I had breakfast in the Grand Pacific dining room (they seem to use the Grand Pacific a lot for breakfast and lunch) sharing with three other ladies. It was the usual breakfast menu which has cranberry juice. But they ALSO have it up in the Garden Cafe, and they have a bigger variety of food up there than in the dining room and the dining room has an even bigger variety than the room service menu which does NOT have cranberry.
We passed this lighthouse on the way in.
Lido Molo Nord (La Pagoda, Punta Sabbioni)
The Pagoda lighthouse
This station was established 1898 with a buoy off the end of the mole. The current 1908 lighthouse is active; focal plane 85 ft; two long white flashes every 12 seconds; also an entrance light, two green flashes every 8 seconds, at a focal plane of 46 ft. The seaward front of the building is painted in a black and white checkerboard pattern; the lantern is white; and the skeletal tower and lantern roof are gray metallic
Lido Molo Nord
We were not scheduled to get into Venice until 10 am and we could see parts of the town as we steamed into the port.
Looking out to sea
The Ikarus Palace was also moored there, but that isn't a cruise ship - it is a high speed ferry to Patras, and Corfu. So we were the only cruise ship there and the first of the season.
Ikarus Palace - a high speed ferry to Patras, and Corfu.
I had no particular plans for this port, although I thought my daughter had said that her son wanted to ride in a gondola. Official rates for gondola rides, started at €80 for 40 minutes. Additional 20-minute increments are €40. After 7 p.m., the base rate climbs to €100, with €50 for an additional 2 minutes. I decided that would be too expensive, and when I asked him later (as we were leaving Venice), he said that he didn't want to ride in a gondola but he would have like a ride in one of the little speedboats that were water taxis because he's a power boat guy at heart. But that would have been expensive also. A trip within the historic center can easily cost €30.
I went by the excursion desk just as they were closing down, and I asked the guy standing there what tours were open that didn't require a lot of walking, and he said the only one was the Murano/Burano tour. So I booked it. It met in the theatre at 1:30.
I felt that we ought to at least see St. Marks Square in the morning, so we got off (my grandson had his camera this time), and I got a round trip on the Italian shuttle (not the ships shuttle) for 11€ each, and off we went. I did not know until the following day that we could have bought tickets at the desk to go in to St. Marks Square and used $$ instead of €€.
Leaving the Jade
Commercial dock area
from the boat to St. Mark's square
Santa Maria del Rosario
As we took the water bus from the boat to St. Mark's Square, and then later from the ship to Murano, we were in the Canale della Giudecca along the southern side of Venice. I saw that one of the pictures was of a church that we later identified as Santa Maria del Rosario. We didn't get a chance to visit anything except St. Marks and ride along the Grand Canal, but we did find out about this church.
Giambattista Piazzetta, who paints elaborate (and somewhat dark) paintings, did two of the three altar pieces for this church – titled “St. Dominic” and “Dominicans,” which fits into the church’s overriding theme. The third altar piece by one of Piazzetta’s rivals, Sebastiano Ricci, is the more colorful “Pope Pius V and Saints.”
Santa Maria del Rosario entrance
Church
list of water bus stops
I made sure that I knew where to get the shuttle back to the ship would be. I took a picture of the sign - in case my grandson couldn't find his way back to the proper landing (and he was way better at getting back to places than I was), I could look in the camera to see what it looked like.
Diagram of St. Mark's square with -You are Here red dot at the bottom
walking along the waterfront
Lion of Venice
Waste basket with rules
FORBIDDEN
to seat and lie on the ground
to eat and drink sitting down
to soil and leave rubbish
to swim and bath in the lagoon
to wear swimwear
Note: to who will not respect these duties will be fined
EVERYONE IS SUPPOSED
TO RESPECT AND PROTECT
THE ARTISTIC HERITAGE OF THE CITY
(Art. 23 of the regulation of the Metropolitan police)
Basilica di San Marco from the line
Basilica di San Marco
Basilica di San Marco
detail of San Marco Basilica
The name of St. Marks comes from when Venetian merchants stole the supposed relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist from its original resting place in Alexandria, Egypt in 1828, and smuggled them past the Muslim guards under layers of pork. The basis of the current church was laid down in 1063, and finished in 1094 at which time the body of Saint Mark was supposedly rediscovered in a pillar by Vitale Falier, doge of Venice at the time. The basic structure is designed on a Greek cross floor plan but especially the fourteenth century, Venetian ships that returned from the Orient often brought capitals, or friezes, taken from some ancient building, to add. Gradually, the exterior brickwork was been covered with various marbles and carvings, some much older than the building itself. In order to blend in better, higher wooden domes were constructed and the outside was renovated when the Doge's Palace was redesigned.
San Marco Basilica
When we got to the square, we looked and saw the line at St. Marks was long, so we went up the Campanile (bell tower) instead.You needn't worry about the structure as the tower that is there was built in 1912 as an exact replica of its predecessor, which collapsed unexpectedly on the morning of July 14, 1902
bell tower
That was 8 € each and was a lot of fun. We had great views over the city and it was just the right amount of time.
Venice Bell Tower
For those that like statistics, the tower is 98.6 meters tall, and is mainly a plain brick square shaft, 12 meters a side and 50 meters tall, above which is the arched belfry. The belfry with 5 bells is topped by a cube, alternate faces of which show walking lions and the female representation of Venice (la Giustizia: Justice). The tower is capped by a pyramidal spire, at the top of which sits a golden weather vane in the form of the archangel Gabriel. If you get a good picture of what the bell tower looks like in your head, you can figure out where you are because all the many campanile of Venice are different.
Sign in 9 languages - It is obligatory to deposit here the backpacks The deposit is free. Attention! Do not lose your ticket. Thanks
Elevator
The elevator is kind of dim inside and crowded and hard to take a picture. There is fancy ironwork in the elevator cage and the fancy gate at the bottom too.
Decorative gate
These things are all part of the experience.
Up in the Bell Tower
There are the 5 bells of various sizes: the Nona, that chimed on the ninth hour, the Marangona (from "marangon", or carpenter), that chimed in the morning and evening – to mark the beginning and end of the working day, the Maleficio, that announced those condemned to death, and finally the Trottiera and the bell of the Pregadi, that called the judges and senators to their seats in the Doge's Palace.
Bell
Bell clapper
vaporetto stop
From bell tower
looking out over the city
Looking toward the mountains
View
Looking out toward Castillo district
looking south
Tower to ship
Basilica from the tower
wave barrier?
Gondolas from the tower
St Mark's Square from above
Square from above - people feeding pigeons
hat table down in the square
hats for sale in St Mark's Square
Grand Canal from the tower
Santa Maria della Salute (Basilica of St Mary of Health/Salvation AKA Salute) is in a prime location right opposite St. Mark's Square. It is really easy to pick out in my pictures because the dome is covered with scaffolding.
Santa Maria della Salute from the bell tower
Santa Maria della Salute from the water
This is another plague church. After the plague ran through Venice starting in 1629 and was not stopped by prayers in other churches, the Venetian Senate in October 22, 1630, decreed that a new church would be built - not just against the "plague" or to a patron saint, but to the Virgin Mary. It worked before - why should it not work again?
Santa Maria della Salute
Each year they put a temporary bridge across the Grand Canal and the Senate processes across to the the church yearly, on 21 November, the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, in a celebration known as the Festa della Madonna della Salute. That would be interesting to see.
Looking under a bridge at Santa Maria della Salute
Santa Maria della Salute is on the opposite side of the Grand Canal from St. Mark's Square, near the triangular tip of the Dorsoduro quarter. If you're visiting the Accademia art gallery or the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Salute is easily to reach on foot from either of those museums. (Just make sure you have a good map, or you could get lost.)
Santa Maria della Salute appears around a corner
At the tip of Dorsoduro opposite St. Mark's Square, where the Grand Canal reaches its greatest width (231 feet) is the Customs house (Dogana di Mare). When we were there, this building was covered with scaffolding and the outside of the scaffolding was covered with a white material.
Customs House
It used to be that cargo ships came first to the Punta della Dogana (Customs Point) to be inspected by customs officials. In the 14th century there was a tower on the point, but in the late 1600s this was replaced by a colonnaded building. It is presumably this building that is being repaired. The current building's tower sticks up above the white wrappings and is is crowned by two Atlases holding up a bronze globe. On top of the globe, the "Fortune" weathervane holds a shield to the wind.
A crane seems to tower over the Customs House
In his Italian Hours essay on Venice, Henry James describes the Dogana di Mare:
"The charming architectural promontory of the Dogana stretches out the most graceful of arms, balancing in its hand the gilded globe on which revolves the delightful satirical figure of a little weathercock of a woman. This Fortune, this Navigation, or whatever she is called--she surely needs no name--catches the wind in the bit of drapery of which she has divested her rotary bronze loveliness.
Fortune Weathervane on the Customs house
On the other side of the canal twinkles and glitters the long row of the happy palaces which are mainly expensive hotels. There is a little of everything everywhere, in the bright Venetian air, but to these houses belongs especially the appearance of sitting, across the water, at the receipt of custom, of watching in their hypocritical loveliness for the stranger and victim."
From the bell tower
San Giorgio Maggiore Orientale Lighthouse
This is supposed to be an active lighthouse, although the light is only up about 33 feet. It is an octagonal tower with a gallery which is made from white stone and is unpainted. It is on San Giorgio Maggiore island across the Grand Canal from St. Mark's Square.
San Giorgio Maggiore Orientale Lighthouse
A breakwater protects the marina on the north, and the lighthouse is western of two identical towers at the ends of the breakwater. I don't know if the east tower has been used as a lighthouse.
The other end
clock tower
Clock tower with Astronomic Clock
The beautiful Clock Tower in St. Mark's square is possibly the second most well known clock in the world; after "Big Ben". It was built in 1499. It was designed by Mauro Codussi, and decorated with an astronomic clock that shows the hour, the moon phases and zodiac signs.
moors that ring the bell
At the top of the tower, once an hour the bronze statues of two huge shepherds or moors strike the bell. The figures are sometimes referred to as Moors because of the dark color of the bronze patina.
At Epiphany and the Ascension (just twice a year) the procession of the statues of the three Kings led by an angel appears. The Magi's carousel; the three Kings, preceded by an Angel blowing a trumpet, passed in front of the gilded bronze Madonna with Child. Originally, the trumpet actually emitted a sound.
In the 1979 film Moonraker, James Bond is seen throwing Chang (the bad guy) through the glass face of the famous St. Mark's clock and down into a piano below, thus disrupting an opera performance. The real clock was obviously not used. For one thing, face of the real clock consists of revolving metal disks so a glass-fronted studio-based 'clock stunt double' was used.
There are two very photogenic columns on the Molo.
One column is topped by the winged lion of San Marco AKA a griffin which is supposed to have a book between his paws. In my picture which is a silhouette taken from the piazza, you can't see the book.
The Winged Lion of Venice
The other one looks like a man in a Roman toga with a big spear and a halo standing on an alligator or a crocodile. I understand that this represents St. Theodore, who was Venice's first patron saint, and the crocodile is supposed to be a dragon.
But since the columns and statues were really raided from Oriental sites, they are kind of reverse anachronisms. That is, some Venetian brought back a column with a griffin on it, and they put it up and called it the Lion of San Marco. Another Venetian brought back an Egyptian column with a man who has killed a crocodile on top, and so they stuck a Roman emperor's head on it, added a halo and called it St. Theodore and the Dragon.
St. Theodore's column standing on his "dragon"
After a certain amount of confusion over which was the right boat, we went back to the ship,
From the water taxi to the ship
grandson coming back to the ship
had lunch at the buffet
elevators
lunch dessert
and went down to the theatre. There I realized I had left my cane in the buffet so my grandson went back after it.
While we were waiting for our tour to start, we watched them organize the other tours. The most popular tour was called Heart of Venice and apparently involved a lot of walking. They probably had 6 ferries full of people for that tour (30 people per ferry load).
Waiting for Burano Murano tour
Our tour had only two ferries. We were given stickers and the 13 and 14 group got the first ferry which went to Murano (which is closer) and we were in the 15-16 group which went to Burano first. We had discovered that the back deck was good for pictures on our morning trip, so we sat there until it got too cold.
Upper deck of the boat
From the boat to the mountains
I didn't take many pictures on Burano. But I did find this description of the trip to Burano - since I can't definitely identify any of the places, this is the best I can do to identify what we saw.
Church
Coast guard boats
Along the route to Burano, you can see on the right the cemetery (San Michele), then on the left, Murano (there is a stop near the lighthouse as well). Entering the "Canal dei Marani" you get in the open lagoon, on the right you can see the Arsenal and Certosa, then the islands of Vignole and Sant'Erasmo, real truck-farms of the City (whose agricultural products arrive daily to the Rialto market). Then you pass near to the islands of San Giacomo in Paludo and the Madonna del Monte. The latter is really ruined.
On the Way to Burano
You get to Mazzorbo, the ancient Maiurbum, long time ago a place of residence for noble Venetians, is now full of truck-farms and vineyards. At the end of the "Canale di Mazzorbo" you can see on the right the small Santa Caterina Church, built in the fourteenth century. Then on the left there is the ancient Torcello island.
Views on the way to Burano
Shallow water in the lagoon
Really they should have reversed the order - the first group should go to Burano, and the second group to Murano. Then they'd be there the same amount of time and could switch. As it was there was a big gap on Murano when the people got done there and came to Burano while our group was still there.
Someone from our group was late back to our boat - probably because they saw people from the ship were still there. We may even have left two of them. The guy who was taking care of the gangway and docking (and who one of the ladies said looked like the Canadian ice skater Elvis Stojko) had a clicker and kept walking through clicking it.
Arriving by boat
By the boat landing
Anyway, we got to Burano and I was looking for presents for several people including something for my grandson to bring his parents, and my granddaughter's birthday is coming up and so is her mother's.
Side canal
One of the main things to do in Burano is to take pictures. It is hard to move without seeing a picture that you want to take. Some people say that Burano is the way Venice was a thousand years ago.
The story goes that the houses are painted brilliant colors in order that fisherman could find their way home in the winter fogs.
Main Square
In the center of the main square (which is called Galuppi Square. Galuppi was one of the most famous Buranollo. Baldassarre Galuppi (born in Burano 1706 - died in Venice 1785), nicknamed "the Buranello" was a composer and a theatrical author. He composed more than 100 operas (specializing in the "opera buffa"), sacred and instrumental music.
In the center of the square named after the musician there is a bust of him.
Bust of Galuppi in the square
Lace shop
Handkerchiefs for sale
Lady making lace
During the morning (Mon-Fri) it is possible to see the lace-makers at work, making their traditional stitch invented many centuries ago on the island. They were working when we were there - perhaps they opened up specially for us cruisers.
There is a lace museum but it was not open during our visit. You have to be careful because there is counterfeit lace of Burano, made in China and there is also factory made lace.
Another shop
I tried to get some dresses with lace, but I wasn't sure they would be big enough, and I saw a nice lace vest, but it was a small and I didn't think it would look good if it was too little.
Snack board
By this time I had convinced my grandson that he liked gellato, so after I went to the ATM, we each had one and went back to the boat to go to Murano . The ATM on Burano gave me 200 € for $311.35 plus a $3.11 transaction fee, which works out to about $1.55 per € so that was the best rate.
Counter to buy gelato
