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lillibetThe first day of our second year of marriage...
After another less-than-inspiring hotel breakfast, we went to stand in line for the Basilica di San Marco. From the outside it's a remarkable, Byzantine-style pile of golden domes. From the inside it's even more stunning. Every bit of the ceiling is covered in gold mosaics, dating from the 11th century up through the Renaissance, providing a concise history of Western religious iconography. We wound our way up through the church to view the altarpiece, a stunning conglomeration of golden panels decorated with paintings of the saints and many precious and semi-precious stones. Before leaving the church we climbed up to the Loggia del Cavalli, the balcony over the atrium, from which the four bronze horses look down on the crowds of the piazza. These horses are copies of the 4th-century originals, looted during the Fourth Crusade, which are housed in the museum just inside from the balcony. We were glad we had climbed up, since that gave us a much closer perspective on the mosaics both inside and out.
Since we couldn't climb the domes of St. Mark's, we headed up the Campanile. Unlike the towers in Florence, this belltower has a lift! The view of the city and the lagoon was lovely and the weather was perfectly clear. Upon returning to ground level, we grabbed some pannini for lunch. The sun was getting pretty strong and the sight of lovely lacy parasols was too much to resist, so we bought one at a stand by the vaparetto stop where we caught a boat over to the island of Murano.
Murano is the site of the famous glass-making foundries of Venice. They were moved out of the city proper in the 16th century, both to protect the city from the risk of fire and from the industrial espionage trying to discover the secret methods of the Venetian artisans. We had a pleasant ride across the lagoon and found the Museo di Arte Vetraria, which explained the basic steps of glass-making and the distinctive types of Venetian glass, including the millefiore style, where glass rods are fused together to form patterned rods that can then be sliced to expose their patterns. There is also a section giving an historical perspective on the development of styles through the centuries that had many lovely and interesting pieces.
From the museum we wandered along the canals lined with shops selling glass items. We must have passed by over a hundred shops, but just couldn't find anything we liked as much as the pieces we had seen at the museum and the showroom next to our hotel. So we turned and walked back to the museum, where we bought three pieces by Carlo Moretti...he does vases and bowls in solid saturate colors that are a different color inside. It had started to cloud up as we got back to the museum and by the time we got back on the vaporetto it was beginning to rain. Back in the Piazza San Marco, it was pouring. We had planned to catch a walking tour of the Ghetto, the first one in Europe, but that didn't seem like such a fun prospect in the rain. Instead we went back to the hotel and bought some more glass at the showroom across the landing and then talked to Beckie and steve and watched CNN to catch up on the news. I called the booking agency in Rome to confirm our arrival the next day and was told that everything was set. Finally we napped until it was time for dinner.
We took the recommendation of our desk clerk and ended up probably regretting it. He sent us to Aciugheta, about ten minutes away, where we started by splitting a pizza, an order of "Tidbits of the Doge" (a plate of octopus, scallops, shrimp, crayfish and a scallop wrapped in bacon), and a bowl of fish soup, which this time turned out to be a garlicky broth with clams, mussels and squid. Jason had the salmon steak, which despite the menus claims to freshness, tasted quite frozen. I had a fillet steak which was fine, if not especially notable.
We had thought to take the vaporetto a couple of stops down the canal, but the station was very crowded and it wasn't raining at the moment, so we decided to walk. This gave us the opportunity to enjoy the lightning out across the lagoon. Our destination was the internet cafe in Campo San Stefano, where we were able to log on and catch up with email and news. I had disturbing mail from the booking agency in Rome, seemingly mailed before I spoke with them that afternoon, telling me that our flat was not available and they'd have to move us to a different place that didn't sound as conveniently located or appointed. I was troubled by this, but decided the better part of valor in this case was to ignore the message.
It still wasn't raining when we left the cafe, but there were enormous puddles in the Piazza San Marco that forced us to detour a bit to reach the bridge to our hotel. Jason had noticed earlier in the day that there seemed to be artificial puddles in the piazza, created by water bubbling up through spouts in a few paving stones and these seemed to have gotten out of control. There were bands playing under awnings along the arcades in front of the coffee houses and I was almost inspired to drag Jason out into the middle to dance with me, but the combination of huge puddles and rain ponchos deterred me and we simply returned to the hotel to pack and sleep.
Oh! I forgot to mention that at the end of our walk on Sunday morning we ended up back in the Piazza San Marco and I fulfilled a promise to my sister, Beckie, and fed the pigeons there. With a dollar bag of corn in my hand, I was their queen of the moment. Jason got some fun pictures of me besieged by birds. Their claws were somewhat sharp and I really didn't like having them on my head, but it was exhilarating at the same time. I can understand why Mom didn't want to let Beckie do it when she was seven, but it was an experience I'm very glad to have had.
Next, running for Rome...
After another less-than-inspiring hotel breakfast, we went to stand in line for the Basilica di San Marco. From the outside it's a remarkable, Byzantine-style pile of golden domes. From the inside it's even more stunning. Every bit of the ceiling is covered in gold mosaics, dating from the 11th century up through the Renaissance, providing a concise history of Western religious iconography. We wound our way up through the church to view the altarpiece, a stunning conglomeration of golden panels decorated with paintings of the saints and many precious and semi-precious stones. Before leaving the church we climbed up to the Loggia del Cavalli, the balcony over the atrium, from which the four bronze horses look down on the crowds of the piazza. These horses are copies of the 4th-century originals, looted during the Fourth Crusade, which are housed in the museum just inside from the balcony. We were glad we had climbed up, since that gave us a much closer perspective on the mosaics both inside and out.
Since we couldn't climb the domes of St. Mark's, we headed up the Campanile. Unlike the towers in Florence, this belltower has a lift! The view of the city and the lagoon was lovely and the weather was perfectly clear. Upon returning to ground level, we grabbed some pannini for lunch. The sun was getting pretty strong and the sight of lovely lacy parasols was too much to resist, so we bought one at a stand by the vaparetto stop where we caught a boat over to the island of Murano.
Murano is the site of the famous glass-making foundries of Venice. They were moved out of the city proper in the 16th century, both to protect the city from the risk of fire and from the industrial espionage trying to discover the secret methods of the Venetian artisans. We had a pleasant ride across the lagoon and found the Museo di Arte Vetraria, which explained the basic steps of glass-making and the distinctive types of Venetian glass, including the millefiore style, where glass rods are fused together to form patterned rods that can then be sliced to expose their patterns. There is also a section giving an historical perspective on the development of styles through the centuries that had many lovely and interesting pieces.
From the museum we wandered along the canals lined with shops selling glass items. We must have passed by over a hundred shops, but just couldn't find anything we liked as much as the pieces we had seen at the museum and the showroom next to our hotel. So we turned and walked back to the museum, where we bought three pieces by Carlo Moretti...he does vases and bowls in solid saturate colors that are a different color inside. It had started to cloud up as we got back to the museum and by the time we got back on the vaporetto it was beginning to rain. Back in the Piazza San Marco, it was pouring. We had planned to catch a walking tour of the Ghetto, the first one in Europe, but that didn't seem like such a fun prospect in the rain. Instead we went back to the hotel and bought some more glass at the showroom across the landing and then talked to Beckie and steve and watched CNN to catch up on the news. I called the booking agency in Rome to confirm our arrival the next day and was told that everything was set. Finally we napped until it was time for dinner.
We took the recommendation of our desk clerk and ended up probably regretting it. He sent us to Aciugheta, about ten minutes away, where we started by splitting a pizza, an order of "Tidbits of the Doge" (a plate of octopus, scallops, shrimp, crayfish and a scallop wrapped in bacon), and a bowl of fish soup, which this time turned out to be a garlicky broth with clams, mussels and squid. Jason had the salmon steak, which despite the menus claims to freshness, tasted quite frozen. I had a fillet steak which was fine, if not especially notable.
We had thought to take the vaporetto a couple of stops down the canal, but the station was very crowded and it wasn't raining at the moment, so we decided to walk. This gave us the opportunity to enjoy the lightning out across the lagoon. Our destination was the internet cafe in Campo San Stefano, where we were able to log on and catch up with email and news. I had disturbing mail from the booking agency in Rome, seemingly mailed before I spoke with them that afternoon, telling me that our flat was not available and they'd have to move us to a different place that didn't sound as conveniently located or appointed. I was troubled by this, but decided the better part of valor in this case was to ignore the message.
It still wasn't raining when we left the cafe, but there were enormous puddles in the Piazza San Marco that forced us to detour a bit to reach the bridge to our hotel. Jason had noticed earlier in the day that there seemed to be artificial puddles in the piazza, created by water bubbling up through spouts in a few paving stones and these seemed to have gotten out of control. There were bands playing under awnings along the arcades in front of the coffee houses and I was almost inspired to drag Jason out into the middle to dance with me, but the combination of huge puddles and rain ponchos deterred me and we simply returned to the hotel to pack and sleep.
Oh! I forgot to mention that at the end of our walk on Sunday morning we ended up back in the Piazza San Marco and I fulfilled a promise to my sister, Beckie, and fed the pigeons there. With a dollar bag of corn in my hand, I was their queen of the moment. Jason got some fun pictures of me besieged by birds. Their claws were somewhat sharp and I really didn't like having them on my head, but it was exhilarating at the same time. I can understand why Mom didn't want to let Beckie do it when she was seven, but it was an experience I'm very glad to have had.
Next, running for Rome...
