Venice
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2008
1
15
21
Trip End
Sep 29, 2008
Venice,
Veneto,
Italy
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Up to Deck 9 for breakfast and then on to Deck 10 to the pool deck but just too cold and windy to stay out there long so headed to Horizons at the 'pointy end' of the ship where we watched, inside and warm, as the ship sailed into the port of Venice! We had to temp dock until the ship 'The World' left the dock, and then we were off for another adventure. Venice is singular among the world's cities, and was selected by Shakespeare for the setting of Othello and The Merchant of Venice, though he never visited either setting. Venice encompasses 118 islands separated by more than 150 canals, spanned by 400 bridges. It was a refuge from violent Barbarian invasions in the 5th century and first settled in the 6th century and by 13th century Republic of St Mark dominated. Artists such as Bellini, Titian and Tintoretto created many masterpieces here and Marco Polo was a resident and trader
doges palace
. Napoleon was here in the 1700 -We have discovered he was many places leaving his mark, usually of destruction; and in 1866 Venice was annexed by the new state of Italy. The bridge of Sighs dates from the 17the century and links the Doge's Palace with the prison dungeons that we were able to visit today. It is a popular tourist town and averages 200,000 visitors a day, and we feel sure it must have surpassed that today! Venice's treasures are just too numerous to count! Our tour took us, via boat where we docked and walked, to St Mark's Square There we toured the St Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace. Both were fantastic! The palace is literally covered with painted walls, and in painted pictures, and all elaborately framed in huge gold gilded frames. Some of the stairs had golden ceilings. Room after room of this - just fantastic -I had not expected such beauty. The Doge's Palace is a gothic palace in Venice. In Italian it is called the Palazzo Ducale di Venezia. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice.
Its two most visible facades look towards the Venetian Lagoon and St Mark's Square, or rather the Piazzetta. The use of arcading in the lower stories produces an interesting "gravity-defying" effect. There is also effective use of colour contrasts (unfortunately, the patterns are not well shown in the illustrative photographs accompanying this article...from a distance the colours blur)
coning into venice
.The current palace was largely constructed from 1309 to 1424, designed perhaps by Filippo Calendario. It replaced earlier fortified buildings of which relatively little is known. Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon created the Porta della Carta in 1442, a monumental late-gothic gate on the Piazzetta side of the palace. This gate leads to a central courtyard.
The palace was badly damaged by fire in 1574. In the subsequent rebuilding work it was decided to respect the original gothic style, despite the submission of a neo-classical alternative design by Palladio. However, there are some classical features, for example since the sixteenth century the palace has been linked to the prison by the Bridge of Sighs.
As well as being the ducal residence, the palace housed political institutions of the Republic of Venice until the Napoleonic occupation of the city. Venice was ruled by an aristocratic elite, but there was a facility for citizens to submit written complaints at what was known as the Bussola chamber.
St Mark's church was also a pleasant surprise, but so crowded with pushy people we were not able to enjoy it like we should have. The floors were made up of many mosaic patterns and colors, different every few feet and quite beautiful. The walls were done in Marble, but they used many, many different colored marble together in a way that would sound unattractive but was, to me anyway, beautiful
venice
. The first St. Mark's church in Venice was a temporary building in the Doge's Palace, constructed in 828, when Venetian merchants stole the supposed relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist from its original resting place in Alexandria, Egypt.
It is said the Venetians hid the relics in a barrel under layers of pork to get them past Muslim guards. The escapade is depicted in the 13th-century mosaic above the door farthest left of the front entrance of the Basilica.
The original St. Mark's church was replaced by a new one on the present site in 832. The new church was burned in a rebellion in 976, rebuilt in 978, and finally to form the basis of the present basilica in 1063.
The basilica was consecrated in 1094, the same year the body of Saint Mark was supposedly rediscovered in a pillar by Vitale Falier, doge of Venice at the time. The crypt then housed the relics until 1811. The building also incorporates a low tower, believed by some to have been part of the original Doge's Palace.
While the basic structure of the building has been little altered, its decoration changed greatly over time. The succeeding centuries, especially the fourteenth, all contributed to its adornment, and seldom did a Venetian vessel return from the Orient without bringing a column, capitals, or friezes, taken from some ancient building, to add to the fabric of the basilica
1-venice
. Gradually, the exterior brickwork was been covered with various marbles and carvings, some much older than the building itself. A new frontage was constructed and the domes were covered with higher wooden domes in order to blend in with the Gothic architecture of the redesigned Doge's Palace. The intricately-patterned floor is a 12th-century mixture of mosaic and marble in geometric patterns and animal designs. A red medallion in the floor of the porch inside the main door marks the spot where, in 1177, Doge Sebastiano Ziani orchestrated the reconciliation between Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, and Pope Alexander III.
Also see www.italyguides.it/us/venice_italy/st_mark_s_square/piazza_san_marco/st_mark_s_basilica.htm
After that a few of us elected to walk on to the Vecchia Murano Glass Factory where we watched a master glassblower start and complete a pitcher with spout and very thin handle. We walked through many rooms of Murano Glass and ---- what can I say but WOW! Chandeliers, jewelry, wine sets, whimsical, all just beautiful! I thought the Church and the Palace were remarkable, but think this equals or even surpasses them! Walked back to our meeting place with just a few minutes to spare to meet our returning boat. Now this is a place I could spend a lot of time at and hope to one day have a chance to do so
2-venice
! Lunch at the Waves and a visit with Joyce in the computer room. Today my phone finally got a signal, the first since leaving home, and Carols never has gotten one, so she called Maria to confirm they would meet us at the dock in the morning. Maria was surprised as she thought we were coming day after tomorrow! So glad we could call her or we would have been out on the deck with our luggage all night! Dinner on the Terrace tonight and watched a huge deep red sun go down over the horizon. Now time to pack, leaving out something to wear tomorrow. Our luggage is to be outside our door by 10PM tonight. We are packed, leaving one outfit, jammies and hair and face stuff. The luggage is tagged and out in the hall, Carol is reading and I went to the final show with Joyce. It started late, the entertainer sang a long time and there was to be dancing after, but everyone headed for bed. We watched TV for a while- they had done a movie of our ship and was fun to find us in a few of the scenes. Finally bedtime.
