October 4, 2022

October 4, 2022

One of the things that rich Venetians did for entertainment was to attend Opera. The composer Vivaldi was born here. To feel more like a true Venetian I feel compelled to try it out. So last night Aimee and I took the Vaporetto to the other side of Venice and found a nice restaurant to have Wine and Dessert while we waited for the venue to open. The Tiramisu was delicious.

The performance occurs well after Aimee’s bedtime so I picked a very intimate performance to keep her awake. It was so intimate we were essentially seated on stage. At one point the diva was so close she could have fallen in my lap. This was an opera-lite rendition of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata in three acts each in a different room in Palazzo Barbarigo. The opera title means ‘the fallen woman’ and is about a love story involving a courtesan and her illicit love affair with a gentleman. Aimee tells me that Pretty Woman is a loose adaptation of this story. Since opera is sung in Italian, we bought the guide so Aimee could follow along with the words. If it had been in English, I probably still couldn't have understood. Aimee liked it more than I did.

Coming back on the Vaporetto at night along the Grand Canal, it is very apparent that at least half of buildings in Venice are now empty. Venice is quietly becoming a museum city, if it is not already.

This morning we skipped breakfast and took an early boat to Piazza San Marco, or at least tried to. The Vaporetto we boarded was an express ending at Rialto Bridge. After thinking about it, we figured walking the last section would be faster than waiting for the local boat.

On arrival we got in the ticket line for the Doge's Palace. The lines for groups and prepaid tickets moved quicker than ours. Finally inside, we give ourselves the self-guided tour. We start in the courtyard of this grand building that was the seat of the Venetian government and the home of the Doge. It is kind of our Congress and White House rolled together.

Because Venice was founded by a bunch of sea traders (e.g. Marco Polo), it never had a monarchy and instead was ruled essentially by democracy. Citizens with a stake in the welfare of the state voted in an assembly and they also elected their leaders and managing committees. These self-interested capitalists thrived compared to their noble-led neighbors.

Like the rest of Venice, the Doge’s Palace is richly decorated. We bypass the grand external marble staircase and enter the upper floors via the interior elegant Golden Staircase. We pass through several antechambers meant to impress visitors. We then pass through a number of meeting rooms. Apparently Venice had a bureaucracy of groups that did the day to day managing of the state activities. Eventually we make it to the Great Council Chamber which is massive and large enough to hold every voting citizen. Almost every ceiling and most walls are filled with colorful paintings.

Criminal justice was also an important function in Venice. There were ‘suggestion boxes’ in several places where citizens were required to alert the government of any nefarious activity. They also had a large jail just to the east that was connected by the Bridge of Sighs to the main palace court rooms. Prisoners would get their last look of the outside world through the stone windows of this lofty span.

The large stone prison had three levels and dozens of rooms with huge wooden doors. I accidentally got thrown in the prison and Aimee barely got me released on good behavior.

Finished with the Palace, we got in a very long line to get inside the adjoining Basilica of San Marco. This started out as the private chapel of the Doge. Some private chapel! Almost a thousand years old, it is huge. Because most of the early Venetian trade was with the East it looks Byzantine with a multi-domed roof. During the Fourth Crusade, Venice sacked Constantinople. St Mark’s is partially decorated with stolen loot from that attack.

The interior of St Mark’s is almost completely covered with gold mosaic art depicting religious stories. It is probably what the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul looked like before the Muslims whitewashed the iconography.

The floor is tile mosaic with lots of different designs. Unfortunately Venice floods periodically filling the interior sometimes with water. As a result the floor is very uneven. The exterior of St Marks is under construction. They are installing a waist-high glass-topped dam around the perimeter to prevent future water damage.

We walked east of Piazza San Marco to find a reasonable restaurant away from the thicket of tourists. For dessert, Aimee insisted on having Tiramisu again. I think it was even better than last night. Afterwards we continued on to the land entrance of the Arsenale shipyard. It was the industrial powerhouse of the Medieval Era. It is still a military facility to this day. We see Italian Navy officers walking all around. The Tall Ship, Amerigo Vespucci, is moored nearby. This three-masted vessel is used for sail training by the Italian Navy.

On the way back to our hotel we made a very brief stop across the Grand Canal to see the enormous Basilica Santa Maria della Salute that is the backdrop for pictures. Although the dome is enormous the decoration is not extraordinary.

Back at the hotel we retrieved our luggage and hopped on the train for the ninety-minute ride west to Verona. After checking in we walked into town for a Lasagna and salad dinner.