Venice 3

St. Mark's Square, Piazza San Marco, is the social, political and religious centre of Venice, and also home to shops in the Merceria displaying all sorts of touristy items, mostly overpriced. And of course, the inevitable teeshirt and hat booths enticing you to spend some euros on souvenirs to take home.

Piazza San Marco looking towards St Mark's Basilica and it's bell tower. The west facade of the church is comprised of great arches, and marble decorations, and Romanesque carvings around the central doors. The square is ideal for the fat pigeons who congregate there hoping for hand outs from the tourists.

St. Mark's Campanile is the free standing bell tower of the Basilica. The original 9th to 12th century bell tower was built on Roman foundations. Through the centuries the tower was damaged by lightning strikes and fire and was often under repair. In 1902 the tower collapsed (the caretaker's cat was the only victim, how sad) and was rebuilt on the same Roman foundations in 1912, 1000 years after the original construction.

The front of Saint Mark's Basilica is covered with decorative carvings. The first St. Mark's church was completed in AD 832, burned in 976, and rebuilt in 978. The current church was consecrated around AD 1093, but has seen many changes since then. Gradually the outer brickwork became covered with marble and carvings.

 Details of the doors of the basilica. Each door shows a different animal face. Dogs? Cats? Devils?

The Men of Note's first performance on the concert tour was at evening Mass in St. Mark's Basilica. What an honour to raise their voices in such a beautiful church. Some of their repertoire sung in Latin: Veni Creator Spiritus, Morte Christi, and Ave Maris Stella.
Unfortunately it wasn't possible to video the performance, even though we had prior permission.
No foto! Nessun video! Non possibile!

Most of Venice is built at sea level so after a very stormy and rainy day, the rainwater has nowhere to go, and water was bubbling up out of the drains to flood St Mark's Square. St Mark's Campanile reflects in the puddles. 

more pictures to come

If you have visited Venice, leave me a comment and tell me about it.

Venice 2

Our second day in Venice was a bit rainy and pleasantly cool. I'll take damp cool weather any day over HOT and steamy!

We took the No. 1  vaporetto from San Marco all the way along the Grand Canal to Piazzale Roma. The water bus stops at 20 stations on it's way along the Canal..... the main local bus route through Venice.

The stone Rialto Bridge, Ponti de Rialto, has spanned the Grand Canal since 1591. But the bridge you see here is an image of the bridge on a construction cover, the actual bridge is undergoing some repair and renovation. 

The gondolas are traditional flat bottom rowing boats. Venice law says that all gondolas are painted black, and there are over 400 of them in active service carrying tourists. Gondoliers have to go through a long apprenticeship before earning one of the 425 gondolier licenses. 
Venice approved it's first woman gondolier in 2010.

Is Venice sinking? Lots of people think it is. The city has it's origins on swampy islands in the middle of a lagoon. Recent studies show that sea levels are rising, and the city is subsiding ever so gradually. One study says the city is sinking 3 to 4 cm per century, another study says 10 cm.
Better visit Venice while it's still there!

No Mafia! Venice is sacred!

More pictures to come.
If you have visited Venice, please leave me a comment and tell me about it.

Venice 1

I'm back from a couple of weeks on a European Concert Tour with the "Men of Note", our town's male voice choir. The first stop was Venice, only for two days, but we saw so much of the beautiful city. What a wonderful place! There's nothing like it anywhere. Everyone should see Venice at some time in their lives.... it should be mandatory.
Our first day was HOT, 29C, which was brutal especially after a long and tiring overnight flight from Canada. Our second day was rainy, stormy, and a lot cooler, thank goodness.

There are 433 bridges over the Venice canals, connecting around 126 islands, all with steps up and steps down.... we didn't cross all of them but by the end of the day my aching legs felt like we did!

View from the vaporetto taking us from the Tronchetto coach park into Venice. We shared the vaporetto with a student group from Poland, and exchanged songs, our men's chorus singing in English, and then the students answering with songs in Polish. Lots of cheering and applause.  Music is an international language. 
A magical memory.

Our knowledgeable guide on the walking tour. A walking encyclopedia as far as Venezia history is concerned.

Crowded outside the Doge's Palace? No not really.... just wait until July and August.

The Bridge of Sighs connects the Doge's Palace with the Prisons. 
Tradition says convicts had a final look at the beautiful city before being led to their cells, or to a date with the executioner. Sigh.....

More pictures to come. 
If you have visited Venice, please leave me a comment and tell me about it.