May 18 and 19 May 20 May 21 May 22 May 23 May 24 May 25 May 26 May 27 May 28 May 29 May 30 May 31 June 1 June 2 June 3	Wednesday 5/29/02 It's moving day! Michelle had to get a really early start. She was up at 4:30. Giovanni picked her up at 5 to drive her back to Florence. She’s to catch a 7:15 am flight back home. I waved, then tried to go back to sleep. I dozed a little, but gave up at 5:30 and got up. I finished packing, then felt restless. So I decided to go for a walk. No such luck. Someone had locked up after Michelle left and I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the building! So I read until 7:15, when the outer door was finally unlocked. I took all my luggage downstairs and waited for breakfast. The van came about 8:30 and we loaded up. Giovanni isn’t driving us to Venice. His son is. Can’t remember his name... I slept most of the way to Venice. From the sound of things, I wasn’t the only one... We arrived at the car park earlier than expected. Laura was mad at our driver. He was supposed to call her when he was an hour out. He called when we were about 30 minutes from Venice. She felt rushed changing all her careful arrangements. Not an auspicious start. We boarded a water taxi for the ride to the hotel, which is just two blocks from Piazza San Marco! Nice location! We were in an annex of a very nice hotel. The annex was nice, too. Our rooms were on the second floor (third, if you’re counting floors like an American) and smaller than any of the previous ones. However, that’s to be expected this close to the city center. I’ll be sharing a room with Shirley. Will I make it through the next five days without killing her???? Perhaps I should have let the single supplement stand... We settled in quickly, then popped around the corner for a quick lunch. We’d wind up eating here several times during our stay. Roberto’s was close by, inexpensive, prompt, and they were open all afternoon, unlike most of the restaurants in Europe. I had gnocchi, potato dumplings with a nice cheese sauce. After going back to the hotel to finish settling in, Judy, Shirley, and I headed for Piazza San Marco. I was looking for an ATM and Judy was looking for an exchange. Shirley brought her camera - I stuck with my point and shoot. We found the exchange and the ATM just off the Piazza San Marco. The photo at left was taken from the area near the ATM machine and shows the Piazza San Marco, Basilico San Marco, and the Campanile (the bell tower). The photo on the right is another tower near San Marco, which was visible from one of the parks. . The three photos above show closer views of the Basilica San Marcos. The photo on the left above is another view of the Basilica San Marco, showing two of the horses in the balcony. The center photo shows the facade of San Zacharias, the church directly across the street from our hotel. The photo on the right above shows the view from our balcony, looking back towards the lagoon and shows the police station that's also across the street from our hotel. We left Shirley taking pictures in the square, after making sure she knew where she was on the map and how to get back to the hotel. Still can’t lose her... Bill and I went out for a stroll looking for masks. These are the masks used during Carnival. Venice is famous for them. I intend to pick up at least one for Kelly and Bill wants one. We discussed possibly getting them at the same time and shipping them back to the U.S. together, then me sending his on to him. We wound up not doing this, as we never got together again on shopping! And we wound up buying them at different stores anyway. Bill would carry his back. I had mine shipped, since I got two of them... I took my little camera along on this stroll, also. The three photos above were taken on this stroll. The photos on the left and right show a colorful side canal with two gondolas maneuvering around a third. I've labeled them "Gondola Traffic Jam", yet the gondolas never touched each other! The center photo shows the ornate prow of a gondola. The photo to the left was also taken on this little stroll and shows one of the many grilled windows we would see on this trip. This one has a basket of flowers attached to it. I was still in an exploring mood and had some time to kill before our evening’s adventures, so I went across the street from our hotel to San Zacharias, the pretty church that dominates the view from our hotel room. There are some very nice paintings inside, including some that are famous. I can’t remember which ones now, but I recognized them. Then I picked up a gelato and went back to the room to prepare for the evening. We met Laura about 5 to get acquainted, then walked over to the Doge’s Palace. The Doge of Venice was not an hereditary title, but an elected one. Usually, the council in charge would elect a man in his 60s, on the theory that he wouldn’t rule long enough to cause trouble. And they were right. They only had to depose a couple of them in their long history. Venice was run as a republic - representative government. There was a house of 300 that started legislation, to be approved by a council of 30, then a council of 9. The 9-man council did most of the actual ruling with the Doge as the figurehead. Laura pointed out that the Doge’s Palace appears to have been built upside down, with the light, airy columns at the bottom instead of the top. From the sea, which is the direction most visitors approached Venice, it appeared to be floating on air. Once you landed, you were escorted to the side entrance, through a dark tunnel, emerging into the light at the base of the Giant’s Staircase, a magnificent marble staircase with two large statues at the top. The photo at left above shows the view you would have coming into the palace, while the one on the right above shows the staircase more clearly. The statue on the right is Neptune and the one on the left is Mars, who bears a striking resemblance to Paul Newman! The center photo shows one of the architectural medallions decorating the ceiling of this entrance tunnel. From there, you continued to ascend staircases until you reached the top level, where the formal chambers were located. These interior staircases have gilded ceilings (no cameras allowed there). The three photos above were taken in the courtyard, where cameras are allowed. The photo on the left shows the domes of Basilica San Marco (which was originally the Doge's private chapel) looming over the entrance area to the palace. The center photo shows the well that occuplies the courtyard and supplied most of the water used in the palace. The photo on the right shows some of the ornate statuary in the courtyard. The interior courtyard is a contradiction. Two of the sides have limestone facades, intricately carved and highly decorated. The remaining two are red brick. They ran out of money when they were building it. It’s never been completed. The three photos above were also taken in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace. The photo on the right shows the brick wall mentioned above. It’s a magnificent building and full of the history of Venice. Laura gave a very good tour of the building and told us a lot about the history of the city. The three photos above were taken from a balcony of the Doge's Palace, one of the few places inside the palace where cameras could be used, as long as they were pointing out... The photo on the left shows a pillar with a statue of St. Teodoro on top of it. St. Teodoro was the original patron saint of Venice. The photo on the right shows a pillar with a statue representing St. Mark on top of it. St. Mark replaced St. Teodoro as the patron saint of Venice when the Venitians decided that St. Teodoro was too minor for such a large city... The center photo shows some shadows cast on the wall of the palace through the decorations on the balcony. The tour continues across the Bridge of Sighs, shown to the left, and into the dungeons. The Bridge of Sighs got its name because, once you crossed it, you were incarcerated and (sigh) never heard from again. The exit from the Doge’s Palace tour was the original formal entrance. The doors on that side are super tall and could be opened wide enough for a carriage to pull through, if you could find a carriage in Venice... The photo to the right shows the grand entrance. Along the piazzetta side of the palace, the side you would enter in if you were a dignitary of old, is a series of columns, two of which are rose colored marble. These are the ones that would surround the Doge when he addressed the masses. Most of the day, they are indistinguishable from the rest, but they’re more obvious at sunset, see the photo to the left. One corner of the entrance area has a statue consisting of four men (photo to the right above). It’s a corner statue, made to fit in the outside corner of a building. Originally, these represented the four emperors who took over the various parts of the Roman Empire when it was broken apart - Diocletian, Maximilian, Valerian, and Constance. And they were originally built for a building in Constantinople. The Venetians brought them back to Venice as spoils of war and installed them here. And they made up a legend to explain them. According to this legend, these are four moors who came to visit Venice, took one look at the magnificence that is San Marco and were turned to stone.... From the Doge’s Palace, we went to San Marco (photo to the left). While it’s now a cathedral, it was originally the chapel for the Doge’s palace. Several items now adorning San Marco were also originally plunder from the various wars Venice engaged in, including the “body of St. Mark”. Venice was founded with a patron saint (San Teodoro) who is a minor saint. He’s one of several warrior saints from the middle ages and was considered too minor for such a grand city-state as Venice. So they appropriated St. Mark. According to tradition, St. Mark was buried in Alexandria, Egypt. Well, the Venetians decided that they couldn’t have “their” saint’s body in heathen hands - Alexandria was now a Moslem locale - so they conspired to steal it for themselves. They stuffed it in a barrel and covered it with pork, which the Moslems wouldn’t touch, as it is unclean. The mosaics above the four doors of San Marco portray this event in detail, showing the removal of the body from Alexandria through its installation inside the church. Other plunder includes the four horses on the balcony above the main doors of San Marco. These are now labeled as St. Mark’s horses, but originally, the bronze horses pulled a chariot for Zeus or one of the other gods. The ones you can see from outside are replicas. The originals have been restored and reside on the second floor of the church. This photo shows two of the horses. The other two are on the left side of the arch. Above the horses is a golden statue of a flying lion with a book in one paw. This is the symbol of St. Mark and is found all over town. The columns that decorate the outside of San Marco are a mismatched assortment. Most were plundered from one enemy or another. In fact, some of them are just decorative and aren’t attached to anything! After our introduction to San Marco, we continued across the pigeon strewn square to the other side and on to where we were eating dinner. It was a very good dinner, but a bit overpriced, again. I had asparagus, swordfish, and a mousse dessert. Bill was a bit upset over the typical splitting the bill. He just had a plate of spaghetti. It was one of the few meals where I came out on the high end of the average... After dinner, we sauntered back to the hotel and to bed. Where we tried to get the air conditioner to work. About midnight, I got up and fiddled with it again and it came on!!! Conditions approached arctic by the time we got up the next morning. We would fight with this air conditioner for most of our stay in Venice. I think they had it on a timer or something, as it would work fine during the day (as long as we remembered to shut the outside door to the balcony) but would quit about 6 pm. If we woke up enough to fiddle with it about midnight, then it would work again, but it would refuse to work between 6 pm and midnight. Must be Italian.... Judy’s air conditioner was as picky as ours, yet Bill’s seemed to work and I didn’t hear any complaints from Betsy... Next...