18 May - Venice - St Marks Basilica and wandering

Good bye cruise ship

We woke up and had a quick bite to eat. We said good bye to Joseph, our room Stewart and left our room so he could strip it and make it up for the incoming cruise people. We waited down in the main foyer for our turn to leave the ship. because we were anxious to get to our hotel it seemed to take a long time to get to 930 am. when it was finally our turn we got our luggage and headed off to find a water taxi. the water taxi's were at the end of the pier that our ship was on, the inside end not the end end. We did find where they were and after waiting our turn our driver loaded us gently and carefully and our luggage with a great heave into the boat. We had picked up quite a few souvenirs over the course of the voyage.

We went down a little canal from the port and then into the grand canal which is very impressive. after a few turns down smaller and smaller  canals we came to a small square where the water taxi driver pulled over to a kind of stair case exit spot and started to unload our suitcases. we asked him where the hotel was as we could not see it and he pointed down the street. I said thanks , paid him and went in search of our hotel. It started to rain.

Our Hotel was only across assure and about a small block and a half away from this drop off point so I went back and got Margie and the luggage and we hauled it all back which seemed much longer with the suitcases.

Hello Hotel Giorgione! we asked if we could check in and leave our suitcases with them as we had tickets for St Marks at 12 so needed to find our way there before that time which was our ticket time to get into St Marks. They said no problem so we checked in and headed off to St Marks. the hotel had the largest glass chandelier in the lobby!

The street signs in Venice are on the sides of the buildings up high and there are arrows to the big tourist spots like St marks and the Rialto bridge. We had time so when we were proceeding across a small bridge over a small canal and spotted our first gondola ,we asked the gondolier how much and how long? 70 Euros for both of us for about 35 minutes. how close were we to St Marks? just up the street and around the corner ,so quite close. Ok lets do it.

He was very nice and told us about how the gondola system works. there are only so many gondola licenses in Venice. Your family has a licence which can be passed down in the family or given back to the city and then they sell the license to the next person/family on the waiting list for a gondola. they are all decorated differently with little silver accoutrements to liven them up . while we were being ferried rough lots of little canals we got a history lesson of sorts about the different buildings we were passing. it was lovely I did ask him if he sang and he said no and we would be glad to not have him sing so I did 

" 'O sole mio,Sta 'nfronte a te! Sta 'nfronte a te!

I 'm afraid I was loud but not very melodic . We saw many landmarks and some were under repair but they had covers on them with pictures of the building or bridge so from a distance it still looked like the real thing.  With our ride over we paid and headed off to St Marks which we found with no problem.

An archway and then a large square with lots of people and a statue of a lion on top of a tall column. on the left side of the square is the large Basilica of Saint Mark. Beautiful sculpted marble of all colours into columns, statues, mosaic frescos adorning the outside of the church. we had a bit of time and so wandered around but it had started to rain again so tried to stay under cover most of the time until it was our time to get into the church.

Wikipedia says: "The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (officially known in Italian as the Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco and commonly known as Saint Mark's Basilica) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice and northern Italy.   

It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture. It lies at the eastern end of the Piazza San Marco, adjacent and connected to the Doge's Palace. Originally it was the chapel of the Doge, and has only been the city's cathedral since 1807, when it became the seat of the Patriarch of Venice, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice , formerly at San Pietro di Castello.

For its opulent design, gold ground Mosaics, and its status as a symbol of Venetian wealth and power, from the 11th century on the building has been known by the nickname Chiesa d'Oro (Church of gold) and for good reason. it is all gold inside. the Domes, the walls and the alters, it is truly lovely.  

We walked in and of course the first thing I saw in the large entry way was  the floor, all marble designs  in many patterns and colours . I think I will have to incorporate some of these patterns into a patio at my house. As I was filming those lovely floors when I looked up and was entranced by the most lovely gold ceiling! the entire ceiling of the cathedral is covered in gold mosaic tiles which seem to glow in their goldness. It was stunning! It was also crowded but we shuffled along admiring all the carved wood and the mosaic floors and ceiling. 

Just before we entered the church proper, we were inside a large entry room where there were some steps down to the water. the Water was coming in under the large doors and I thought "oh my, it is going to flood while we are here". but it did not. scary though. I guess lots of times it does flood the right into the cathedral which explained all the folks wearing rubber boots.

We got to the front of the church and there was a small gate that one could pay to go through to go further up onto the alter and behind, so we did that for 2 euros  there were way fewer people and we were again so impressed by the beautiful alter and the view of the cathedral from the alter it was well worth the price.

The church is very large and was pretty full of people. We found a place where we could light candles and did that and then we worked our way out of the cathedral slowly, admiring the detail of the faces in the mosaics in the domes.

Outside the rain was falling more heavily so we stayed under the cover along the side. we found the entrance to the cathedral museum and went up many stone steps only to discover that our ticket did not include that portion of the cathedral. so down we went and over the Doges palace.

After a little pit stop, (we are not as young as we used to be) there was a quick security check , down a long hall out into a courtyard and up a staircase and we were in. it is a large complex of joined buildings, wonderfully full of art, artifacts, carved wood and stone statues all housed in some very large and very beautiful rooms. 

As we were on our own, we did not have to keep up with a tour group and it was actually almost relaxing just walking along listening to our guided tour handsets. a lot of history to take in most of which I do not recall from my school days, well maybe a few bits and pieces but not much really. Venice is a hotspot for history as it was the centre of the financial world for a long time. I loved it.

Wikipedia says " In 810, Doge Agnello Participazio moved the seat of government from the island of Malamocco to the area of the present-day Rialto, when it was decided a palatium duci ( Latin for "ducal palace") should be built. However, no trace remains of that 9th-century building as the palace was partially destroyed in the 10th century by a fire. The following reconstruction works were undertaken at the behest of Doge Sebastiano Ziani (1172–1178). A great reformer, he would drastically change the entire layout of the St. Mark's Square.  

The new palace was built out of fortresses, one façade to the Piazzetta, the other overlooking the St. Mark's Basin. Although only few traces remain of that palace, some Byzantine-Venetian architecture  characteristics can still be seen at the ground floor, with the wall base in Istrian stone and some herring-bone pattern brick paving.

Political changes in the mid-13th century led to the need to re-think the palace's structure due to the considerable increase in the number of the Great Council's members. The new Gothic palace's constructions started around 1340, focusing mostly on the side of the building facing the lagoon. Only in 1424 did DogeFrancesco Foscari decide to extend the rebuilding works to the wing overlooking the Piazzetta, serving as law-courts, and with a ground floor arcade on the outside, open first floor loggias running along the façade, and the internal courtyard side of the wing, completed with the construction of the Porta della Carta (1442).

In 1483, a violent fire broke out in the side of the palace overlooking the canal, where the Doge's Apartments were. Once again, an important reconstruction became necessary and was commissioned from Antonio Rizzo, who would introduce the new Renaissance language to the building's architecture. An entire new structure was raised alongside the canal, stretching from the ponte della Canonica to thePonte della Paglia,  with the official rooms of the government decorated with works commissioned fromVittore Carpaccio, Girogione, Alvise Vivarini and Giovanne Bellini. 

Another huge fire in 1547 destroyed some of the rooms on the second floor, but fortunately without undermining the structure as a whole. Refurbishment works were being held at the palace when on 1577 a third fire destroyed the Scrutinio Room and the Great Council Chamber, together with works by Gentile da Fabriano, Pisanello, Alvise Vivarini, Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Bellini, Pordenone, and Titan. In the subsequent rebuilding work it was decided to respect the originalGothic Style, despite the submission of a neo-classical alternative designs by the influential Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. However, there are some classical features — for example, since the 16th century, the palace has been linked to the prison by the Bridge of Sighs. 

As well as being the ducal residence, the palace housed political institutions of the Republic of Venice until the Napoleonic occupation of the city in 1797, when its role inevitably changed. Venice was subjected first to French rule, then to Austrian, and finally in 1866 it became part of Italy. Over this period, the palace was occupied by various administrative offices as well as housing the Biblioteca Marciana  and other important cultural institutions within the city.

As part of the admission price one gets to tour the old prison, so once finished with the palace proper one crosses the famous connecting Bridge of Sighs over to the rather spooky jail. with lots of stories about the different cells, and there were lots of cells with big thick doors. Dark and damp and cool. Creepy. 

By the end of the 19th century, the structure was showing clear signs of decay, and the Italian government set aside significant funds for its restoration and all public offices were moved elsewhere, with the exception of the State Office for the protection of historical Monuments, which is still housed at the palace's loggia floor. In 1923, the Italian State, owner of the building, entrusted the management to the Venetian municipality to be run as a museum. Since 1996, the Doge’s Palace has been part of the Venetian museums network, which has been under the management of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia since 2008.

The tour left us a little fatigued so we had a quick lunch at this lovely little restaurant right off the square., in Italy a quick lunch means at least one hour long. We then took the water bus, which is very cool back to the closest stop to our hotel the Ca D'Oro Stop. We always knew which way to not walk after getting off the bus boat. once we were through the very narrow pathway to the street  away from the Macdonald's which was just up from the exit. We wandered around a little bit but we found our hotel and and checked in properly.  Once they found our luggage we were shown to our room. What a lovely room. What a lovely hotel, really nice. A quick relax and we were off again to explore .

We went north this time and found charming bridges across small canals, large churches on small squares and the water taxi/bus stop ion the north side of the island which would take us to either Murano or Burano or one of the hundred other islands in the bay. the wind was picking up so we decided to go back into the maze of small streets.

 We came back to the church of Maria Assunta vulgo Gesuiti  and went in. it was gorgeous as well but for different reasons it was marble. everywhere. marble floors, wall, ceiling. the curtains were marble the alter was marble how much did this church weigh? how much would this church cost today to make if it even could. the inlay work was stunning.  we lit some candles and said some prayers for the family. 

Wi According to some sources he construction of the church was financed by a certain Pietro or, according to Doge Andrea Dandolo, by Cleto Gussoni in 1148 and was surrounded by grounds, bodies of water and wetlands. In 1154 Cleto turned it into a hospital for the poor who were ill, both men and women. Another Gussoni, by the name of Buonavere, relative and heir of Cleto, ultimately provided vineyards and some of his other estates in the districts of Chioggia and Pellestrina. 

In the monastery of I Gesuiti a member of the same family, Marco Gussoni, took his vows, miraculously cured by the then Blessed, later Saint Luigi Gonzaga. It is said that in 1601 Marco, struck down by a grave illness, was healed instantly on the invocation by the saint. However, on 1 August 1631 he contracted the plague and died in Ferrara whilst working to help the plague victims there; he became known as "uomo di somma pietà" (man of supreme mercy). A portrait of him entitled Marco Gussoni blessing the plague victims at the Lazzaretto of Ferrara is exhibited in Ca'Rezzonico.

 After the peace and quiet of the church we thought we would go souvenir shopping on the main road by the Macdonalds, the rain was intermittent but never actually stopped completeley. We thought we saw an Irish pub so had to try it out if we could find it again.  After a few little roads and lovely bridges on lovely canals and we reached our goal. 

Looking through  the shops at all the lovely souvenirs made in china  we thought is nothing made in Venice. we did in fact find some lovely lace masks made in Venice in Murano and purchased lots of them for friends and family back home.  we also found the local Irish pub and went in to partake of wee brew of harp and fries.

We took our finds back to the hotel and headed off to find a place to have dinner. down to the main canal and along it we came across Harrys, a famous bar and restaurant but it was packed with a waiting time a little too long so we moved along to find a restaurant with a shorter wait time.

We past a park with a lovely gate and went in to sprinkle a bit of Mom and Dad I walked around a corner of the path and saw a bird and then a rat. Ewwwwwww. I do not like rats.
We continued on and found ourselves back at St Mark's Square so went back to the little restaurant that we went to for lunch and it was very good again. A lovely leisurely dinner and off we go once again souvenir shopping. We went into a shop right across the narrow street and found some lovely t shirts. the owner of the shop flirted with me a little bit and I thanked him and told him I was waiting for a handsome Italian man to flirt with me, so he flirted with again. I bought more souvenirs. we left that whop and went to the square.

What with all the rain now coming down St Mark's Square began to fill with water.  I tried to take a photo using my flash but all I got was what looked like snow in the photo. Margie took a photo with no flash and got a great shot of the square in the rain. we thought about sitting at one of the restaurants located on the square under the cover and having a drink but it was so expensive and damp we decided to move on and pick up a few more souvenirs instead.

One of the shops told us that when it rained a lot and the tide was high they closed the shops early. up the door down low so that the water would not get in and just closed the shops. interesting way to do business we thought. While walking around we had noticed that many local venetian were wearing scarves, men and women both. We found a souvenir gift shop and each picked up a scarf of our own and it made such a difference to our comfort level. we were much warmer. I picked up a few other little things and a gondoliers hat for my friends back home.

It rained and rained and was lovely now that we had our scarves and  were snug and warm. We took the water bus back to our stop and in the dark laneways found our way back to our lovely hotel Giorgione with the giant chandelier in the lobby. our beds were warm and dry ad we fell asleep very quickly right after we repacked our suitcases for tomorrows train trip to Rome.