2012/13 Europe Adventure: Venice, Italy

View from my room at Ca'Bragadin

iew from my room at Ca'Bragadin

Me and my frizzy hair in front of a museum near Ca'Doro Vaporetto Stop

Museum near Ca'Doro

Warm, sunny spring day, simply perfect weather for exploring more of the city. I left Ca'Bragadin Hotel to move to the Hotel San Cassiano which is the one I was suppose to stay at my first night but they moved me to their four star hotel instead. And let's face it I wasn't complaining but when I looked on hotels.com I was able to stay at San Cassiano with an incredible rate including breakfast so it all worked out great.

Tronchetto's coming across the Grand Canal to drop off and pick us up

Me on tronchetto's perfectly balanced

Hotels San Cassiano

Hotel San Cassiano

Rialto Bridge

Firstly though I had to cross the river with my bags. The closets bridge to Ca'Bragadin is the Rialto with tons of steps so as I walked toward there I saw that there was a bus stop. Yes, they do have something called bus stops which refer to tronchetto's which are their version of a public bus but in the shape of a gondola without any seating in the middle. It's only 2 Euros versus 7 Euros and when you are literally only going straight across the canal to pay 7 Euros to go one stop is crazy. Now I don't mind standing up but I do remember my first time taking one of these with my mom over 12 years ago and I don't think it was her favorite thing as you do feel like you're going to fall overboard when there is a lot of wake from other boats. But amazingly they were able to put my luggage on with us and off we went. A nice German couple was there and I took a picture for them together and then they kindly took one of me. But ignore the hair, it's out of control today, just a wild mess and I can't even blame it on humidity, it's rather dry at the moment. I think it's the brand of shampoo at the hotel last night, I look like birds are nesting in my hair. Anyway, the trip across the canal last about 2 minutes and off I went walking the few minutes to my hotel. So easy and actually kind of fun.

View from Rialto Bridge

Architectural element on restaurant near Rialto Bridge

Rialto Bridge

Grand Canal

After checking in at my hotel and doing some computer work in the lobby I was kindly brought up o my beautiful room, so lovely. The hotel is right on the Grand Canal so I feel like a princess here. The former villa is over 500 years old and according to the brochure they leave in the room it was once the home to a Venetian painter Giacomo Favretto, the most representative of the city's realista" school during the second half of the nineteenth century. Ca' Favretto (which it's also know as) opens up silent, shaded side streets onto a stunning view of the Grand Canal (there words not mine but a lovely way to express it's beauty.) Originally built in the 14th century, the house served through the years as a residence to some 0f the more important Venetian noble families until 1951 when it was first transformed into a "pensione." Interestingly a man who is staying here was telling the front desk manager while I was in the lobby that he first stayed her 44 years ago when it was a pensione not a hotel.

Two red cabbages floating by in a small canal but great reflections of the surrounding buildings

Well for me it's prefect and I get to play princess for a few days and just enjoy this wonderful old home.

I bought a pass to visit of the select churches in the city which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Venice. It's inexpensive and forces you, or at least encourages you to go o different neighborhoods that you most likely would never find yourself because they're not generally in the heart of the tourist areas.

I started out with the ones in my neighborhood having done a few yesterday on St. George and Giudecca Islands.

First up was the Church of San Giovanni Elemosinario which is hidden practically in a Civil building but once inside the "Church of the Merchants" as it's also known. It's located not far from the Rialto bridge and houses a beautiful painting by Titian "St. John an the Almsgiver which is the alterpiece in the high alter. It also houses a striking painting by Il Pordenone "Saints Sebastian, Roch and Catherine" to the right of the high alter.

San Giovanni Elemosinario

Next after a long walk (it really takes some time to find these churches with all the winding streets but that's half the adventure) I came to the Church of San Polo. 'This church, dedicated to the Apostle Paul, was founded in 837 by the doges Pietro Tradonico and Orso Partecipazio and rebuilt in the 12th and 15th centuries. Some heavy-handed restoration, additions and losses (including a mosaic-covered chapel and a silver Byzantine altar-front) in the early years of the 19th Century by David Rossi were partly reversed in 1927 revealing, for example, the 15th Century wooden ship's keel roof and restoring the rose window which dates from the same period." I love the wooden ship keel room, it's really stunning and contrasts the white walls and pillars perfectly. "Aside from a Veronese and a couple of Tintorettos, including a dramatic Last supper, there's five by Palma Giovane, of course. A bit more memorable is an impressive sequence of paintings of fourteen Stations of the Cross by Giandomenico Tiepolo, son of the more famous Giambattista. The son seems to have rebelled against his father's exuberance in life and in his use of colour in his art - these works are paler and much more melancholy than anything by his father. (Comparison can be made with dad Giambattista's The Virgin appears to Saint John of Nepomuk* in the main church.) He painted them, whilst still in his early 20s, from 1747-49 and they are rare examples of his being allowed to work alone while his father was alive. They are in the Oratory built onto the old façade."

Joyous angels by Giambattista Tiepolo in San Polo Church

I loved the joyous angels on the ceiling in the Oratory which houses his son's Stations of the Cross paintings.

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari - Titian's "Assumption" high alter

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari courtyard

Piazza with Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in the distance

From here I walked once again, taking I'm sure a much longer course than needed to the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari which preserves two great masterpieces of Titian's (Tiziano Vecellio): "The Assumption" on the high alter, perhaps his most famous work, and the Pesaro Alterpiece, form the name of the family that commissioned it. Titan died during the terrible plague that ravaged Venice in 1576 and, in accordance with his will, was buried in the Frari basilica - an exception to the extremely strict sanitary regulations prescribed by the Senate of the Serenissima. The paintings are, as you can imagine very impressive but one of the things you notice when you enter the church just after you look straight ahead past the vast open space of the church where there would normally be pews, past the twelve huge round pillars between the nave and the aisles representing the apostles. to a massive, dark wood, fully carved choir section and through that to the high alter and the Titian masterpiece, is a massive marble tomb to your left and one almost as equally as imposing on the right. "The nave features some mighty overpowering tombs, the most exhausting being the one for Doge Giovanni Pesaro, designed by Longhena, with the four huge moors bent under a weight of allegorical figures under a canopy of carved ‘brocade’. The pyramidal tomb to Canova is a far calmer and lovelier thing, if not exactly unwacky either."

Jacopo Guarana "gloria del Santissimo Sacramento, San giacomo dell'orio

San Giacomo dall'Orio - "Virgin with Child and Saints" by Lorenzo Lotto

And there was one more left by this point in this part of the city and that was San Giacomo dall'Orio. It took me much longer to find this one but a fun walk to take. The church "is rich in an atmosphere typical of primitive Christianity to be found only in the most ancient churches. A splendid example of ship's-keel wooden ceiling characterizes this building, along with the notable works it conserves, by Palma il Giovane, Giambattista Pittoni, Padovanio, Paolo Veronese, and the beautiful Virgin with Child and Saints by Lorenzo Lotto. Tradition says that the church was founded in 555, but the first documented reference dates it to 1089. The church is dedicated to St James the Greater, the apostle. The dell'Orio part is said by some to be a corruption of del lauro (of the bay tree) and to refer to a tree said to have been growing on the site when the church was founded. Competing theories suggest wolves, the rio, a swamp (luprio) or the Orio family. The church was rebuilt in 1225, using funds provided by the Badoer and Da Mula familes.

Different architectural element on a building (no lion)

They even have the Austrian supermarket Billa now in several locations

I loved this books shop which was closed when I passed but the owner
leaves the bargain books out and there is a little box hanging on the door
for you to put the money if you buy anything.

When I got there they were just finishing the rosary (a small group of women, all but one over that age of 70.) And after that was 6:00pm mass which I stayed for in the small chapel next to the main alter. It was a short but very nice mass and the women who did the readings reminded me so much of Nonnie and she had to have been in her late 80's so I was pretty impressed she was zipping about the church like she was 20 years younger.

Natural History Museum, I liked the signage

It was time for some dinner so I stopped and got a half a tuna sandwich and half a spinach roll, both yummy and then a very long, hour or so walk back to my hotel. I always think I'm going in the right direction and then surprise I've taken a wrong turn and am back where I started. It's really all about the journey in Venice not the destination!!!

Oh and all the unique things you see. There are moments in life when you want to say "Now I've seen it all!" Well several times today I passed some little kiosk selling various Venice memorabilia as well as calendars which have your usual photos like a calendar dedicated to pictures of handsome gondoliers (like ones of NYC Firefighters.) All pretty normal until I noticed the calendar of handsome priests. Yes, I said priests. It's called Calendario Romano 2014 and there are black and white pictures (one for each month) of a different attractive priest. I just don't get it, should young ladies be buying this to admire the priests physical appearance. That just doesn't seem right.

This is a picture (I think the cover) of the 2013 calendar. The 2014 is what they are selling now.

I sat on the hotels veranda on the first floor to type up my blog but due to computer power needs I moved inside to their charming little bar area but like the veranda it too over looked the Grand Canal. A perfect way to end the day.