I am amazed at the persistence of the people who live in Venice now and also those who lived here 1500 years ago. The history makes sense in hindsight: The city was a settlement to protect refugees from the barbarians who could not navigate the water the way the fishermen could. The spot stayed advantageous until the Mediterranean lost its primacy. I guess once you’ve invested in a place and made it beautiful, you just don’t leave. The complications of living though— trash is picked up daily and you can’t leave it out, they ring the bell to get it! And the water is so significant that most buildings do not use the ground floor.
As the photos above show, we had a very high tide this morning and St. Mark’s was flooded. We took a circuitous walk around to get into the plaza and see the Cathedral. We saw tourists who didn’t know the right way to use the temporary platforms, and other tourists who waded through the knee high water in a piazza— which was totally frowned upon by our guide.
Once inside, we were dazzled by the amount of gold, as millions before us have been. The altar piece above, is the special treasure of San Marco, as are the bronze horses which used to be on the balcony of the cathedral were moved inside some time ago.
They are well travelled horses having been taken by Napoleon for a while, and returned via Austria.
We’ve just seen so many churches that I wasn’t sure it was possible to be seriously impressed and awed, but this one did just that. It has a far more eastern feel than others in Italy. Mark and I were both remembering Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, when we walked inside St. Mark’s. St. Mark’s has been cared for, however. If this were my place of worship, I’d sit somewhere different every week to study all the details. I might not remember the homilies, but I’d get to know the art in detail!
The Doge palace was next. This is another highly decorated place. The “first among equals” political system is evident in the building where the doge does not have a higher seat, and where it is clear the doge never makes decisions alone. The one doge who got out of line (note the single one— out of seventy-six) was beheaded and removed from the portrait gallery.
We found a light lunch of cicchetti (Venetian tapas) and then headed off to the Peggy Guggenheim museum for some modern art. She had a single story palace on the Grand Canal, pictured above from one of the gallery windows. The collection is amazing as is the setting and the enthusiastic intern who gave a “Peggy talk” in the courtyard.
Our guide said people come to Venice just for a day and treat it like Disneyland. Today we did not have those sorts of crowds. Most of the people who were tourists seemed to be interested in art, and here for more than just a day. But the city does take a different sort of attention that other places in Italy. The stores are repetitive: How do you get someone lost in Venice? Tell them to turn at the Murano glass shop… And you can see across a canal, but not be able to get there easily without finding a bridge or boat. As many people told us, just wandering around Venice is a worthwhile activity.
Our final event of the day was to share this huge seafood pasta dinner. We didn’t come close to finishing it, and it was very good. A short walk away from the bigger streets near the Grand Canal, and the food becomes much more local and fresh.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Italy.
