A final twenty-four hours in Venice

We DID get up early again for the last full day in Venice: and it was well worth it as there were very few other tripods in St. Mark’s Square. Indeed at 06.59 when this image was taken we had the place to ourselves apart from the workmen setting up for the day ahead. I loved the fact that even from the opposite side of the large square the images of the facia of the basilica stood out above the lights of the buildings.

Increasing colour in the early morning sky added to the scene and the reflections were even more impressive as we got closer. I find it hard to take in that the first church building here was in the 9th century, built to house the remains of St.Mark which had been smuggled here from Alexandria by Venetian merchants. After a devastating fire in 976AD a new basilica was consecrated in 1063. It has survived wars and natural disasters as well as alteration but remains the impressive ‘Church of Gold’, so called because of the amount of gold in its decoration .

As we moved around to the Canal and the day broke the light was really flat so I played a while with monochrome images:

The charm of the gondolas was still there but the chill wind and the occasional raindrop brought reality to the idyll!

Maybe a touch of highkey? Or a totally different view?

Sadly, none provided the mistiness we had hoped for! So back to breakfast and some planning. This was the day we went our separate ways, two of us staying on and the others either going home or moving to different places in the city.

Breakfast, a rest of the feet and off again having decided we must see the island of Murano famous for its glass-making. St Mark’s Square was as picturesque as ever, reflections to the fore!

Homework successfully done, we managed to find the vaporetto easily enough and were soon onboard sailing around the main island to reach Murano. No discounts, but reserved seats for over-70s.

The winds were strong when we arrived and we were determined to see as much as we could without freezing, so first stop was the very first glass studio we saw right by the ferry terminal. We struck lucky there as in a number of the shops we went into.

We were greeted by the youngest member of the family who owned the business and, once we expressed interest, he happily took us into the glass blowing area which, as you might expect, was just like a similar area at home.

The young man who was working the glass was the son of the master who has been with the firm a lifetime like his father before him. They were proud of their skill and that it is being kept alive generation by generation but were not offended by the use of the term ‘business’ as the mask man had been.

Despite the chill wind we walked along one of the canals and found glass shops everywhere. In some, there were simple salespeople but in two we met the designer or the creator of the things we saw.

This man working in the corner of his shop creating small pieces of jewelry was one of the chattiest: we must have spent almost as long with him as we did with the glassblower we visited first. But he was interesting to listen to, telling us lots of stories about WHY he had created certain pieces and describing the process as well as showing us how he made some pieces.

I had promised the young man we visited first that we would go back, so we did and were taken to see their collection upstairs just in case we might be interested but with the piece I liked best costing 750 Euros and probably not being appropriate anywhere in the house it was a temptation I resisted!

Back to Venice in the rain

A very pleasant, relaxing, dinner in the restaurant, a later breakfast and just time to visit the basilica of St. Mark before setting off on the Alilaguna for the airport.

We were later than usual, the sun was shining and in the square people were doing what you do in famous places: taking selfies:

Today it was the white marble of the basilica that drew attention.

I would heartily recommend paying for ‘skip the queue’ tickets – but be sure to do it in advance. We did it on my phone standing outside in the square. I wouldn’t recommend doing that!

This amazing building has incredible works of art and is overrun by tourists. I can image that worshipping in it would be awesome (in the full sense of that word) and that all the art could be inspiring but I really didn’t feel it was possible to take it all in in the melee of which we were part. Some of the better photographs I took were on my phone, the ones here are all from the camera.

Just time for one last image at my favourite bridge on the way back to check out and begin the journey home.

So the Venice adventure is over… for now. It wouldn’t take much to tempt me to return…