Mother's magic hour

We dragged ourselves out of bed early on our last morning in Venice to see St. Mark’s Square in the soft morning light without swarms of people. It worked!

Reluctantly leaving Venice we drove to our next stop in Italy’s Le Marche region via Ravenna. Ravenna is well-known for its mosaics and we visited two fine examples at Basilica di San Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. The colors were brighter than I expected and had a Byzantine feel.

Our posting may be sporadic for the next few days as we are off the grid at an agritourismo/cooking school. We’re talking gravel roads and about 20 minutes to the nearest village where no-one speaks inglese. The peace, quiet, and breezes are a welcome respite from Venice. And there are two mama cats with several kittens here so we are getting our gatto fix.

More Venice and Murano

As we headed out for our third morning in Venice, we watched a pigeon family take their morning ablutions in a fountain outside our front door.

We visited two churches: the Frari Church and the church of San Rocco. The Frari church was our favorite. Titian’s tomb is inside this church. It’s a large marble monument and the backdrop is a marble relief of his painting behind the altar in the same church. If you stand in the right spot, you can see them both at the same time.

That afternoon, we ferried out to the island of Murano. We watched a “free” glass-blowing demonstration and were able to extract ourselves from their high-pressure sales pitch. The street was lined with shops selling glass and we popped into a few.

We found a neighborhood hosteria for dinner and enjoyed a lively scene on the street. The adults enjoyed an apertif while their kids and dogs played on the street. It was a warm, congenial atmosphere that I’d like to see more of at home.

Our gondola ride

Last night treated ourselves to a gondola ride. Mr. Snootypurse and myself shared a pre-gondola dinner while watching boats pass back and forth through the lagoon. As you can see, Mr. Purse is winding up to deliver a stiff right hook. Too much togetherness, I guess.

We started our ride around 9:00pm which was just about perfect. We had some twilight starting out and things were almost completely dark as we finished up. I enjoyed the ride more than I expected. It’s so quiet and peaceful as you glide along Venice’s back canals. Quite a contrast to how things are during the day. And it is very romantic to share the experience with someone you love.

Benvenuti a Venezia

  
We arrived in Venice a couple of days ago. The weather has been quite hot and humid and temperatures remind me of Hawaii. We parked the car in the Tronchetto garage and arrived at our hotel by vaporetto (water bus). We are staying in a clean one-room apartment close to St. Mark's Square. It's sparsely furnished but is quiet and air-conditioned. It's associated with a hotel so we have the benefits of daily breakfast and concierge service.

Yesterday we toured the Accademia gallery. It was somewhat disappointing because they are renovating a few of the important rooms. They are in the process of moving the paintings to other rooms but this won't be complete until July 1 :-( We tried to view some modern art but this area is closed on Tuesdays. The nice thing was these streets weren't very crowded and there were some fun windows to peek into including wood sculptures of clothing and fabric.

In the afternoon, we toured the Doge's Palace. The middle picture is a photo of the courtyard. This complex served as the Capitol Building, White House, Supreme Court, and Sing Sing prison for the Venetian republic. It was a beautiful building jam-packed with art and exhibits. In retrospect we could have skipped the Accademia and spent more time here.