Our last full day win Venice was hot. Italy is in the grip of a drought and, though it’s autumn here, every day so far has been very hot. The summer was much hotter, of course, with temperatures regularly passing 40 degrees. That would have been almost impossible to endure, considering there are even more tourists in summer. The beyond-gigantic cruise ships that keep coming into the Guidecca Canal are making things a lot worse; Venice can only have so many hotels but these monstrosities are huge floating hotels carrying thousands of passengers who disembark for a day or so in the city and descend onto the tourist traps of the Rialto and Piazza San Marco and then take off for some other unfortunate harbour.
But there is an advantage in most of the tourists clogging up those two icons and that is that many other fantastic sights in Venice are less molested. There are scores of lovely churches, designed by great architects, full of phenomenal paintings and sculptures and they’re often almost empty. On our long walk south from our northern region of Cannaregio we stumbled across a wonderful church San Francesco della Vigna in the Sestire of Castello. We sat alone in a beautiful room room with a Bellini painting and roamed through a superbly serene cloister, our only interruption being a tour guided by one of the Franciscan priests who then held mass, which was quite an experience for we two atheists.
But there is an advantage in most of the tourists clogging up those two icons and that is that many other fantastic sights in Venice are less molested. There are scores of lovely churches, designed by great architects, full of phenomenal paintings and sculptures and they’re often almost empty. On our long walk south from our northern region of Cannaregio we stumbled across a wonderful church San Francesco della Vigna in the Sestire of Castello. We sat alone in a beautiful room room with a Bellini painting and roamed through a superbly serene cloister, our only interruption being a tour guided by one of the Franciscan priests who then held mass, which was quite an experience for we two atheists.
We wandered down to the Arsenal and then through a beautiful, large park which is also the site of the Venice Biennale and then onto the little island of San Pietro di Castello, with its grand and beautiful church and leaning tower.
House on the island of San Pietro di Castello
San Pietro di Castello's leaning tower and church
On our long way back to the hotel we walked around the enormous hospital, where we could peer into a room with a speedboat moored inside, perhaps one of the doctors’?
Venice hospital
Another long walk at night after dinner and it was goodbye to Venice. We were sad to go, it truly is as beautiful as everyone has ever said since its birth over 1300 years ago.
The Arsenal
House on the island of San Pietro di Castello
San Pietro di Castello's leaning tower and church
Venice hospital
Another long walk at night after dinner and it was goodbye to Venice. We were sad to go, it truly is as beautiful as everyone has ever said since its birth over 1300 years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment