Through Venice's Streets to St. Mark's

Part 11:  Through the streets to St. Mark’s.

Tuesday October 1 is cold but sunny. 

Tour groups in Italy have to have a guide, and the guide has to be an Italian citizen and licensed by the government.  During our tour we will have five different guides:  they are all gracious and provide great insight into the cities and their art.  The guide has a lapel mike and each of us has a receiver with an earpiece.  This allows us to wander a bit while the guide is talking and look at something we may be more interested in, or linger longer than the guide talks.  The range is about 50 feet.  For me the system did not work that well.  I would usually get some static which impeded hearing, so I found it best to stick close to the guide.  The exception was the very last day in Rome when we used a different make of mike and receivers.

Our first guide is Corrine.  She meets us outside our hotel and will lead us on a 3 hour trek through the Cannaregio and San Marco neighborhoods to the Basilica di San Marco.  In the afternoon we will take a 30 minute boat ride across the lagoon to the island of Burano.

The houses in Venice are built around cortes  (courtyards), and when they were first formed in the 11^th or 12th centuries a well was in the center allowing citizens easy access to water.  The wells have since been sealed, but some structural elements often remain.  Here Corrine explains that to us, and also says that the house in the corner may (or may not be – its only a legend) the home of Marco Polo.  Below this picture is a closer view of the house.   

 Just a few minutes away in another Corte is the work shop of the Bellini family – Renaissance painters of the 15^th and  early 16^th centuries.  Jacopo was the father, and sons were Giovanni and Gentile.  Giovanni is the more famous and is considered one of the revolutionaries of renaissance painting – more sensous, greater use of color, and atmospheric landscapes.  Titian and Giorgione were both apprentices in the Bellini workshop. 

  This is Santa Maria dei Miracoli (late 15^th century) – maybe the prettiest church we saw. It’s also called the “marble church.  The organization "Save Venice" restored the church in the 1990s.  The exterior marble was so filled with salt that it was about to burst.  The restoration was supposed to take two years and cost a million dollars; it turned out to be 10 years and 4 million.  The roof is rounded and the “columns” on the front are decorative, not structural.

We picked up how to navigate Venice pretty quickly.  Find a good map (easy and often free), look for signs that indicate where you are, then look for arrows pointing to a major landmark (Rialto Bridge,  Piazza San Marco) that is close to where you want to be.  Follow the arrows to a Campo that is near where you want to be.  Street names are long and usually abbreviated on maps, but are on signs attached to the wall of buildings around the Campo 

  
 So off we go down a “street” and over a bridge to the Campo San Giovanni e Paulo where the church of the same name is under renovation. 

  

 This is one of the largest churches in Venice.  After the 15th century the funeral services of all of Venice's doges were held here, and twenty-five doges are buried in the church.

 

 
A few minutes away is Campo Maria Formosa.  These hotels, about a 5 minute walk from Piazza San Marco are well rated by TripAdvisor and go for about $200 a night.   
 

Last stop before St Mark’s is the Ponte dei Sospiri, the Bridge of Sighs.  Tomorrow we get to see it from the prisoners’ vantage.   

 *     *     *    *     *

Napoleon called St Mark’s Square “the drawing room of Europe.”  The square is the heart of Venice, and the only square called a Piazza; all others are “campi.”  It is almost two football fields long from St Mark’s Church on the east to the Correr Museum on the west.  It is prone to flooding and was partially flooded at the east end when were there.  There had been steady rains for the past two days.

 But that was nothing compared to the flooding that occurred in November 2012 when 75% of the city was under water.  Water levels reached 5 feet, the 6^th highest in over 140 years.

 

Here is what the Square looks like when dry.

The very tall Campanile (bell tower) on the right was rebuilt after it collapsed in 1902.  It is an exact replica of the original.  The original, built in the 12^th century was wooden and frequently caught fire. It was rebuilt with brick in the early 16^th century.  The present tower is 323 feet tall. 

The Torre dell’Orologio (clock tower) to the left of the church dates from 1496, and the clock has been running continuously since then.  At its top, two bronze figures strike the bell every hour.
It’s possible to go inside both towers.  Our group did not do that, but some went on their own later.  The bell tower provides wonderful 360 degree views of Venice.

The Basilica di San Marco dates to the 11^th century. It came to be in the 9^th century after Venetian merchants stole the supposed remains of St. Mark the evangelist from Alexandria.  The present church replaces a smaller chapel built in the 9^th century.  Until the 19^th century St Marks was considered the Doge’s Palace.  The distinctive eastern architectural style (note the domes) reflects Venice’s connections  with the Byzantine Empire.  These connections allowed the Venetian Republic to expand eastward down the east side of the Adriatic Sea into what is today Slovenia and Croatia.  It also provided protection from the eastward expansion of the Holy Roman Empire.  Venice was a very rich and powerful republic ruled by businessmen, not church figures.

 

The Lion is the symbol representing St Mark.  Lions abound in Venice.

Over the entrance is a mosaic representing the body of Jesus prepared for burial.

And in we go – on platforms because the entrance is flooded. 

 There is very little flooding inside.  Picture taking inside is not allowed.  But below is a Wikipedia picture so you get some idea of how beautiful it is.  It is also crowded, and so viewing conditions are not optimal. 
 

  We were allotted about 20 minutes inside, which is nowhere near enough time.  A couple of days might have been about right.

 

We Meet Our Group

Part 10:  We Meet Our Tour Group

Monday September 30: 

Our tour officially begins at 4:00PM.  So we have most of the day to see some sights on our own.  We go two churches close to the B&B, although finding them in the rat’s maze that is the Venice street system is challenging.  No “street” is longer than a block or two and ends  either at a canal (sometimes having a bridge across, sometimes not) or in a plaza (called a campo) from which three or four new streets emerge. But with maps, a compass and following the street signs we found the churches we were looking for:  San Polo and Sta Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

San Polo (Paul) Church is small but one of the oldest churches in Venice, built in the 15^th century on the site of another church built in the 9^th century).

The stations of the cross are portrayed in a side chapel. Here is the 11^th station, “Jesus is nailed to the cross.”  The fellow in white is a bad guy,  that is not a halo around his head.  He seems to be the crew chief, appearing in several different stations. The stations are by Giandomenico Tiepolo (18^th century).

In the main church is a painting of the Last Supper by Jocopo Robusti ditto Tintoretto done in 1568.

Tintoretto was a major Venetian painter of the 16^th century, nicknamed Il Furioso for the phenomenal energy in his work; characterized by muscular figures, dramatic gestures, and bold use of perspective.    This Last Supper is very different from what we usually see representing the Last Supper

The second church was Sta Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually called Il Frari, which means Friars.  It was built by the Franciscans in the late 15^th century, and is one of the more important churches in Venice.  It has works by Donatello, Giovanni Bellini, and Titian, and a huge monument where Titian is buried.  No photography is allowed inside the church, and the outside is covered with construction netting so pictures of that don’t show much.  But here is a Wikipedia link:

                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_Gloriosa_dei_Frari

This is a beautiful church.  Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin is behind the altar and dominates the interior.  We spent an hour just sitting in the pews and studying the Assumption and other works by Bellini and Donatello.
We ate lunch at I Due Leoni  in the Piazza by the Frari Chuch.  This is a small lunch counter, mostly standup.  We ordered hot chocolate.  Be careful when you get hot chocolate in Venice.  It seems they melted a solid chunk of chocolate and poured it in a cup.  That’s it, no milk, just chocolate.  It was very good, but very different.

We have two hours left so we hustle to the Cannaregio neighborhood on the other side of the Grand Canal to see the Jewish Museum.

Along the way Bonnie bought some roasted chestnuts from a street vendor.  There were just right, something warm and toasty on cold windy day.

The Museum is behind a non-descript door in a very plain campo in what has been called the Jewish Ghetto since the 16^th century.  It has a great bookshop emphasizing Venice history, and an extensive collection of Jewish liturgical artifacts dating back to the 16^th century. They also offer tours of the ghetto.    

Four PM – time to get with the group. 

Our Rick Steves guide is Rozanne Stringer, who is on the faculty at University of Kansas, and has a degree in European Art History with a specialization in the 19^th century.  

And here is the group. 

 

 Thanks to Gary Ong for this picture.

After introductions, expectations, questions, and explanations, we each pick a buddy (and it can’t be the person you came with).  Before we leave any destination, we will make eye contact with our buddy, and report to Rozanne whether he or she is present.  If all are present then off we go.  We never had a missing buddy the whole ten days.  Yea for us. 

 This was my buddy

Adriana Fitch from Kentucky

actually friendlier than she looks. 

And so off we go on our “Neighborhood orientation walk,” across the Rialto Bridge  on the way to our "Welcome to Venice" dinner together

Rumor has it that Johnny Depp hangs out here.

The food was simple but good - mushroom risotto, gnocchi, and red wine - and we had a chance to get acquainted with our fellow tourists. 

 
 

Now, can Rozanne lead us back through the dark dark maze to Pensione Guerrato?  Yes, she did.