The Canals Of Venice

April 5, 2008

On April 5th, the day we were to leave the ship, we went up to have breakfast about 9:30. My grandson had decided to sleep in his clothes. I was still trying to get organized and pack, not realizing that he didn't know that we were going to a hotel first. I had an Eggs Benedict Florentine (with spinach instead of the traditional one with ham)

Eggs Florentine

I also put a couple of the rolls in my pocket.

After we got back to our room, they called us and said our passports were ready and we should be off the ship by noon.
So we went up to get them, and gathered our bags together and walked off the ship about 10:30 to 10:45. I had by now figured out that the hotel was quite close to the ship's location in the port on the Grand Canal instead of at the St. Marks' end and there was almost no chance of any public transportation, so we would have to walk.

Bridges to Venice

My grandson pulled his large bag and wore his backpack and attached my carry on to his bag,

grandson ahead of me

and I just pulled my own wheeled bag. I had several maps of Venice and we worked out where we would have to walk. We had to go up over a bridge across the canal and railroad tracks,

Train track going under the road bridge

and I didn't want to cross the wrong bridge. Because I periodically stopped to take pictures (and rest) this 20 minute walk took us about 45 minutes.

The hotel was quite interesting.

Hotel Santa Chiara

Hotel lobby

We were on the fourth floor (in the attic), and the tiny elevator which said it held 4, but they would have to be very good friends, only went to the third floor

Third floor lounge where we got off the elevator

and we had to walk up the next flight.

Beds and wardrobe

TV

bathroom

ceiling with smoke detector

Bus station area and parking garage from our hotel

The windows looked out on the water bus and land bus circle area, and not on the canal. The desk man brought up our bags.

It was lunchtime by this point, and I decided to feed pizza to my grandson, since we had not had a chance to eat pizza in Naples where I thought it had originated. So we went down to the desk and turned in the key (and I asked them to remake the beds as twins, which they were supposed to have done, and they corrected this) and ordered a taxi for 5:20 the next morning so that we could be at the airport by 5:45 for our flight to Madrid.

Hotel Santa Chiara from lunch - our room has the shutters open

We walked around/across the circle to the restaurant there

and ordered pizza.

Pizza and water bottle

mineral water

My grandson said he was hungry, so I ordered a pizza each, and a bottle of water to share. He ate his and one quarter of mine.

There was the usual charge for bread/cover and the bread was those really tiny thin long bread sticks.

grandson looking at police

The bill for that was 26.30 €. This came out on my visa bill as $41.37 which is a bit high for lunch.

top of the bill

Bottom of the bill

Then my grandson went back to the hotel to get his camera, and I went to the bus terminal to buy us a 12 hour pass. Twice people tried to give me a free ticket. I did not accept as I thought it must be some kind of scam, although I forgot to ask. They are building another footbridge at this end of the canal. The construction meant that we couldn't walk along the canal to the bus stop.

Watch Your Step

This is the Constitution Bridge, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, which opened on September 11, 2009. The bridge links Venice's railway station with the car, bus and ferry terminal on the opposite side of the Grand Canal. The Constitution bridge is the fourth over the Grand Canal and the city's first new bridge in 70 years.

This bridge is very dangerous to tourist who keep spraining their ankles because of the bridge's irregularly spaced steps, and the disorienting optical effect of the sectioned stone and glass flooring. People are gawking at the sights instead of watching where they are putting their feet.

Passing under the bridge

looking under the bridge to our hotel

We took the #1 water bus/vaporetto which went all the way from the terminal to the Lido. Sometimes when one visits a city, just riding one of the bus routes is a good way to see the sights. Such as riding one of the big red routemaster buses in London. But since the streets in Venice are either small walking paths or canals, the standard bus option isn't available. Instead Venice has Vaporettos which are fat canal boats that trundle up and down the wider canals. We rode Vaporetto Route 1 from Piazzale Rome to the Lido and back and gawked at the scenery and took photos. Get on at the Piazzale Rome end to get a seat in the bow of the boat.

Lady entering the water bus stop

List of stops on Route 1

The stops are

1. Piazzale Roma
2. Ferrovia (railway station)
3. Riva de Biasio
4. San Marcuola
5. San Stae
6. Ca' d'Oro
7. Rialto (Mercato Vecchio)
8. Rialto (Banca d'Italia)
9. San Silvestro
10. Sant' Angelo
11. San Toma'
12. Ca' Rezzonico
13. Accademia
14. Giglio
15. Salute
16. San Marco Vallaresso
17. San Zaccaria
18. Arsenale
19. Giardini
20. Sant' Elena
21. Lido

We sat on the bow.

Front of hotel on the canal

My grandson was in the front seat facing forward

grandson

and I was in the middle facing him. It got quite cold up there while we were crossing the lagoon to the Lido stop. I had on a sweater but probably could have used my coat - I never managed to have the appropriate clothing on. Either I had my coat and was too hot, or did not have it and was cold. After my grandson took about ten more pictures (which added to the ones from the previous day made 119 that he took in Venice) he stopped taking pictures. These are the ones he took.

Riding the Vaporetto Route #1

next to the RR station

Chiesa di Santa Lucia

Church San Marcuola Cannaregio

ferry gondola

Rialto Bridge

Some say this is the true heart of Venice. It was built between 1588 and 1591 to replace the pontoon boat bridge that went to the Rialto market. It remained the only way to cross the Grand Canal on foot until the Accademia Bridge was built in 1854. Antonio da Ponte ("Anthony of the Bridge") competed for the contract against Michelangelo. Actually I told my grandson that it was designed by Michelangelo. I was wrong. I don't know where I got that piece of mis-information from. We only saw the bridge from the vaporetto so we did not go on any of the three walkways including the a wider central walkway leading between two rows of small shops that sell jewelry, linens, Murano glass, and other items for the tourist trade.

Picture I took of him at Rialto stop

bend in the Grand Canal

Accademia Bridge

Bell Tower next to the Palacio Grassi

Water taxi

Accademia Bridge

domes

But I continued - I had 209 photos from this section. Some of them:

Distant Bridge

Venezia Santa Lucia station from the canal

Railroad Station stop on the Grand Canal

Statues on the top of a church

Hanging out on the Academy Bridge

Closeup of the gondola insides

Hotel Continental

I took a lot of photos of the different colors of gondola mooring poles. The stripes on the mooring poles in Venice reminded me of barber poles. I was thinking - Hey ... It's the Barber of Seville -- Not the Barber of Venice. The gondoliers wear striped shirts, but they aren't barbers.

Actually the pole colors represent families of the aristocracy of Venice that owned the pole (serving as a parking place), and the gondoliers wore corresponding shirt colors. The poles really have no relation to barber poles.

I have pictures of red and white, blue and white, yellow and salmon, yellow and white, aqua and white, green and blue and many other combinations. Some poles are unpainted, and some are a solid color. I wonder if those are kind of like loading zones, or official vehicles only or something like that.

According to Wikipedia, "the red and white stripes symbolize the bandages used during the (barbering) procedure: red for the blood-stained and white for the clean bandages. Originally, these bandages were hung on the pole to dry after washing. As the bandages blew in the wind, they would twist together to form the spiral pattern similar to the stripes in the modern day barber pole. The barber pole became emblematic of the barber/surgeon's profession. Later the cloths were replaced by a painted wooden pole of red and white stripes."

Blue and white with a police boat

The Palazzo Flangini is a Baroque style palace on the Grand Canal, located adjacent to Campo San Geremia in the sestiere of Cannaregio in Venice, Italy. The palace was built by the Flangini family, a Greek Cypriot family in Venice

Palazzo Flangini

Chiesa di Santa Lucia

The Chiesa de Santa Lucia had an inscription on it which says

LUCIA
VERGINE DI SIRACUSA
MARTIRE DI CRISTO
IN QUESTO TEMPIO
RIPOSA

ALL'ITALIA AL MONDO
IMPLORI
LUCE PACE

Roughly translated, this means

Lucia, Virgin of Syracuse, Martyr of Christ in this Temple Rests
Italy Implores all the World, Light Peace

Chiesa di Santa Lucia has in it the urn containing the relics of Santa Lucia. Actually there are two St. Lucias both from Syracuse which makes it confusing. After the death of the Saint in 304 A.D., his body was moved around and in 1204, the Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo, sent it to Venice where it was put in the church of S. Giorgio Maggiore. On 13 December 1279 some pilgrims to the shrine drowned after the capsizing of boats in a sudden storm so it was decided to take the body of the Saint to the church S. Maria Annunziata or "Nunca" situated in the Cannaregio district, where they were placed the precious relics transferred from S. Giorgio. In 1313 a new church dedicated to St. Lucia, where the relics of saints were placed permanently.

Closeup of the inscription

Since we did only a trip up and down the Grand Canal on the Route one vaporetto, we obviously did not get to walk around any of the six sectors of Venice. When I looked on a map, I found that the Cannaregio district would have been on the side of the railroad station. One of the churches in this section was San Marcuola Cannaregio (which has the district in the name).

It looked unfinished, and it was. Apparently the architect thought he would cover the surface with white marble but didn't get around tuit. It isn't a new church - it was built between 1728 and 1736 by the architect Giorgio Massari. Giorgio Massari b. Venice 1687 - d. 1766 was Venice's most important architect in the first half of the 18th century. It was not uncommon for facade to be left unfinished in Venice. Finishing them cost a great deal of money and was usually left for last.

The church is dedicated to Saints Ermagora and Fortunato—yet its name is San Marcuola. It is near to the Ghetto Nuovo

Church San Marcuola Cannaregio door

In front of a San Marcuola Cannaregio

side canal just past church

Cannaregio, 2255 on Rio della Maddalena

Palazzo Fontana is located in the Cannaregio district of Venice, and was built at the end of the 16th century by pupils of leading Renaissance architect Jacopo Sansovino. It was the birth place of Pope Clemens XIII in the late 17th century. This historic and atmospheric palazzo is extremely well located, just off Strada Nuova, seconds from the Ca d’Oro vaporetto stop

Palazzo Fontana

I know that Venice is a big city for art, but we just did not have either the time or the inclination to visit museums when we were there. I did take photos of them however. The one that I liked best from the outside was the Ca' D'oro which was once the most beautiful in Venice because of the colours of its facade. But the building fell on hard times until Baron Giorgio Franchetti bought it at the end of XIX century to create an art gallery. Inside in addition to the art, you can see what remain of the decorations that once made beautiful the facades of the buildings near the Gran Canal. Downstairs, in the backyard it's possible to admire the well by Bartolomeo Da Bon, a masterpiece of 1427 made with red marble of Verona.

Approaching Ca D'Or

Ca' d'Oro

Facade of the hotel

Waterfront

Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana was built in 1751 by Antonio Visentini for the British consul Mr. Joseph Smith, protector and patron of Canaletto. Consul Smith used to show Canaletto's paintings at the Palazzo.

Smith Mangili Valmarana Palace

Old uncovered scaffolding

Boat on the Grand Canal near the Rialto bridge

Tiny canal with boats

Ponte Di Rialto - Rialto Bridge

From under the Rialto bridge

Hotel Rialto

Reflections in the Rialto stop windows

Bend in the canal

Houses along the canal

Palazzo Grassi which apparently is the site of revolving exhibitions. What attracted my attention to the building was what appeared to be an enormous skull made from metal scraps which was outside the building.

Palazzo Grassi with skull

Campanile and vaporetto top

Garden along the canal

Brickwork

Scaffolding at ground/water level with banner

Academy Bridge as we proceed down the canal

Typical Venetian architecture

Entrance

Gondolas on the Grand Canal

One way Canal (?) by Parrochia de S.Izoise

Campanile on the way down

Statue

Venice is a network of footpaths that intersects a network of canals. At the intersections there are bridges so that people can cross over to the other side of the canal. There are some big bridges over the Grand Canal, but there are a lot more of the little narrow bridges that cross the side canals. The most famous one is the Bridge of Sighs.

Bridge Of Sighs

There are a lot of stories about this bridge. The view through the windows of the bridge was supposed to be the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The supposition was that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built, and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals. In addition, little could be seen from inside the bridge due to the stone grills covering the windows.

There is also a local legend, that lovers will be granted eternal love and bliss if they kiss on a gondola at sunset, under the Bridge of Sighs, as the bells of St Mark's Campanile toll.

what is the mirror for?

Along the waterfront on the Riva degli Schiavoni (after you leave the St. Mark's Square stop) is an equestrian statue to Vittorio Emanuele 11 (1887), modelled by Ettore Ferrari (1848-1929). There is supposed to be a detail of the roaring Lion of Saint Mark but it must be on the other side. People in Venice call it just "The Monument" as you will notice there are not very many statues in Venice.

Victor Emmanuel II was the first king of unified Italy. First he was the Monarch of Piedmont, Savoy, and Sardinia from 1849 to 1861. On February 18, 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a Italian unification, a title he held until his death in 1878.

The Castello is the largest district of Venice’s six districts. It is an area situated east of St. Mark’s Square in the former city centre of Venice. Once called Olivolo, it was the center of ecclesiastical power. Nowadays it’s a quiet neighborhood and a large part of the district is covered by the Giardini Pubblici park and the Parco della Rimembranze which provide a green respite from the crowds that throng the Riva degli Schiavoni.

Vittorio Emanuele 11 statue

Stack-up of ferries

Waterfront property

Giardini Pubblici

The Giardini Pubblici (the public gardens) were created by Napoleon who issued a decree in 1807 stating that "the good city of Venice must be equipped with a public space where people can stroll".

The gardens were laid out between 1808 and 1812 according to the landscaping project of Giannantonio Selva. Several churches and monasteries were demolished to make the gardens; the arched doorway to the church of Sant’Antonio (on the left, along the canal) is all that remains of those buildings. The pleasant walking area and playground is next to the gardens of Biennale, the international contemporary art exposition which takes place every other year.

Gardens created by Napoleon

Statue of Garibaldi

Orange scaffolding cover over a building

Gas Station In front of a church

Are there gas stations in Venice?

Yes, but you won't see them unless you look for them - they are gas stations (maybe for diesel) for boats right along the edges of the canals. Otherwise none of the vaporettos and water taxis could run, could they?

Construction right next to gas station

Coast Guard boat at the fuel dock

Aid to navigation looking towards St. Marks Sq.

Industrial section - cranes and stacks

This is the red 20 - Channel to the Lido

Waterfront with ferries

How long is that ferry?

car ferry

Hilton hotel shuttle boat and another boat

Gondilier bundled up against the April chill

Coming back to the Grand Canal from Lido

A lift or a pump?

Palazzo Salviati

Some people think the glass mosaics on the Palazzo Barbarigo and the Palazzo Salviati are tacky. The murals on the Palazzo Salviati dates from 1924 and were done to advertise the Salviati glass factory

Palazzo Salviati

But one commentator says: "After pretty Gothic Palazzo da' Mula comes 16th century Palazzo Barbarigo, disfigured by some tacky 19th century mosaics. The building gives on to Campo San Vio, one of the few campi on the Gran Canal."

Palazzo Barbarigo

The first museum that I became aware of (seeing it on the map I had) was the Peggy Guggenheim Museum (photo 3), which is billed as "the most important museum in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the 20th century". It is located in Peggy Guggenheim's former home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice. The museum was inaugurated in 1980 and presents Peggy Guggenheim's personal collection of 20th century art (among other things).

Palazzo Venier dei Leon-AKAPeggy Guggenheim Museum

Construction at the end of the bridge

Palazzo Grimani

Bridge as we return up the Grand Canal

Palazzo Mocenigo detail

A congregation of gondolas

The Ca' Pesaro (photo 5) is a baroque marble palace facing the Grand Canal of Venice which has a large collection of Oriental art. There is also a contemporary art museum with works by Klimt, Klee, Kandinsky.

Ca' Pesaro

Lining up for the water bus - Venice

Murano glass store

Passing vaporetto

Tourists getting gondola rides

Waiting for our turn at the vaporetto stop

Private Balcony

San Clemente Palace boat

Sitting along the canal

Small shop along the Grand Canal

Standing to row

In my junior year of college I took a semester of modern art, and learned to love the pictures of the impressionists - Renoir, Van Gogh and especially Turner. Seeing the Grand Canal in person was like having a Turner painting come into focus

Fading spring sunlight - fit for painting

Bridge from the Piazzle water bus stop - Venice

From the water bus near the north end of Route 1

Hotel approaching from the canal bus

For dinner, we walked down the canal a ways

Kiosk at the end of a bridge - Venice

passing some souvenir places

Souvenir stands

to a little restaurant

Looking across from the restaurant

Inside restaurant

Specials board

and I had lasagna and salad

My salad and lasagna

and my grandson had beef which was a very thin piece of meat, and also fries.

beef

Italian ketchup

Canals at night

Dining room at night as we went back to our room