This is not the way they advertise Venice in the brochures. The water is meant to be restricted to the canals. Still, we woke to rain, and immediately congratulated ourselves that it wasn’t yesterday and we weren’t trying to see the road, let alone the Dolomites, through cloud and rain. How to spend a rainy day in Venice? I thought this was meant to be the ‘shopping for presents’ day that I always dread. However, Lyn decided it was laundromat morning. Instead of staring at the washing machine, I bravely volunteered to leave Lyn to browse the local shops while I visited a church she would not enjoy.
This is San Zaccaria. On the outside it is your stock standard baroque thing. Dime a dozen here.
Inside there was a large tour group being told to admire sundry Tiepolos, Tintoretto and I think a Titian. Anyway, this is the general effect. This was not why I was here.
In passing I photographed the marble floor. Lyn likes a nice marble floor but it was not why I’d braved the elements.
Like this side chapel which was the earlier church. In the adjoining chapel there was a surprise. These women were restoring the gold leaf and parts of the structure of this altar screen thingummyjig. I happily watched them for a while. There were two wonderful wooden sculptures in here too but I couldn’t photograph them because of the positioning ofthe restorers’ arc lamps.
Below the floor of these chapels was the 9th century mosaic floor of the original church.
Beneath that was the original crypt. It is now always flooded, creating a somewhat eerie photo opportunity. Venice is always sinking.
I rejoined Lyn, returned the laundry to the apartment and then went to the post office. Lyn posted home all our surplus clothes and then we started to head off on an adventure. At which point the rain really began to pour. We gave up and went home, had lunch and slept. We woke to an overcast but warm late afternoon. We walked all the way past Arsenale and Giardini to the end of the island and rode the Vaporetto back. On the way we found a giant metal rhino which a lovely old gentleman tried to explain was left over from the last Biennale. His English was minimal, our Italian is worse and his dentures clicked when he spoke.
We went to a restaurant for dinner. We’ve ordered better weather for tomorrow.
Inside there was a large tour group being told to admire sundry Tiepolos, Tintoretto and I think a Titian. Anyway, this is the general effect. This was not why I was here.In passing I photographed the marble floor. Lyn likes a nice marble floor but it was not why I’d braved the elements.I paid my €1.50 to go into the museum and crypt. Like a lot of Italian churches, St Zaccaria is built on and around earlier incarnations.
Like this side chapel which was the earlier church. In the adjoining chapel there was a surprise. These women were restoring the gold leaf and parts of the structure of this altar screen thingummyjig. I happily watched them for a while. There were two wonderful wooden sculptures in here too but I couldn’t photograph them because of the positioning ofthe restorers’ arc lamps.Below the floor of these chapels was the 9th century mosaic floor of the original church.
Beneath that was the original crypt. It is now always flooded, creating a somewhat eerie photo opportunity. Venice is always sinking.
I rejoined Lyn, returned the laundry to the apartment and then went to the post office. Lyn posted home all our surplus clothes and then we started to head off on an adventure. At which point the rain really began to pour. We gave up and went home, had lunch and slept. We woke to an overcast but warm late afternoon. We walked all the way past Arsenale and Giardini to the end of the island and rode the Vaporetto back. On the way we found a giant metal rhino which a lovely old gentleman tried to explain was left over from the last Biennale. His English was minimal, our Italian is worse and his dentures clicked when he spoke.
We went to a restaurant for dinner. We’ve ordered better weather for tomorrow.
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