my turn to order, I decided I was thirsty, so I ordered a frappe with dark chocolate gelato. Talk about good!

At San Marco, most of the cruise shippers had gone back to their ships, so we only had to wait in line for about two minutes before entering the church. It has 4,750 square yards of Byzantine mosaics inside, all glowing softly in the light that comes in through the high windows. The
background mosaics are gold, which creates an opulent atmosphere. Some of the saints were wearing blue robes, and the blue was the most gorgeous color I've ever seen. I can't even describe it. Perhaps lapis lazuli comes closest, but it was even more beautiful than that.
The mosaics are the main attraction in the church (even the floors are mosaics), and there's not a whole lot else to see. There is, however, a museum where you can see some mosaics up close. There's also a balcony that overlooks Piazza San Marco, and you can get right up close to the four bronze horses over the main door to the church. The original horses are inside in the museum, and they are very special. They were made during the days of Alexander the Great, were stolen by Nero, were further stolen by Constantine, were stolen yet again by Crusaders who brought them to Venice, were stolen once more by Napoleon and taken to Paris, and then finally returned to Venice when Napoleon fell from power.

Judy and I decided after that that we were tired, so we walked back to the hotel via a couple of glass shops. In one I bought a Murano glass figure of a cat with a goldfish in his tummy, and in the other one Judy picked up what she thought was a tumbler but which turned out to be a lidded box, and the lid fell off and crashed into a bunch of other stuff. It made a tremendous noise; my back was turned at the time, and I wasn't sure what had happened. Amazingly, nothing broke or was chipped or anything. The lady in the store was quite nice about it, and Judy apologized approximately 97 times. She has vowed not to go into any more glass shops.

At 6:00, I was supposed to meet Reid, Sheree, Bob, Sandy and Katie for a cicchetti crawl, but Sheree's directions as to where to meet them were so confusing that I never did find them. I went back to the hotel with the idea that I would lie down for a while and then go back out, but
Judy, Ann, Jan, Amy, Jim and Valarie were in the lobby when I got back there, so I went to dinner with them. We ate at an ostaria across the Grand Canal. I had linguini with gorgonzola and walnuts. Totally yum! And on the way back to the hotel after dinner, we stopped for gelato (naturally) and I got a scoop of gianduia – sort of a chocolate-hazelnut flavor.

And now I'm all worn out and my hair has puffed up to ridiculous proportions because of the humidity. But at least I'm warm and dry.

(I've looked ahead at Florence and Rome to see whether our hotels will have wi-fi. The Florence hotel says it has an Internet point (which means one old computer in the lobby), and the Rome hotel doesn't say anything at all about wi-fi or Internet. So, there's a chance I won't be able to
post for a few days.)

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Photos

The winged lion
Symbol of Venice and of St. Mark

Comments

[Kate Szyperski]

Hey Teresa!Sorry to hear you are feeling under the weather. No fair to be sick when you're on vacation and doing walking tours!! I loved the pictures of the castles in the alps!! I need to get there! And it's so fun to see your photos a
nd stuff from Venice since I've actually been there! And since I've been to Florence and Rome, too, I can't wait to find out where you go that I've been. It's fun to be able to picture in my head the places you are!! Feel better!