Day 18 ~ Venice

On our way from Bolzano to Venice, we encountered the majestic Alps, rivers, long tunnels, hillside medieval castles, vineyards, apple orchards, and kiwi vines. This region is second only to New Zealand for growing kiwi.

I get excited whenever I get a decent photo of a castle as we whiz by them in the bus.  This one was exceptional as it was on the side of a cliff.

The original population of Venice consisted of refugees from Roman cities near Venice  and from the undefended countryside who were fleeing successive waves of Germanic and Hun invasions. Venice became a major maritime power during the middle ages and Renaissance and an important center of commerce. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is built on more than 100 small islands in a marshy lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. There are no cars or roadways, just canals, boats and hundreds of bridges.

Once in Venice, we took a vaporetto (public water bus) to our hotel.  This is the view of Grand Canal from our balcony window.  There are only two balcony rooms at the hotel so we really hit the jackpot.

Saint Mark's Basilica is one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture. In the 11th century it was nicknamed Chiesa d'Oro (Church of gold) because of its interior and exterior gold mosaics. Venetian merchants stole the supposed relics of Mark the Evangelist from Alexandria in the 9th century. They are now housed inside the cathedral. 

St Mark’s Clock Tower dates back to the 1490s. At the top of the tower, two great bronze figures strike the hours on the bell. The Since the 12 century the winged lion has been the symbol of Venice and its patron saint, St. Mark. The time on the clock is 3:55.  The hours on the left are written in Roman numerals.  The round clock face at the bottom  is engraved with 24 hours of the day in Roman numerals and also has signs of the zodiac in gold.

I took lots and lots of photos of the palaces along the Grand Canal, but am only including a couple of my favorites.  Below is Palazzo Ca’d’Oro, one of the oldest in the city.  It is now open to the public as a gallery.

Palazzo Barbarigo was originally built in the 16th century. Today it is one of the more opulent palazzi on the canal, distinguished by its moaics of Murano glass applied in 1886.

And here we are with our fearless Program Director, Matteo. He did a wonderful job of keeping us organized and on track all the while showing us a great time. 

 

We will be up at 3:00 AM to take a water taxi to the airport to fly home Monday morning.  It has been such a wonderful trip!