6 September 2007- Thursday (Giovedi) – DAY 5 - Venice
What a glorious day! We are staying at a Hilton … Molino Stucky Hilton … on the island of Molino in Venice . This morning, breakfast was quite a spread. This should not have been a surprise after the dinner last night when we arrived at the hotel … our most delicious so far!
Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale)
This morning we took the hotel shuttle (boat) to tour the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale), a Gothic palace constructed from 1309 to 1424.
(Another OMG! moment … tug tug on Bill’s shirt … I’m really HERE!)
I was putting in place some of the pieces of the jigsaw I have been constructing from grade school through my college course in Italian Renaissance architechture.
The palace is amazing. Frescoes on the walls and ceilings (of course) … marble/stone everywhere of many beautiful colors … grand staircases. A fresco in the arch of the ceiling in one of the palace rooms especially caught my attention. The sections in the arch of the ceiling at either end of a fresco were black and white figures … statues, I thought. Up there in the ceiling. But they weren’t statues. The guide explained that over 400 shades of gray were used to paint these figures. He had to be kidding. Surely, if I could get up there and touch it, it would be three dimensional! No—a painting! (This technique is called trompe l’oeil, which means “fool the eye").
In the rear of the palace is the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri). The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace.
The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and executions were over by the time the bridge was built.
A local legend says that lovers will be assured eternal love if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the bridge.
St. Mark’s Square
After the Doge’s Palace, we went around the corner into St. Mark’s square and toured the Basilica. This was originally built in 829 to house the remains of St. Mark, but burned in 976. The present structure was completed in 1071. (Here are more of those dates I have difficulty getting my brain around.)
The design is Byzantine, with the exterior and interior decorated with mosaics on a gold (I’m not talking COLOR here) background. The floor is of inlaid marble and glass. All the colors glow fantastically. This is an architectural masterpiece in mosaics. You see what, at first, you expect are frescoes, in the arches and loggias, but are, in fact, Byzantine mosaics. I spent most of the morning looking up. I thought of tourists you see in NY (once a New Yorker ….) who have never seen skyscrapers. But I was studying the arches, pilasters, capitals … the bronze and stone statues. All so amazing.
Gondolas
We returned to San Marco’s square and grabbed some pizza with some new friends, and we had our first gelato. Oh, what a treat this was. I’m surprised we waited four days to experience this. Next up were the gondolas. Those of us who were interested occupied three gondolas, one with a singer and accordion player. We caravaned, meandering through the canals, soaking in the total experience. A serene escape from the crowds (and pigeons) in the square. The buildings are so colorful, and the balconies overflow with flowers and plants. Peaceful, beautiful, romantic. (Tug tug on Bill’s shirt.)
Back to the hotel to rest, freshen and change, and then a bus (boat) to another island for dinner. Dinner again was not outstanding, but we had the opportunity to get to know some people on our tour whom we hadn’t spoken much with before, and we all had a wonderful time. After a bus back to the hotel, and a little walk in the moonlight, we said good night to Venice .
Ciao, till tomorrow.
(Additional notes on Venice )
There was so much beauty to talk about inVenice , that I failed to speak of the negative. Global warming is having its effect, as we all know, all over the world. For Venice , that means more water in the squares, flooding, perhaps, if we don’t make changes to alter the progress of this disaster, its destruction. The water — just like our oceans — is rising. High tides now can overflow the docks, into the squares and low-lying areas. Our guide told us that he has waded in water up to his knees in St. Mark’s Square. The population of permanent residents in Venice has decreased by almost two thirds in the past 10 years.
There was so much beauty to talk about in
7 September 2007- Friday (Venerdi) – DAY 6 - Venice / Padua / Florence
Long bus-travel day. On the way from Venice to Florence , we stopped in Padua and toured the Church of San Antonio , a towering, Byzantine-style edifice topped with domes and cupolas. to It was much smaller than St. Mark’s, a more personal feeling. And everything was just so beautiful inside.
We continued on to Florence , a city I was so looking forward to seeing. It was photos of this city that ignited my desire to visit Italy so many years ago, and began my interest in art. Would reality live up to my expectations?
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