Venice: Tombs, Towers and Treasures

After breakfast we all headed off round the corner to the nearby Santa Maria Gloriosa del Frari. We had passed this church several times in the last few days and wanted to take the opportunity to visit it. Inside we cannot miss the impressive monuments to Titian and Canova. They seem to be in stark contrast to the modest tomb of Tintoretto. Canova’s tomb is the most impressive. He had actually designed something similar for Titian, but when he died his pupils produced a similar design for him.

Thanks to these massive monuments I almost missed on the Frari’s smallest treasures. I had to ask R where it was in the end. It was a tiny painted sculpture of John the Baptist by Donatello. I think it was the fact it was painted that threw me, somehow I hadn’t expected it.

It offered us wonderful views across the water to St Mark’s Square and all for just €3!

After the Frari we went to another nearby treasure house, the Scuola Grade di San Rocco. We hadn’t bargained on the €7 ticket price so instead go to the free San Rocco church. Almost every surface in this building is decorated by Tintoretto’s paintings. I have a great deal of trouble working out which ones go where, mainly because I’m looking at the wrong floor plan.

Our plan today was to leave it as late as possible before buying another 24 hour tourist pass for the vaporettos. To that end I suggested we walked the reasonably short distance too the San Maria del Salute. The route took us through the quiet and charming streets of the Dorsoduro district. Some of them are wide and open, presumably old canals that have been filled in. Others are incredibly narrow, you would certainly have a problem passing someone down them. We took a few wrong turns, but eventually came out at the Salute. As we do so we were greeted by a busker playing a cello on the steps of the church.

Inside the church we admire its vast dome before some of us make our way into the sacristy. My guidebook actually said that this area wasn’t open to the public, so we were lucky to see it, particularly as it contains some wonderful works of art by Titian.

We now had a problem as there wasn’t anywhere to buy a ticket for the vaporetto. In the end we hopped on to the next one that would take us to St Mark’s Square. When we asked the boatman what to do, he told us to buy it when we arrive at the other end – so this trip was free!

From St Mark’s we wanted to catch a vaporetto over to San Giorgio Maggiore. We had a lot of trouble working out which stop to go to, but settled on one and waited … and waited. Eventually J and S decided to investigate further. Five minutes later they returned to tell us we were in the wrong place!

When we did eventually arrive on the island, R was desperate for a drink. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be anywhere to get one, so in the end I gave her my bottle of water. As she was suffering from the remnants of a cold, I told her that I wouldn’t want it back!

Once inside we headed straight for the Campanile, which thankfully has a lift that takes you up to the top. It offered us wonderful views across the water to St Mark’s Square and all for just €3! We even spotted a café down below.

As we descended in the lift we were told that the church was about to close for lunch. We dawdled as much as we could before finally heading back outside. We decided to investigate the café we had seen from above. J had thought it would be a waste of time, but we were all pleasantly surprised by it. It was completely empty but had a very tempting range of snacks inside. So we took our seats in the sun, overlooking a marina, with St Mark’s in the background.

We ordered our food and I decided to try a drink called a Spritz. I had thought it might be a white wine with lemonade, but it turned out to be the vivid orange drink that we have seen the locals enjoying. It’s a very bitter drink made from Aperol, white wine and soda but I did find myself rather enjoying it, or I would have if it hadn’t been for the wasps. From the moment our food appeared we were beset by them. They must have been sitting on the wall waiting for some innocent victims to come along.

Suitably refreshed we took a vaporetto back to Saint Mark’s Square, where we all split up. D and I headed down the quay to the Biennale, to see what the park looked like. We found ourselves a very pleasant café under the trees and ordered ourselves a cappuccino and a latte. In the end we decided not to go into the modern art exhibition, preferring to explore the park and streets surrounding it. It turns out to be the most authentic residential area we have seen on the whole trip. This is where ordinary people live, with houses more ramshackled than normal.

Back down on the quay we walked back towards the town centre, stopping to buy an excellent ice cream at the Arsenale. With D sitting comfortable on a handy perch, I dashed down the canal to the vast gates of this once great shipyard. This had once been the heart and sole of the city, producing a thousand ships a year in its heyday. You can actually see all the way through the island from here to the lagoon on the north of the city.

The visitor’s entrance certainly makes a statement. It is crowned by a vast winged lion, whilst four other lions stand guard either side. These impressive beasts looked suspiciously like they may be more spoils of war. In fact they originated from the Greek port of Piraeus near Athens – honestly if it wasn’t screwed down the Venetians would nick it!

I found D where I had left her, sitting beside the canal and watching the world pass by. I can’t help creeping up on her and making her jump. We decided to catch another vaporetto back to Saint Mark’s Square where we found a space on one of the stone benches that are built into the walls of the Doge’s Palace. Here we have great fun people watching. Whilst thousands of people mill about one man sets up his camera on a tiny tripod and leaves it to pose with his girlfriend. This seemed a bit risky to us, but he looked quite happy with the result.

As we sat gazing across the square to the Campanile, D asked me whether it had a lift. I assured her it did and mentioned that it does give you a very different bird eye view of the city to the one we saw earlier. After a short pause D decided that she would like to go up it, so off we went to join the queue.

It didn’t take us long to get to the top, the queue was short and well managed. The Aussie couple behind us were disappointed you couldn’t walk up it and almost decided to leave! We entered the lift through one door, whilst the people making the return journey leave it via another. It’s possible to get about 20 people inside, so it’s a quick process getting people upstairs.

Upstairs we had a fantastic view of the rooftops, all covered with bright terracotta tiles. We managed to pick out areas that we have visited this trip, including the Frari that we had visited this morning. D noticed that there were people standing on top of the Torre dell’ Orologio. It’s a beautiful clocktower, topped by two bronze figures and a large bell that they hit with hammers. In the distance we could even make out a range of mountains, presumably the Alps?

Whilst we both enjoyed the view, a cold wind suddenly appeared and hastened our return to the square below. The threat of the enormous bells above us suddenly starting to ring also helped with the decision.

Back in the square we wandered round to the vaporetto stop whilst admiring the wares of the street artists and souvenir sellers. There are plenty of masks and glass necklaces to buy. We caught another vaporetto back to our hotel and I put D to the test. We had made the short walk back to our hotel plenty of times now, so I thought it was about time she had a go at navigating. From the San Toma’ stop, there was only one alley that you could take. When that met a brick wall you turned left towards a bridge that you didn’t cross, instead you turned right and the hotel was in front of you. Well we made it to the brick wall! D paused for a while, consulted her map and then guessed right. “Not bad” I said, “but do you want to have another go?” With a little encouragement we made it back and I left D to rest up before dinner tonight, whilst I headed off to do a little shopping in the surrounding streets.

I spent some time looking for Murano glass necklaces, but nothing really took my fancy. Another great Venetian speciality were the shops selling hand printed marbled paper and beautifully bound leather books. But in the end I found a small shop selling limited edition lithographic prints. The shop keeper told me that she spoke a little English and seemed to enjoy practicing it. She asked me about where I lived, the city or the countryside? She desperately wanted a cat but couldn’t keep one whilst she lived and worked in Venice. She was looking forward to retiring so she could keep one. If her English was poor, I dread to think what she thought of my Italian!

I’m rather fond of miniature prints and already have one from Venice, but I managed to find another to accompany it. The subject reminded me of previous night, mostly blue with a hint of orange in the sky, like the wonderful sunset we witnessed across the lagoon.

Later that evening I met up with the others and we all headed down to Saint Mark’s Square and then to one of the restaurants along the quayside. We picked out a promising one and then proceeded to confuse the staff by asking for a table inside – we were determined to be warm this time!

I decided to have another Spritz with my meal, but it proved much stronger than the one I had at lunchtime. I think they had asked me which bitter I wanted and I ended up with Campari rather than Aperol. In the end I just watered it down a bit more and it was actually pleasant. For dinner I had fried prawns and calamari with vegetables. I was hoping for the tasty grilled Mediterranean vegetables we had last night, but sadly a plate of boiled veg arrived. It was an okay meal but nothing special.

After dinner we headed back to St Mark’s Square to listen to the music and check whether anything was happening on the stage erected in its centre. Unfortunately nothing seemed to be going on but we did enjoy drinking in the atmosphere.

Later we caught a vaporetto round to the Rialto Bridge for a late night nightcap plus a lovely chocolate torte to share with D. Sadly she didn’t like it because it also contained almonds. Still her loss was min gain!

Eventually we wound our way back to the hotel. D and I took a vaporetto whilst the others walked. We passed them and waved but they were too busy talking. When we reached the hotel we discovered it was Karaoke night in the adjoining restaurant. Suddenly our lovely canal side room didn’t seem quite so desirable. I did offer to swap it with the others, but funnily enough they didn’t want too now. Thankfully the singing does stop shortly after midnight, but there were still kids playing outside!