Cruising the Adriatic--Venice, with Doges and Gondoliers

The vaporettos were our buses, and we became proficient at leaping on and off them during their one-minute stops, and at finding our way around the city.  I never got tired of watching Venice glide by as we traveled the Grand Canal.  It was especially exciting on the morning of Tuesday, October 27, 2013, our first full day in the city.

 

 

Our first visit was to the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, on an island across the canal from St. Mark's Square, the historical center of Venice.  San Giorgio Maggiore was designed by Palladio, a Renaissance architect whose domes and pillars have set the style for government architecture, even more than churches, around the world.  The Utah Capitol Building was inspired by Palladio's ideas.  The guidebook emphasized that San Giorgio Maggiore was pure Renaissance architecture, without any of the Byzantine influence that influenced most of Venice's buildings.  It was a misty morning, but part of the charm of San Giorgio Maggiore is that it seems like a mirage, viewed from across the canal.

 

The most famous artwork in San Giorgio Maggiore is Tintoretto's "Last Supper," but I enjoyed all the accessories that decorate a Catholic church--the candles, the many paintings of the Virgin Mary, the sculptures of Christ on the cross, the penants with Church emblems. I was also interested in the huge dome that has been copied on so many churches and capitol buildings.   I even enjoyed the sign warning us not to do anything indecent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took the elevator to the top of  the San Giorgio Maggiore bell tower.  On a clear day, that is the best view in the city of St. Mark's Square and the Venice lagoon.  On this day, with all the mist, it was still beautiful, but in a romantic, mysterious way.

 

 

From the San Giorgio Maggiore dock, we looked across the canal to the city of Venice, including 18th century homes and the Doge's Palace and bell tower.

 

 

Dave and I both read, "City of Fortune," a book documenting the years, from 1000 to 1500, that Venice was the dominant power in the Mediterranean.  We excitedly toured the Doge's Palace, which was the art-filled home of the doges, or leaders, who ruled Venice.  We approached via the Bridge of Sighs, which is the bridge prisoners passed through on their way from their trials, in the Doge's Palace, to jail. 

 

 

The Doge's Palace is sometimes called "the Wedding Cake" because of its intricate decorations, inside and out.  The style is a mix of the cultures which influenced Venice and which Venice influenced during the many years of its wealth--Gothic, Renaissance, Byzantine, Islamic.  As Rick Steves described these statues:  "Imagine yourself as a foreign dignitary on business to meet the doge.  In the courtyard, you look up a grand staircase topped with two nearly nude statues of, I think, Moses and Paul Newman (more likely, Neptune and Mars, representing Venice's prowess at sea and at war).  The doge and his aides would be waiting for you at the top, between the two statues and beneath the Winged Lion."  The Venetians stole the bones of St. Mark from Alexandria, Egypt, in 800 and he is now their patron saint, with his symbol, the winged lion, all over the city.

 

The inside of the Doge's Palace was filled with eye candy, from medieval maps of Europe to coins from the 800s to the "Golden Staircase" and the "Hall of the Grand Council" (175 x 80 feet).  The Hall is covered in paintings by Tintoretto of Venice's naval exploits.  Those exploits included raiding Constantinople, another Christian city, during the Crusades, for which the Pope issued excommunications.  Tintoretto, Titian, and Veronese are giants of the Venetian School of  Renaissance Art.

 

 

 

There was also a splendid view from the Palace of the port of Venice, as busy as it might have been during the 1400s.

Every vacation needs a good prison tour (Alcatraz, Dublin's Kilmainham Gaol, Perth's Fremantle Prison), to add some shadows to all the light.  We enjoyed wandering through the dank cells near the Doge's palace, where Venetian naval commanders who lost major sea battles were imprisoned, as well as lesser folk.

 

 

 

 

Dave and I have toured the Doge's Palace before, but it is like other great museums--you go over and over, and absorb more each time.  We recovered from cultural overload with a gelato on St. Mark's Square.

Another collection we love is the Museum Correr,  It is located in the palace on St. Mark's Square which was occupied by the Austrian Hapsburg rulers, after Napoleon's invasion of Venice in the late 1700s and his subsequent defeat.  There are wonderful period rooms from the 1800s, the time of Venice's elegant decline, as well as sculptures by Canova, a Venetian Rococo sculptor from the late 1700s who carved romantic pieces in white marble.  I have a new favorite artist.

 

 

 

The Correr included such other treats as paintings by Klimt, the decadent Viennese artist who is one of my favorites, and paintings by the early Renaissance artists from Northern Europe who influenced the Italian Renaissance.

 

Dave and I then took the walk from the Doge's Palace to the Frari Church recommended by Rick Steve's.  It began in the Royal Gardens, a rare bit of green near the Doge's Palace, and then wound through back alleys, over bridges, past shops selling Halloween treats and more Venetian glitz.

 

 

 

 

We passed the offices built for Nazi headquarters in Venice during World War II.  The building still looks forbidding, among the Baroque and Renaissance churches and palaces. Venice had only a small community of Jews, but 200 of them were sent to concentration camps.

We passed the San Moise Church, built in the 10th century, which, according to Rick Steves, is now the real parish church for the Venetian community.

We passed La Fenice Opera House, which commissioned Verdi's "Rigoletto" and "La Traviata."

 

Venice's alleyways open onto hidden squares, or campos, where maître d's serve dinners at open air restaurants and young people pose in 18th century costumes, selling tickets to Vivaldi concerts and operas. 

 

 

There are statues of winged lions and of heros of the Italian unification movement.  Italy finally got its independence from Austria in 1866.

The Frari Church is one of the highlights of Venice, since it has so many art treasures which are still "on site," just as they were commissioned, rather than removed from church walls and put in museums.  There are works by Titian, Donatello, Bellini, and Veneziano--all Italian Renaissance masters.  The most famous work is the Assumption of Mary, by Titian.  The painting is in one of the chapels and a sculpture of it is on Titian's tomb, also included within the church.  Canova's tomb is also in the church, inside a triangular monument he designed.

 

 

 

The last stop on our walk was the Scuola San Rocco, which has been called "Tintoretto's Sistine Chapel."  It includes several huge halls covered, walls and ceilings, with paintings from the Old and New Testaments, including paintings from Christ's life and death.  I could only stay a few minutes, but I found the paintings so inspiring that I bought a book with copies of them, so I can study them more carefully.  One wonderful thing about Renaissance art is that so much of it is based upon religious subjects with which we can identify.

 

 

Throughout our days in Venice, we enjoyed the omnipresent gondolas and gondoliers. An antique gondola was displayed at the Doge's Palace.

Gondolas were parked by the Doge's palace and by other buildings around the city.

 

 

 

We encountered gondoliers all over town, ferrying clients, docking their boats, and chatting with each other.

 

 

 

 

 

One Venice experience Dave wanted was eating dinner at a restaurant with outside seating along the Grand Canal.  Done! We ate our pasta at the table right next to the water, under a big red awning like those shown in this photo.