Venice

San Marco Piazza.

As we arrived in Venice late and didn't have dinner until 9:00, the first night there we didn't go out to explore; instead we stayed in and relaxed, trying to make up some lost sleep.
The next morning, we all met to see a museum designed by Carlo Scarpa. His attention to detail is extraordinary; he also considered the nature of Venice and its flood waters, allowing them to come right into the museum by washing into some of the front rooms with their beautiful stepped "bridges" to walk around and through the water. This modern section of the museum contrasted highly with the rest of the museum, which was a in a very traditional Venetian style. On the upper level, Bernini's sculpture of Medusa was displayed beautifully with a circle of changing lighting above it. It was a very dark room otherwise, so it created quite an experience.


Photo in glass demonstration and in the gondola.

The now usual group, Megan, Danett, Ashton, Kristina and I, headed off together for the rest of the day after all of us met. We found a place, by chance, that would do a free demonstration of the making of Murano glass on the main island, rather than taking the boats to the island of Murano. It was a simple demonstration of a glass vase, but still very impressive!
As the weather forecast wasn't looking so great for the next few days, we decided that while it was just misty rain and not really raining, that we would go ahead and take a gondola ride. I wanted to make sure I did go on one this time around; it was something I had yet to do. We had a great time seeing the city from that point of view; our gondolier pointed out Casanova's office and Marco Polo's birthplace and also informed us that there are 430 bridges in Venice and that being a gondolier is something passed down in a family with training begining at age 5 or 6 in a small gondola.


Photo of Ashton and I doing ballet in front of a lighted wall in one of the pavilions and the Norwegian pavilion.

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the day at the Venice Biennale, an International art and architecture exhibition where countries present the current projects and research in permanent pavilions designed for and by their country. We could only describe it as a Disney World for architects. There was so much to see I couldn't begin to describe everything!

The second day we went to see San Marco Basilica first thing in the morning. As it was raining and it was high tide, the square was slightly flooded, as well as the church itself, so we had to walk on the raised boards that went all around the square and into the church too. I really enjoy the eastern influence on the architecture in Venice, especially in the church.

Photo of flooded San Marco, the Rialto Bridge and the grand canal.


We continued to the area around the Rialto Bridge, just enjoying the wandering. We found the market, where a lot of fish were being sold as well as live crabs, and then went into a cafe for coffee and mid-day Bellinis (I just stuck with a cappuccino.). We then began a meandering walk towards the Peggy Guggenheim Museum for modern art, stopping in a church that was currently holding a mass along the way. The choir, enhanced by the acoustics, was beautiful. I lit a candle in honor of Aly's grandmother, who had passed away just a few days before, while there. After the church visit and the little museum, it was time to head back to the hotel for the evening.

Photo in fish market, the cafe and the little church we stopped by.


The next morning, an extremely rainy day, we left Venice to go to Brion cemetery and then to the fair city of Verona.