not in a Roman tomb, or an Italian womb
Mar. 24th, 2018 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
satyricaWe flew to Venice late on the Wednesday which meant quite a nice day most of the day at home beforehand: we huffed and puffed our way to our AirBnB, a kinda bungalow on the Veneto we had the whole use of, to be greeted by the owner's elderly mother who managed to communicate how everything worked via a lot of gesturing. We turned in, planning to be ready to start fresh in the morning, although we ended up not having the best start: the hot water had stopped working somehow over night, our venture around the local shops to get food for breakfasts and sandwiches didn't turn up anything we were brave enough to go into, we were kept waiting at a level crossing on our way to the bus stop for about twenty minutes and after some further waiting we managed to decipher that there was a public transport strike going on.
So later than planned we made our way to the Doge's Palace, where incredible chambers were covered wall to ceiling in late Renaissance art, then went for a wander through San Marco: twisty streets with dozens of tiny bridges where they hopped over canals with incredible domed churches around every corner. We chilled out with an aperol spritz, the cheapness of which was a constant source of joy to N who loves them, then found a promising area around the Campo Santa Margherita, which seemed to have some life to it, for food before heading back to the bungalow with its now-fixed boiler.
We made it over onto the island rather more smoothly on Friday and had a quick wander round the mosaic-ed splendour of the San Marco Basilica before strolling over to the rather more extensive Museo Correr which combines the preserved Habsburg-era royal appartments, the antiquities collection left to the Venetian state by the Grimanis, the incredible Libreria Nazionale Marciana and an art collection thrown in for good measure in the old government buildings that surround the Piazza. In the afternoon we wandered up to the Ghetto [just one of many words and phrases Venice seems to have allegedly given us, including 'in the red'], although there wasn't a lot to see there, then went for a long wander through some rather more residential bits of Cannaregio, all the way out to the Arsenale [they also gave us 'arsenal'], stopping to pop in to the Chiesa della Madonna dell'Orto, Tintoretto's parish church which he had adorned with several impressive works. After coming back into the centre on the zaporetto, we did manage to find a bit of Friday night liveliness after dinner but like most places it was a tiny space with most of the crowd spilling out onto the street, which it wasn't quite warm enough for us to venture.
On Saturday we started down at the Peggy Guggenheim Exhibition, her former house on the Grand Canal full of works by every prominent Twentieth Century artist you can think of, although we were less taken by the special Marnio Marini exhibition they had on. We wandered down to the Basilica de Santa Maria della Salute, then spent the rest of the day island-hopping. We did set foot on Lido but only as a stepping stone on our way up to the northern islands: Murano where everything is focussed around the centuries-old glass industry, and we looked around the museum, then Torcello, which was where the first inhabitants to be pushed off the mainland came to settle and the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta still houses some fantastic Byzantine-influenced mosaics, then finally Murano whose boldly coloured houses contrasted to the more refined tones of Venice itself. We returned to the Santa Margherita area for some drinks (one euro wine!) either side of dinner and just about managed to satisfy my need to stay out a bit later than we had been doing.
After two bright and clear days, Sunday was rain all day: we hid from it in the Gallerie dell'Academia, Venice's main art gallery, which housed both an extensive permanent collection (rather confusingly laid out thanks to some renovations) and a special exhibition on Canova, Hayez, Cicognara and the revival of Venetian art in the early 19th Century. In the afternoon N and I decided to go our separate ways, my appetite for Renaissance art and churches being greater than his, and I headed over to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco: not a church, more like the Renaissance equivalent of a guildhall, but still incredibly grand and covered wall-to-ceiling in works by Tintoretto. I wandered through the rain to a couple more churches, Zanipolo and
San Zaccaria, every church in Venice seeming to have a Veronese or Titian tucked away in a side-chapel; also, in the latter's case, a flooded crypt with thousand year-old frescoes. We met back up for food and went back to last night's bar but the waters had been rising through the day, as much due to tide as rain, and when the sirens went, the barman explained you knew which streets were going to be underwater by how many blasts it gave. If you are a local, you know which thoroughfares they lay raised walkways down in and so how you can get around and stay dry; we didn't and ended up wading through ankle-deep water to make it back to the bus station.
I had thought, having pretty much six full days to spend in Venice, we may exhaust its possibilities, its not a massive place and we'd been to most of its corners, but there didn't appear to be any danger of that: on Monday we went to Ca'Rezznico, a palazzo that had been preserved as a museum of the 18th Century, with original Tiepolo ceilings and all kinds of gathered furniture and art (including frescoes by his son and a picture by the surprisingly under-represented Canaletto) adorning well-appointed rooms, then on the top floor a more simply displayed art collection. We headed down to the Electric Comma, a contemporary art gallery we had spied from the water-taxi, which had an interesting collection or works musing on AI, then had a bit of a wander along Giudecca before hopping over to the Isola di Santa Giorgio Maggiore to see its Palladian church and Tintorettos. Back over on the main island, we wandered along to the slightly shabby Giardini and spied on the closed-up Biennale pavilions, we explored some crumbling residential back-streets and after looping back towards the centre stumbled upon what turned out to be Venice's main-drag, which we had somehow circumvented throughout our stay so far. It had been quiet, one of the reliefs of being there out of cruise-ship season, but we had wondered where locals went to shop and it turns out all the more everyday amenities are along one long road between the station and the Rialto. We had wine at one of the bar-cum-cafe-cum-offie places where locals come in, down a glass standing at the bar and head out again, discovered a church with dodgy masonic imagery and had some food before heading home.
We weren't flying out until late on Tuesday so stashed our case at Maestre station then headed over into Venice for one more day. We visited Carlo Goldoni's House (a playwright I hadn't known) and then the cavernous I Frari, which had grand monuments to both Canova and Titian. We finally found the department store around the Rialto which was topped by a viewing platform you could look out over the city from: it was actually good to do it at the end of the holiday when we could identify all the places we'd already been to. We did our own thing for the afternoon again and I went into the Chiesa di San Moise and the sacristy at Salute, which had been closed when we went before, which housed some impressive Titians. After a final wander through the streets, we reunited at Pizzale Roma, picked up our case and headed out to the airport to fly home (after some weight-redistribution and wing de-icing), stumbling in some time after midnight.
So later than planned we made our way to the Doge's Palace, where incredible chambers were covered wall to ceiling in late Renaissance art, then went for a wander through San Marco: twisty streets with dozens of tiny bridges where they hopped over canals with incredible domed churches around every corner. We chilled out with an aperol spritz, the cheapness of which was a constant source of joy to N who loves them, then found a promising area around the Campo Santa Margherita, which seemed to have some life to it, for food before heading back to the bungalow with its now-fixed boiler.
We made it over onto the island rather more smoothly on Friday and had a quick wander round the mosaic-ed splendour of the San Marco Basilica before strolling over to the rather more extensive Museo Correr which combines the preserved Habsburg-era royal appartments, the antiquities collection left to the Venetian state by the Grimanis, the incredible Libreria Nazionale Marciana and an art collection thrown in for good measure in the old government buildings that surround the Piazza. In the afternoon we wandered up to the Ghetto [just one of many words and phrases Venice seems to have allegedly given us, including 'in the red'], although there wasn't a lot to see there, then went for a long wander through some rather more residential bits of Cannaregio, all the way out to the Arsenale [they also gave us 'arsenal'], stopping to pop in to the Chiesa della Madonna dell'Orto, Tintoretto's parish church which he had adorned with several impressive works. After coming back into the centre on the zaporetto, we did manage to find a bit of Friday night liveliness after dinner but like most places it was a tiny space with most of the crowd spilling out onto the street, which it wasn't quite warm enough for us to venture.
On Saturday we started down at the Peggy Guggenheim Exhibition, her former house on the Grand Canal full of works by every prominent Twentieth Century artist you can think of, although we were less taken by the special Marnio Marini exhibition they had on. We wandered down to the Basilica de Santa Maria della Salute, then spent the rest of the day island-hopping. We did set foot on Lido but only as a stepping stone on our way up to the northern islands: Murano where everything is focussed around the centuries-old glass industry, and we looked around the museum, then Torcello, which was where the first inhabitants to be pushed off the mainland came to settle and the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta still houses some fantastic Byzantine-influenced mosaics, then finally Murano whose boldly coloured houses contrasted to the more refined tones of Venice itself. We returned to the Santa Margherita area for some drinks (one euro wine!) either side of dinner and just about managed to satisfy my need to stay out a bit later than we had been doing.
After two bright and clear days, Sunday was rain all day: we hid from it in the Gallerie dell'Academia, Venice's main art gallery, which housed both an extensive permanent collection (rather confusingly laid out thanks to some renovations) and a special exhibition on Canova, Hayez, Cicognara and the revival of Venetian art in the early 19th Century. In the afternoon N and I decided to go our separate ways, my appetite for Renaissance art and churches being greater than his, and I headed over to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco: not a church, more like the Renaissance equivalent of a guildhall, but still incredibly grand and covered wall-to-ceiling in works by Tintoretto. I wandered through the rain to a couple more churches, Zanipolo and
San Zaccaria, every church in Venice seeming to have a Veronese or Titian tucked away in a side-chapel; also, in the latter's case, a flooded crypt with thousand year-old frescoes. We met back up for food and went back to last night's bar but the waters had been rising through the day, as much due to tide as rain, and when the sirens went, the barman explained you knew which streets were going to be underwater by how many blasts it gave. If you are a local, you know which thoroughfares they lay raised walkways down in and so how you can get around and stay dry; we didn't and ended up wading through ankle-deep water to make it back to the bus station.
I had thought, having pretty much six full days to spend in Venice, we may exhaust its possibilities, its not a massive place and we'd been to most of its corners, but there didn't appear to be any danger of that: on Monday we went to Ca'Rezznico, a palazzo that had been preserved as a museum of the 18th Century, with original Tiepolo ceilings and all kinds of gathered furniture and art (including frescoes by his son and a picture by the surprisingly under-represented Canaletto) adorning well-appointed rooms, then on the top floor a more simply displayed art collection. We headed down to the Electric Comma, a contemporary art gallery we had spied from the water-taxi, which had an interesting collection or works musing on AI, then had a bit of a wander along Giudecca before hopping over to the Isola di Santa Giorgio Maggiore to see its Palladian church and Tintorettos. Back over on the main island, we wandered along to the slightly shabby Giardini and spied on the closed-up Biennale pavilions, we explored some crumbling residential back-streets and after looping back towards the centre stumbled upon what turned out to be Venice's main-drag, which we had somehow circumvented throughout our stay so far. It had been quiet, one of the reliefs of being there out of cruise-ship season, but we had wondered where locals went to shop and it turns out all the more everyday amenities are along one long road between the station and the Rialto. We had wine at one of the bar-cum-cafe-cum-offie places where locals come in, down a glass standing at the bar and head out again, discovered a church with dodgy masonic imagery and had some food before heading home.
We weren't flying out until late on Tuesday so stashed our case at Maestre station then headed over into Venice for one more day. We visited Carlo Goldoni's House (a playwright I hadn't known) and then the cavernous I Frari, which had grand monuments to both Canova and Titian. We finally found the department store around the Rialto which was topped by a viewing platform you could look out over the city from: it was actually good to do it at the end of the holiday when we could identify all the places we'd already been to. We did our own thing for the afternoon again and I went into the Chiesa di San Moise and the sacristy at Salute, which had been closed when we went before, which housed some impressive Titians. After a final wander through the streets, we reunited at Pizzale Roma, picked up our case and headed out to the airport to fly home (after some weight-redistribution and wing de-icing), stumbling in some time after midnight.
