Still catching up on sleep, I slept until about 5am, but then took an early morning “second sleep” from 7-9am. My AirBnB, directly on one of the small canals, is quite comfortable. Here are some pictures. It has two bedrooms and the bathroom has a bidet. Of all the places I’ve traveled to this year, I’ve never had a bathroom that had a bidet in it. I have no idea how to use it, so thankfully, they have toilet paper also.
After my morning routine, I got out the door and “got lost” in the city for a while. I promise not to bore you with too many more canal photos, but they are completely wonderful and the views down each of them are all stunning. Here’s just one more.
For my breakfast, I stopped at Rosa Salva. The set-up and offerings looked vaguely familiar and I asked if they had multiple locations and if one of them was in Madrid. They have three locations. One in Venice, one in Madrid and one in Paris. This location in Venice is the original. I had a Caffe Latte, a mini croissant with ham and brie, and a puff pastry filled with caramel flavored Chantilly cream. What an excellent way to start the day!
I then meandered to St Mark’s Square before entering the Basilica for my timed entrance ticket. Rick Steves, the well known American travel guide/journalist, has free downloadable guides that you can listen to and he covers Italy extremely well. I downloaded his guide for the Square and the Basilica and couldn’t have been happier. His audio guides are perfect. St Mark’s Square is the largest open area in Venice and often floods during the heavy rainy season, but recently they removed all of the stone in the square, put in a layer of sand and then put the stone back, hoping that the flood waters would drain more quickly. However, the entire island is slowly sinking, while the sea water levels are slowly rising. Who knows what this will mean for Venice in the next 100 years or sooner. I know they have also spent a fortune on sea walls that rise and fall to help regulate the tides and keep the normal rising of the sea to a minimum. The square is boxed in by large elongated buildings, and two towers, one of them is the Clock Tower, and the other is the Bell Tower. All of them lead you to St Mark’s Basilica.
St Mark’s Church/Cathedral/Basilica is stunning. It is topped by onion domes and has incredible mosaics. It is an eclectic mix of Cosmopolitan styles from Roman Arches, Greek Columns, Byzantine Mosaics, French Spires or Pinnacles, and Islamic Domes. It was a church built upon the bounty of, at one time, the richest city in the world. In 800 A.D, St Mark’s body was stolen from Moslem controlled Egypt where he’d been buried and was then smuggled into Venice in a Pork Barrel. His body was entombed and a Church rose around his resting place. The original church burned down in 986 and was rebuilt in 1063. It hasn’t changed much since then. On the inside the church is covered in mosaic tiles depicting many different Biblical scenes and motifs. Even the flooring marble tiles are spectacular in their design. Here are many pictures that I took inside the church.
The altar holds the remains of St Mark’s Bones. Behind the altar is a golden Altarpiece that is enhanced with 1,927 gem stones.
In an upstairs room hang some of the original tapestries, paintings, older mosaics, and pieces of the building that has been replaced. The most noted are the four horses which guard the front door of the Basilica from above (now replaced by reproductions) and date to the 2nd Century BC.
Following my tour I had a late afternoon drink/snack (Bacardi Breezer Lime, chips and olives) as I watched the crowds come and go through St Mark’s Square.
One of the great things about staying in an AirBnB is that you can go to the local market and grab an assortment of foods that you can’t find back at home and make your own meals. I don’t do it often, but I also can’t afford to eat ALL of my meals out. So, tonight I stopped at the local market and picked up Speck (like Prosciutto) and Tomino Cheese (kind of like Farmer’s Cheese in small rounds), coconut yogurt, and made a pot of tea.
Tomorrow I head to the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Three separate islands near Venice.
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