Only 3 more days we have to explore. Have adventures. To eat. Laugh. Have fun.
We start with a boat ride @ 8:45. We board a vaporetto – which translates to “little steamer.” Except, no steam, it is powered by a diesel engine. We are on our way to visit St. Mark’s Square and the Basilica. BTW – By The Way – while we were in Rome in the earlier part of this tour, found that many buildings were referred to as basilicas. Those early buildings were not part of a particular religion, but referred to the shape of the building.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporetto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_San_Marco
As we get off the boat and enter Piazza San Marco, notice the brickwork we are standing on is wet. At first think – how nice, they wash it off to make it look nice. Instead, find that we are viewing an Aqua Alta. This is when high tides and/or high winds push water ashore and flood the Piazza. Some say that Venice is “sinking.” Others attribute it to a global rise of the oceans. I now better appreciate the 2 foot high metal stands and plywood I saw on some of the streets near our hotel. I first thought they for use by street vendors. Instead, are quickly erected and placed in the middle of the walkway to allow people to pass through the flooded area without getting too wet. Our guides further explain that most stores have a special “gate” at the doorway of their shops that allows a panel to be inserted to keep water from coming in, but allow customers to enter over this artificial dam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acqua_Alta
As I keep saying – so much to learn about every day.
After a bit of “sightseeing” in the Piazza, we move toward the St. Mark Basilica entrance. We are directed to view the Doges Palace, to the side of the Basilica. The Doge was the mayor of Venice. It was a high level political position with much influence on everyone's life and livelihood. We will visit the Doges Palace tomorrow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Mark%27s_Basilica
As we visit the various places within the building, realize better what the area was like before Garibaldi. There were many city-states. Each with their own powerful ruler. So Rome, Florence and Venice, for many years were autonomous. For our tour focus – The Classics of Rome, Florence and Venice, this mainly refers to the Renaissance Age, when art and architecture flourished in competition with other city-states to attract the best and brightest minds to advance the culture. Garibaldi helped join the city-states together into what we think of as a unified Italy. One country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Garibaldi
Since the weather was bright and warm, Cristina and Michela arranged for us to get our gondola ride in a day early. With the prior few days having grey skies and cooler temps, thought – great idea! What a thrill having the gondolier guide us down some narrow canals. Unlike the Grand Canal, that is wide enough for many boats to pass, these canals barely let two gondolas pass when going opposite ways. No one-way streets here.
We found out that if we wanted to hear a song while enjoying the ride we would have to hire 2 people. One to play the accordion and the other singing songs that were truly “foreign” to us. Without missing a chance, I got the other 4 tour members to join me in a few verses of You Are My Sunshine. We wouldn’t have won any “America’s Got Talent “ contest, but had great fun.
We have lunch @ Tavernetta San Maurizio on Campo San Maurizio. The food was... Interesting? Unusual? We had inky squid to eat that made our mouths and tongue black from the ink. I took a few photos, but promised I wouldn't publish them. Overall, a great “experience,” but not a place I would suggest.
Next, we are on our way to the Accademia Museum – Gallerie dell’ Accademia di Venezia. Since I have no photos of the interior and exhibits, must mean – no photos. I do remember though we passed what looked like a potential interesting exhibit - Leonardo. L’Uomo Vitruviano fra arte e scienza. The Art and Science of Leonardo Di Vinci and the Vetruvian Man. This was one of the few times I felt we might have been rushed through the building in the interest of seeing much of the special art. We were there just under 2 hours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallerie_dell'Accademia
http://www.gallerieaccademia.org/the-museum/?lang=en
So sorry I couldn’t find an English language version of this, but looking at Leonardo’s Vetruvian man, you can venture a guess to his genius of using mathematics – geometry and trigonometry - to apply to his view when sketching and designing.
http://www.slideshare.net/alfonsorubino/lannunciazione-vitruviana-di-leonardo
We were given free time after the tour to visit here in detail and see some of the other galleries nearby. I thought about seeing the Peggy Guggenheim. After a little thought – yep, a minute or less, decided to take a boat back to the hotel. Preferably one that made many stops. The sky was dimming with dusk and some building were starting to show their lights. For me, just the right time for “more photos.” By the end of that day, had collected about 1,100 snapshots. I refer to them as my “digital breadcrumbs.” They give me a record of where I was at what part of the day. I also carry a GPS – global position sensor – that allows me to match the times of this device with the digital time mark on the photos. Later I can overlay to a map to find – where were we? How much distance did we cover? Mostly though, what was the building or whatever I saw, got a shot, then will match on the Google map for reference. Very handy for me. Most days, I averaged 800 photos.
As I was starting high school, many new friends had difficulty pronouncing my long Polish surname. An Italian friend of mine shortened it to - Gino. Was glad for that. Got me invited to many Italian functions that when my name was said, they thought, a paisano, an Italian “homie.”
As we neared the hotel, spotted a neon sign that said – Welcome Home. No, really, it was “Gino’s Pizzeria.” Great pizza, that I could not have made better.
After a short walk, back to the room for my daily duty – download and save today's photos. If I lose my camera tomorrow, will be unhappy, but not sad that “all my stuff is gone.”
Photo 1. Our 48th honeymoon photo. A gondola ride in Venice (-:
Photo 2. The famous Rialto Bridge
Photo 3. A moonlit boat ride back to the hotel. Can it get any better (-:
Click below for today's online photo album.
https://picasaweb.google.com/magwheel44/2013C2CDay25of28
