What news on the Rialto? Tuesday 10th March

We check out of the hotel and pay the obligatory cash tourist tax. Next we take the direct vaporetto to the bus station where we can deposit the cases for the day and buy our tickets for the airport. That way there cannot possibly be any problems this evening and we will arrive at Treviso in plenty of time for our flight.

Having sorted that out we head down the Grand Canale and aim for a coffee by the Rialto bridge. 

After coffee we have decided to explore the Rialto market area. This consists of touristic shops and stalls, and the traditional food market. A lot of the exotic fruit and veg stalls were still trading but the fish and meat stalls were just closing up for the day. So Shylock, in answer to your question,  there isn't much new on the Rialto today, although the price of coffee here once exorbitant is now, thanks to the Euro just expensive.
Off to St Mark's Square next to poison a few pigeons and Helen wants to walk on the surportal terrace of the Basilica. A large part of the West front has recently been refurbished and the rest is a work in progress.

There she is, but I'm not sure she's seen me yet. Selfie sticks seem to be all around us. Most of the stalls are selling them. There appears to be two different prices, bottoming at €3 and €10. The difference is that the cheaper one just holds the phone. To take the picture you still need long arms. The other however has a little plunger, which with the aid of an app you can fire the camera. We bought one and asked for a demo of it working. This took the assistance of three very helpful and friendly stallholders who downloaded the app and blue toothed it to Helen's phone. Not bad for less than £8 in St Mark's Square. 

Next visit is across the canal to the Dorsoduro to visit the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute.

This cathedral was built to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for saving two thirds of the citizens from the Bubonic plauge in the mid C16. I suspect the first ever example of quarantine organised by the state had more to do with it than divine intervention. An exception was made for the 90 year old Titian who succomed. Many of his works are on display in the sacristy of this church. Photography banned and policed so no pictures apart from the painting above the altar which you can see on a zoom. The building itself is somewhat miraculous. Solid stone apparently floating on the water of the lagoon. Somewhat reminiscent of Boston stump. Now time for lunch which we buy close to our next visit which will be I Frari. Lunch was good but the restaurant had a most unusual toilet. Most of you will know what a squatter is and we have all experienced a conventional sitter. Now I would like to present you with the "squitter". 

Before going to I Frari we look into Scuola Grande di San Rocco, or at least the chapel to the group of buildings. No photos here either, but one, by the grace of God made its own way into my camera. 

The frescoes in here and the other buildings are by Tintoretto. He won the much sought after commission by offering a complete Tondu (painted ceiling) for free. 

We moved on to I Frari next. This is a cavernous C14 Cathedral. The crowning glory is Titian's altarpiece, The Assumption of the Madonna. According to legend a glimpse of the Madonna's luminous wrist has led monks to recant their chastity vows. Sorry I can't thrill you too, photography strictly prohibited. There are also some very creepy memorials here. Canova's marble pyramid mausoleum in particular. Titian's own memorial is also in here. Must not be late for the bus so it's back to the vaporetto for our last cruise in Venice. 

Our final early evening look down the Grande Canale. Lastly I offer a little advice to Venetian visitors. If you are in a bit of a hurry and inadvertently catch the 6-15 to Marco Polo airport instead of the 6-30 to Treviso, and even if you don't realise this until you get to Marco Polo (90 minutes in the wrong direction) all is not lost. You catch the 6-55 bus to Mestre railway station then catch the 7-15 to Treviso airport, arriving at 8-15 giving you plenty of time for your 9-00 flight. We know because we did it. 

What news on the Rialto Monday 9th March

This is the day of the gondola trip. Shortly after I booked this holiday I received an email inviting us to book a 40 minute gondola trip for £25. I know that a gondola costs €80 for a session, plus extra for music and ice cream, so I reckon that it's a good buy. This is a good illustration of how the travel industry works. Our travel company had sold on our details to another firm who were bulk buying gondola seats. All we had to do was turn up at the rendezvous at 3.30 with our paperwork. Helen said let's make it 3.00 to be on the safe side.
Our first objective today is Giardini Publici second stop on the vaporetto. This is where the Bienniale takes place. It is in fact an annual arts show, but alternates between Art and Architecture. There are national pavilions, themselves showpiece modern architecture where each participating nation displays it's goodies. A sort of upmarket EPCOT centre. This all takes place in June till October. In March even the gardens are closed. Eat your heart out Enzio Piano and us.
Next plan is to visit Palazzo Grimani walking via Arsenale and along the banks of the Grand Canale.

The Renaissance Palace has been decades in restoration and today the C16 frescoes are the main draw. We really went because we were given free tickets when we paid to enter the Academia. However it was well worth it, see for yourself. 

Expand the pictures and you will see the fantastic quality and details. The Palace closed at 2-00 but they locked up behind us at 1-30. We were the only visitors in the place.It was just after we left that I realised that the paperwork for the gondola trip was safely stored in our hotel room back at the Lido. A quick calculation indicated that it would take about an hour and a half to get back, collect the paperwork and return to St Marks Square. Venice is probably the easiest city in the world to get lost in. Everyone does it, even the locals. We were no exception and undertook a more scenic route back to the Lido. After an interesting journey back again to St Marks we arrived at the rendezvous at 3-30 on the nose. The representative did not want to see the paperwork and we were shown to our gondolas.

The gondoliering was good fun and it is amazing how precisely the gondoliers can control their craft. We went up the Grand Canale for a bit then turned right down a very narrow canal, then right again to take us back to the Grand Canal and our starting point. These narrow canals were very busy with gondolas all seemingly going the opposite way to us. They say that there are more canals in Birmingham than there are in Venice, but I'm not so sure. On balance I prefer Venice. Off to St Mark's Basilica, something Birmingham is definitely a little short on. What really impresses with this building is the extravagance of the decoration, the mosaics in the domes and on virtually every available bit of free space. The mosaic tiled floors are, after all this time, stunning with trompe l'oeil perspectives that M C Esher would be proud of. 

It all started in AD 828 when some enterprising Venetian merchants stole the body of St Mark from Egypt, concealing it in a barrel of pigs lard. Two important messages here for Cathedral owners. One get a Saint's body, the bigger the better. Two stealing from Muslims is always best done with the assistance of pigs. The whole extravaganza is a testament ( indictment?) to the vast wealth of medieval and Renaissance Venice. 

Above is the Pala d' Oro. It is placed behind the main altar which is also St Mark's sarcophagus. This slightly obscure location allows the church to charge €3 to view it. But there is no entry charge. The gold panel is studded with 2000 emeralds, sapphires, amethysts, rubies, peals and other gemstones. The most priceless treasures are the cloisonné enamels of the biblical figures. It was begun in 976 in Constantinople and finished in 1209 by Venetian goldsmiths. The detailing in the enamels is spectacular. 

What do you call a long deep audible exhalation expressing sadness going over a river? 

Yes, that's right

Now it's time to go back to the Lido and a bit of exploring I think. We want to see the beach on the Adriatic Sea side and where Death in Venice was filmed. It's only a short walk, or maybe we'll just catch the bus. The stop is just outside our hotel.

Why we didn't just ring the bell I will never know, but we didn't. Probably it was a mistake to have that cup of tea in the room before we left because it cost us the light. I didn't think the bus would wait 15 minutes before leaving, but it did. It was really quite full when it left, a few passengers boarded but nobody left. Including us, of course. None of the maps I had seen actually showed all of the island of Lido but it is quite natural to assume that it is pretty small. After about twenty minutes of travelling whilst we dithered about where to alight, the decision came to us in a flash as the bus drove on to a ferry. Now! We jumped off the bus climbed up the rising ramp and leapt the increasing gap twixt ferry and quayside. There was some shouting in Italian but it was quickly lost in the gloom and distance. I gather now there are three more islands before Scilly. All we had to do now was to get home. We were in the uninhabited part of this dark and now strangely quiet land. Neither of us had mobile phones with us which would not only provided light but also reassurance we were still in the 21st century. Well, we lived to write this so you can guess that another bus came off the next ferry and took us, no, not to Count Dracula's castle,but back to our hotel. 

For more fun with buses, read tomorrow's blog.

What news on the Rialto? Sunday 8th March with a bit of Saturday as well.

Arrived after car, plane, coach and vaporetto journies to the Hotel Le Boulevard, not quite the Grand Hotel des Bains, but well appointed nonetheless. The Lido is fairly quiet this time of the year. The bar had shut at 9pm and although we had a mini bar there were no tea or coffee making facilities in the room however we provided our own. The room was spacious with a double and two single beds, front facing and with a balcony. The bathroom was bigger than some bedrooms we have slept in. Have a look at some pictures of the room. Having read on TripAdvisor that the fourth floor is very cramped I phoned up in advance to request a decent one on the first floor. That was exactly what we got. 

No bath but a good shower and bonus special footbath,I think. After a quick look at Death in Venice on Utube to get in the mood, we were off to sleep. We didn't realise that the pittance we paid for accommodation also includes breakfast,so we stuff ourselves on croissants, yoghut, scrambled eggs, bacon, orange juice, tea, some more croissants and jam and that should take care of lunch today as well. 

Vaporetto time and our first port of call is the Gallerie dell' Accademia. This was a nunnery before Napoleon decided to use it to display his looted artworks when he came here on holiday in the early nineteenth century. I suspect he was getting a bit fed up with Spain every year. 

On the way there we pass a few familiar sights. You might spot a few Canalettos.

Centralising the Churches artistic treasures is certainly really handy for today's tourists. What a far sighted person Napoleon was! Let's have a look at some of the pictures he chose specially for us. 

This is the entrance room which is up a splendid marble staircase, like the floor you can see here. Note too the humble nunnery ceiling.

Tintoretto Creation of the Animals. He's really strong on the fish and birds, domestic animals get a look in but the big beasts and the wee beetley things must be coming later.

Originally entitled the Last Supper, this painting by Veronese was condemned by the Inquisition for showing drunks and dogs cavorting with the Apostles. He was told to repaint at his own expense. He refused and after some thought changed the title to Feast in the House of Levi. Semantics one, religious bigotry nil.

I really enjoyed this painting because there is so much happening.  I can't remember who the artist is but there is a touch of Heronimus Bosch about it. 

This is a life size painted wooden carving of the crucified Christ. I think it is called Jesus with the dreadlocks and fancy pants.

Back on to the Grand Canal as we make for the Old Jewish Ghetto. On the way we pass under the eponymous Rialto bridge. 

The relief sculpture above is portraying Jews arriving at a concentration camp. They were deported from here in 1942 and finally "cleared" in 1944. The word Ghetto originates from this place, getto meaning foundry in Italian. 

This was our purchase from the famous art glass making island of Murano. In case you can't tell, it's a picture of a picture frame. Finally back to our hotel for the night. A picture of which you can see below. 

Read the next exciting instalment in tomorrow's What news on the Rialto.