jetjunkies

April 26, 2019

This primitive painting is by Pegeen Vail, daughter of Peggy Guggenheim.

Today we are going on a tour of the Grand Canal of Venice. We have been walking our legs off, so decided this was the way to continue exploring the city and give ourselves a well deserved break.

Here’s a rowing team and a gondola, the new and the old. The common theme is that all rowers are standing. Must be a Venetian thing….

Giovanni was our guide. He is a young man that is living in the family home near St. Marks Square in Venice. He met us at our shuttle to the edge of the city and helped us with our bags to the hotel. It’s such a fresh prospective seeing the city from the water and hearing stories from a native. Ordinary looking buildings we had passed on our walking tours have grandeur from the water with their ornate facades.

This is the iconic Ca’ d’Oro. A Venetian-Gothic palace that is currently home to a Renaissance art museum.

This is the Ca’ Pesaro that currently houses contemporary and Asian art.

Suzanne and I walked behind the fish market on our way to the Rialto Bridge. The market is still open to shoppers in the morning.

Just to prove that people will do anything to make an impression. The couple that owned the palace behind the tower, were known for throwing lavish parties where they would throw their valuables out the windows and into the canal. They would then have the items dredged back up to throw out again at the next party.

We are standing in the back of our water taxi listening to Giovanni and taking in the sights. This shot puts the Rialto Bridge in perspective. The water taxi is covered as you can see in this photo, but there is an open area in the back, sort of like the sunroof in a limousine, where you can stand and look around. It was about here that we started experiencing unexpected sprinkles, which steadily increased to a deluge about the time we got to the end of the tour.

The 500 year old Palace Dario, with the circular windows is considered cursed as everyone that has owned or stayed there for any length of time have often had terrible fates: death, murder, and bankruptcy. Kit Lambert manager of The Who, bought the palace in the 1970’s, but often stayed in a nearby hotel to escape all the ghosts. Some locals think the house is cursed, because it was built over a Templar Cemetery*.

This is a view of the Santa Maria della Salute church commonly known as Salute. The Roman Catholic Church was consecrated in 1681 and built in the Baroque style. It was built by the Republic of Venice, dedicated to Our Lady of Health for deliverance from the devastating outbreak of plague in 1630*.

The is Saint Mark’s Square with the two pillars representing the two patron saints of Venice, Saint Theodore and the Winged Lion of Venice. The Doge’s Palace is to the right and Saint Mark’s Basilica to the rear.

This is the Bridge of Sighs arching between the Doge’s Palace and the Prison. The two little windows were the last glimpse that prisoners have on their way to a lifetime of confinement.

On our way back to the hotel, our driver took us by this shop where they build Gondolas.

Tomorrow is a travel day, which will put us in Verona, land of Romeo and Juliet.

* Dario Palazzo, Atlas Obsura

* Salute, Wikipedia