Europe with Asmir and Miriam

Return to alavigne.net home

NOTE: You have javascript disabled in your browser. This presentation will continue to function, but with only basic capabilities. In order to view this presentation will full capabilities, please enable javascript in your browser, then refresh this page.

[< Previous Page]

[page 1] [page 2] [page 3] [page 4] [page 5] [page 6]

[Next Page >]

The dawn of another fine day in Italy. The main decision to be made was: head off to the Dolomite mountains, where we'd give Asmir and Miriam their first sampling of via ferrate, or spend one more day (well, morning and early afternoon, actually) in Venice, and catch up on the sights that we had wanted to see the day before (namely, the Basilica of San Marco and the Ducal Palace).

The consensus was for another 1/2 day in Venice, followed by a drive up to the town of Agordo in the Dolomites, where we'd visit again with our friends Meg and Graham Fletcher.

After breakfast at the Hotel Montepiana, we again walked over to the train station and rode into Venice.

Grand Canal from Scalzi Bridge

Rio delle Due Torri

Fresh Fish at the Market

This time, we took a slightly more direct route to the Piazza San Marco, passing through the fish market and over the famous Rialto Bridge. The Bridge was teeming with visitors, but was still a great place to check out. Good views up and down the Grand Canal.

Dealing with Subsidence

Busy on the Rialto

Grand Canale from Rialto br.

Many Moorings

Busy Venetian alleyway

Waterborne Parcel Post

Custom Cruising

Gondoliering on the Grand Canal

The Rialto Bridge

Americana tucked away

We had managed to arrive before the buildup of the super-long lineup at the entrance to Saint Mark's Basilica, and we were in quite quickly. We chose to first tour the interior of the church proper, and we filed along a predefined roped-off path through the main interior of the church (there were no pews in the main nave, just open floor). The place has a very old musty feel to it, which did not however diminish its grandness. The style of the church definitely has a Byzantine feel to it, and is very unlike most other churches in Italy.

Overhead, dusty-looking gold-painted tiles covered the surfaces of the domed roofs, with many interesting mosaics inlaid within. The floor was also covered in many tiny marble tiles arranged in all sorts of interesting patterns and pictures. The floor was also most definitely not flat, undulating up and down noticeably virtually everywhere. In fact, the whole place showed the effects of age (this church is at least 1,000 years old) and of being in a location where the ground was not entirely stable.

We next chose to visit the famous alterpiece, which is called the Pala d'Oro. It is apparently one of the most sophisticated works of Byzantine craftsmanship, and is a large gold-encrusted panel that is jam-packed with precious stones (apparently almost 2,000 of them) and the images of saints, angels, doges, and other important figures. Probably pret-ty expensive, this thing.

We chose to skip the treasury -- another pay-to-enter section you can visit on the main floor.

Interior, Basilica of S. Mark

The Pala d'Oro

Close up of ceiling

After finishing with the main floor, we went up to the terrace and the museum area. There was a great view of the interior of the church from here, as well as fine views of St Mark's square from the outdoor terrace. From the terrace, you get a close up look at 'The Greek Horses' -- the four Bronze horses that overlook the main entrance (although these are replicas - the real ones are inside in the museum). Inside, the museum has a lot of restored fragments of mosaics and artifacts from throughout the church - quite interesting.