Last Day in Venice

Saturday morning I noticed this garbage boat. It has a compactor, just like a garbage truck would!



I helped Linda get her luggage to the car area where she was meeting with her friend Andrea. I noticed this sign, the tide level sign! High tide was coming, bringing more acqua alta!



I took a little spin around the city before heading to my train. I stopped at the Rialto market, where the acqua alta was already coming up into the market.



There's a few different areas of the market, including knickknacks and fruits and vegetables, but the most famous is probably the fish market. I've never been when the market was in full swing before, so it was cool to see all that out.



The canals were pretty busy. I assume that more of these rowing crews were out because it was Saturday. It seems to be a popular sporting activity for Venetians. I could see myself doing this!



I noticed that the garbage and recycling boats often had mascots on their front tie posts. Probably pulled out of the garbage... Besides this cows I saw a few teddy bears!



And of course, there were gondolas everywhere. It was an especially busy day for them. Gondola tip: we got offered a low priced gondola ride around 6pm. They gondolier offered us a good price since it was going to be his last ride of the day and he just wanted to find someone... He offered us a ride for 30 Euros, and that is actually a really good price. So take that tip on your next trip to Venice!

Friday Part II

We made it to the Guggenheim. It's actually a pretty small museum, but really nice. Lots of popular artists of the day. This is the Calder piece that Peggy had over her bed... They were also hosting a collection of Futurist art in the main gallery area. The sculpture garden was a hit for us.



It's not far to Santa Maria delle Salute, so we headed there on our way back to Saint Mark's. This altar had wrapped columns, the only ones in the church...



Here we are with the view from in front of the church.



In Saint Mark's, we spent a little more time checking out the Zodiac clock. I did a little bit of reading about the clock, which is just an awesome thing.



On our way back to the hotel to freshen up, we passed this awesome street lamp of a dragon holding a ball of umbrellas. Disappointingly, it didn't light up at night... I guess it needs a new bulb.



For dinner, we met up with Roger and Phyllis, who Linda goes to ACT with in San Francisco. We went to Acqua Pazza, which was great. I had pasta with fresh artichoke hearts, it was right up my alley. And the complimentary bruschetta was delicious. And then we were off to Musica a Palazzo, the Love Duets program. Another great evening...

On our way home we passed this "Wheel of Gelato" on one of the squares... We didn't get any gelato, but next time. Oh, next time...

Friday in Venice

This was one of the views from our room at the Acqua Palace.



After our breakfast, we walked over to the Fortuny Museum. It's a pretty unusual museum. The Fortuny family is one of the leading fabric families of Venice, and is still a pretty big player in the upscale fabric world, especially in the upholstery arena. The museum includes changing exhibits along-side the permanent collection. The walls are draped in historic fabrics, and there are paintings of and by family members. There are a few garments here and there, and family knickknacks, including models of their countryside estates. The rotating exhibits included several photography exhibits, a fascinating color space exhibit "Redshift", an exhibit that combined interior design with art objects, and an exhibit of the collaboration of a modern artist and the fabric production house, including super-high-end textiles.



We passed by this artist's pigment shop on our way to the south of town.



We crossed over Accademia Bridge on our way to the Guggenheim...

Thursday Night

After San Rocco, Linda and I began our winding path home. We stopped for a quick coffee right by the square.



We walked through Campo San Giacomo, which was totally busy with locals out and about. Lots of kids were out riding their bikes and roller-blading.



The sunset was very pink!



We had dinner at a little osteria. I liked this "catch of the day" net with porcini mushrooms. I did, in fact, have porcini and pappardelle.



Saint Mark's Square was pretty happening on our way home. Florian Cafe had its evening band out, and there was a crowd hanging out to listen in.



There were another two cafes across the square with their bands out playing. They sort of take turns playing!



This is the outside of the hotel we were staying at, Acqua Palace. Those doors on the bottom are for boat access!

Frari and Rocco

After Saint Mark's, Linda and I headed to San Toma to visit the Frari Church and Scuola Grande di San Rocco and San Rocco church. Frari is a pretty big church, and pretty grand. While there are lots of great paintings, some by Titian, I was more struck with the sculptures and wood work. There were a couple of very impressive tomb monuments, one for Titian, and the pyramid one for Canova. Further forward in the church, the choir stalls were great, especially the gilding.



This statue of the virgin was surrounded by photos of loved ones, I assume.



Campo San Rocco is quite close. Here we are in front of the church of San Rocco. We did enjoy the church, but the Scuola made an even bigger impression.



While all the paintings by Tintoretto were spectacular, painted with some variety of style and color palette, the most striking part of the school was the wood carvings by Pianta. They are fascinating and strange, and very detailed. They're all weird allegorical figures, with strange accessories. Linda has a great book detailing the carvings, I read the whole thing.



This great lamp was on the way up to the treasury.

San Marco

Thursday morning we made it to breakfast at a decent hour, and headed out to San Marco. The square had mild acqua alta! It was the worst around the basilica, but the bell tower and many of the cafes were also watered in.



We went to the basilica first. It's always a good visit. We headed back to see the jeweled screen, as spectacular as expected. The jewels are just so large, and the enamel work of the saints is really captivating. But it's hard to get a good picture of with all the glass and lighting.



The whole basilica is a riot of patterns. The tile work is awesome all over. The mosaics on the walls, and the marble floors.



We headed up to the horse terrace to take in a little more of the view.



There are substitute horses on the balcony, but the original horses of the basilica are inside to look at still.



The terrace also gives a good view of the mosaics.



The back rooms include a few exhibits of church artifacts. I liked these hymnals with the illuminated letters. The page numbers in Roman numerals made me laugh!



On our way out we saw this giant Carnival cruise boat being pulled into the harbor. It's kind of shocking to see such a giant thing in a small setting. The cruise ships all are bunched up at a weird dock that hangs off the city.

Venezia

Wednesday night I headed straight from work to Centrale to take the train to Venezia. I grabbed some stir fried noodles at a place I had never seen before, a small chain restaurant called W.O.K., which stands for world organic kitchen or something along those lines. Anyway, generic pan-Asian cuisine. It was just OK. Definitely edible, but not too flavorful. At least it was freshly made!



I got a vapretto pass and headed toward the Rialto. There's always something magical about getting into Venice, especially at night! The canal just does it for me.



I got a little lost finding the hotel, but I really don't mind so much. The blocks are so short that you can't go too far out of your way. You pass all sorts of shops, courtyards, hotels, restaurants, and little weird shrines and wells. This courtyard caught my eye, it was on the tiny alley on the way to our hotel.



While I made a bit of a spiral, I did succeed and found Linda home from La Fenice already... We stayed up a little on the late side chatting, then I was tired enough to fall asleep as soon as the lights were out!

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A special note here: September was actually the first month that I successfully posted every day. Why wasn't I doing this before? Well, I was cut off from posting a lot when I wasn't home. And I have been "not home" a lot! August: Germany. July: USA. June: Riccione... and so on. Or some of the time it was due to entertaining guests. Well, hopefully I can keep this up, but I have a lot of travels ahead of me for October. Rome, Venice, Istanbul, and out of town guests visiting... Doesn't look good but I will try my best.