We had started one of the guided walking tours on the first day, wandering around St. Mark's. So after lunch on the second day, we finished it by doing the first half.
This tour explores the area of San Marco. Here's the link to the audio tours for Italy. We did the 4 Venice ones. We also did some from the book that aren't audio tours. This one is not an audio tour because I remember navigating via the tiny map in the book and the bigger map that we got from the hotel and the even-bigger folded one in the book.
Venice has most of the calles (streets) labeled but they are on plaques or stones in the walls of buildings and I couldn't find all of them. Plus they all look very similar and some of the turns are into very tiny alleyway entrances.
This is one of the sights. The street used to be an umbrella-maker's street. It made for a good landmark as we were navigating at other times. The street to the right of the umbrellas leads to St. Mark's Square.
This pharmacy has a countdown of the declining population of Venice.
That is the countdown clock.
This is the Rialto bridge staircase (leading to the apex) from the bottom. You can see the shops on either side better.
A nicer view of the Accademia bridge. On some of our vaporetto trips, we placed ourselves for better viewing.
Finally, we ended the day with a visit to the Salute church. It is dedicated to the plague. You pray to the Virgin Mary in the church to avoid the plague. Venice was plagued by the plague (I couldn't resist, sorry!) many, many times. Crowded living conditions, damp, and sewage filled canals were conducive to the spread of disease.
Our third day was a short one,. We had to get to the cruise ship in the afternoon so we spent the morning going to the San Giorgio Maggiore church across the laguna and that ended up being a great visit.
But first, a mix-up. Our vaporetto stop near the hotel didn't have a ticket booth. So I wanted to buy the ticket ahead of time to go to the cruise ship. Our passes would expire before we went to the ship so we needed two more tickets. I went to the ticket booth at San Marco Square and asked to buy two tickets. The woman asked me where I was going. The way she worded it and it being early morning, I said "San Giorgio Maggiore' and she sold me two tickets to go across the laguna and back. I didn't need those! Our passes would have worked. Darn! So anyway I bought the other two tickets i needed at one of the other booths.
The facade of the church.
The organ. I also take a lot of photos of church organ pipes.
The church features two large paintings by Tintoretto.
The choir stalls were beautiful. I love church architecture.
One bonus was an art exhibit exploring people and diversity. The artist is Michaelangelo Pistoletto and the exhibit is called 'One and one makes three'. It featured mirrors, sculpture, murals, etc.
After going through the exhibit, we went to the bell tower. We wanted to go up one of the bell towers - this one or the one in St. Mark's Square. The one in the square always had a line so we decided to go up this one. The floor leading to the bell tower had the same sort of 3-D mosaic as in the Doge's Palace.
There is an elevator to the tower. No steps to climb except a few to get to the elevator.
The bells. They are rung automatically and I knew when they rang so we wouldn't be up there to be deafened by the sound.
Looking down closer, I noticed this very interesting glass block wall down below.
The cloisters associated with the church are also down there. That is the dome of he church.
Another one of my reflection photos.
After we got back from San Giorgio Maggiore, we went on the last walking tour. This one went from the other side of the Rialto bridge, which is on San Polo. The walk led to the Frari church which has works by Titian and other artists.
This is one of the oldest clocks in Venice. It is across from the news stand above. It predates the invention of minute hands, which is why it doesn't have one.
Pigeons are everywhere but they aren't always drinking water from a fountain. Some of the plazas are shady, some are not. Some have fountains, others have statues. They almost always have cafes. Some plazas are all cafe.
On the way we walked into Tragicomica, one of the famous mask making shops in Venice. Yes, there are lots of cheap touristy masks sold everywhere. I suspect most of them are made in China. But the beautiful Carnival masks are made by hand and this shop is one of the traditional makers. They asked us not to take photos inside the shop. I tried to take one of their shop window but the reflections made it difficult to see the contents.
The Frari church is magnificent.
This is a funerary monument to Titian, which is in the Frari church.
This one is a monument to Antonio Canova, which is based on a drawing he made for a tomb for Titian.
I loved this church.
After we left, we decided to see if we could get the traghetto across the canal instead of buying yet another single ride vaporetto ticket. We followed the signs and got to the traghetto stop with its green pillar. But there were no boats there. So we found our way back by foot, crossed the Rialto bridge and backtracked to our hotel.
Our hotel provided tea and coffee and cake in the afternoon. We sat and rested and had a little snack before we collected our suitcases and left. We had brought them down the flights of stairs in the morning and checked out so it was easy to leave.
To get to the cruise ship, we had to take the #1 vaporetto to Piazzale Roma, then take the People Mover to the cruise ship terminal. The People Mover takes people to the parking areas and the cruise ship terminal. Finding the People Mover was an adventure. We thought it was a trolley because we were following signs for it and then the sign stopped. There was a trolley station there. We were about to board when it occurred to me to ask. It was a good thing I did. We were then pointed to a building. We walked there and got the People Mover (we had bought tickets at the same time as we got our one way ride vaporetto ticket and the guy who sold it to us helpfully marked them with vaporetto and People Mover because they looked the same). At the other end, it was a short flat walk to the cruise ship.
This was only our second ocean cruise. I realized how convenient it is to be able to haul one's own suitcases on and off the ship. We just walked on and at Athens, we didn't have to commit to a time to leave. We just walked off when we were ready.
We spent the rest of the afternoon finding our way around the ship and relaxing. The ship didn't disembark till the next day from Venice so it was a quiet evening.
This tour explores the area of San Marco. Here's the link to the audio tours for Italy. We did the 4 Venice ones. We also did some from the book that aren't audio tours. This one is not an audio tour because I remember navigating via the tiny map in the book and the bigger map that we got from the hotel and the even-bigger folded one in the book.
Venice has most of the calles (streets) labeled but they are on plaques or stones in the walls of buildings and I couldn't find all of them. Plus they all look very similar and some of the turns are into very tiny alleyway entrances.
This is one of the sights. The street used to be an umbrella-maker's street. It made for a good landmark as we were navigating at other times. The street to the right of the umbrellas leads to St. Mark's Square.
This pharmacy has a countdown of the declining population of Venice.
That is the countdown clock.
This is the Rialto bridge staircase (leading to the apex) from the bottom. You can see the shops on either side better.
A nicer view of the Accademia bridge. On some of our vaporetto trips, we placed ourselves for better viewing.
Finally, we ended the day with a visit to the Salute church. It is dedicated to the plague. You pray to the Virgin Mary in the church to avoid the plague. Venice was plagued by the plague (I couldn't resist, sorry!) many, many times. Crowded living conditions, damp, and sewage filled canals were conducive to the spread of disease.
Our third day was a short one,. We had to get to the cruise ship in the afternoon so we spent the morning going to the San Giorgio Maggiore church across the laguna and that ended up being a great visit.
But first, a mix-up. Our vaporetto stop near the hotel didn't have a ticket booth. So I wanted to buy the ticket ahead of time to go to the cruise ship. Our passes would expire before we went to the ship so we needed two more tickets. I went to the ticket booth at San Marco Square and asked to buy two tickets. The woman asked me where I was going. The way she worded it and it being early morning, I said "San Giorgio Maggiore' and she sold me two tickets to go across the laguna and back. I didn't need those! Our passes would have worked. Darn! So anyway I bought the other two tickets i needed at one of the other booths.
In addition to reflections, I love backlit photos where the sun (or light) creates a glow. This is the church and bell tower from the vaporetto.
The facade of the church.
The organ. I also take a lot of photos of church organ pipes.
The church features two large paintings by Tintoretto.
The choir stalls were beautiful. I love church architecture.
One bonus was an art exhibit exploring people and diversity. The artist is Michaelangelo Pistoletto and the exhibit is called 'One and one makes three'. It featured mirrors, sculpture, murals, etc.
After going through the exhibit, we went to the bell tower. We wanted to go up one of the bell towers - this one or the one in St. Mark's Square. The one in the square always had a line so we decided to go up this one. The floor leading to the bell tower had the same sort of 3-D mosaic as in the Doge's Palace.
There is an elevator to the tower. No steps to climb except a few to get to the elevator.
The bells. They are rung automatically and I knew when they rang so we wouldn't be up there to be deafened by the sound.
Panoramic views across the laguna. That is St. Mark's square across the water.
Looking down closer, I noticed this very interesting glass block wall down below.
The cloisters associated with the church are also down there. That is the dome of he church.
After climbing down, we went to investigate the wall. It turned out to be associated with a glass blowing studio nearby and was not available to visit. So we just looked at it from outside the fence. By the way, in case you were wondering about the white arms on the building from yesterday's post, it was part of the Venice Biennale 2017 exhibit. This one might be too. I don't know. It was fun to try and look at it from different angles from outside a fence and a hedge.
Remember the raised walkways that are set up during Acqua Alta? This is what they look like. In most of the other places, they were stacked up with one being up-ended on top of another one. But outside San Giorgio Maggiore, they were set up as they would be during the flooding so I took a picture.
Another one of my reflection photos.
After we got back from San Giorgio Maggiore, we went on the last walking tour. This one went from the other side of the Rialto bridge, which is on San Polo. The walk led to the Frari church which has works by Titian and other artists.
We walked through a number of plazas on the way.
This column is where people came to get their news. Every day someone would climb on this podium via the steps being held up by the hunchback, and read the day's announcements.
This is one of the oldest clocks in Venice. It is across from the news stand above. It predates the invention of minute hands, which is why it doesn't have one.
Pigeons are everywhere but they aren't always drinking water from a fountain. Some of the plazas are shady, some are not. Some have fountains, others have statues. They almost always have cafes. Some plazas are all cafe.
On the way we walked into Tragicomica, one of the famous mask making shops in Venice. Yes, there are lots of cheap touristy masks sold everywhere. I suspect most of them are made in China. But the beautiful Carnival masks are made by hand and this shop is one of the traditional makers. They asked us not to take photos inside the shop. I tried to take one of their shop window but the reflections made it difficult to see the contents.
The Frari church is magnificent.
This is a funerary monument to Titian, which is in the Frari church.
This one is a monument to Antonio Canova, which is based on a drawing he made for a tomb for Titian.
I loved this church.
After we left, we decided to see if we could get the traghetto across the canal instead of buying yet another single ride vaporetto ticket. We followed the signs and got to the traghetto stop with its green pillar. But there were no boats there. So we found our way back by foot, crossed the Rialto bridge and backtracked to our hotel.
Our hotel provided tea and coffee and cake in the afternoon. We sat and rested and had a little snack before we collected our suitcases and left. We had brought them down the flights of stairs in the morning and checked out so it was easy to leave.
To get to the cruise ship, we had to take the #1 vaporetto to Piazzale Roma, then take the People Mover to the cruise ship terminal. The People Mover takes people to the parking areas and the cruise ship terminal. Finding the People Mover was an adventure. We thought it was a trolley because we were following signs for it and then the sign stopped. There was a trolley station there. We were about to board when it occurred to me to ask. It was a good thing I did. We were then pointed to a building. We walked there and got the People Mover (we had bought tickets at the same time as we got our one way ride vaporetto ticket and the guy who sold it to us helpfully marked them with vaporetto and People Mover because they looked the same). At the other end, it was a short flat walk to the cruise ship.
This was only our second ocean cruise. I realized how convenient it is to be able to haul one's own suitcases on and off the ship. We just walked on and at Athens, we didn't have to commit to a time to leave. We just walked off when we were ready.
We spent the rest of the afternoon finding our way around the ship and relaxing. The ship didn't disembark till the next day from Venice so it was a quiet evening.
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