The rain was falling lightly this morning and the tide was high again which made things a bit interesting in St Marks Square….
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| The view from the Bridge of Sighs |
We toured the Palazzo Ducale first thing, fortunately skipping the line with the Museum pass that we had picked up yesterday afternoon. The Palace was the home of the Doges of Venice and the place they met with their senate and handed out judgements on all and sundry. Unfortunately you’re not allowed to take photographs in there because the 24kt gold ceilings were amazing! In the major hall there is also an incredible oil painting by Tintoretto that is the largest oil painting on the world. The Doges really liked to make a statement!
Part of the tour took us across the Bridge of Sighs and down into the prisons. We could see carvings on the wall that prisoners had made and we stopped to take a snapshot of the last view of Venice that prisoners had before they were locked in their cells. They would stop…and sigh…and thus the name. Casanova was locked in the prisons at one stage for “moral misdemeanors” (!)
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| The queue for the Basilica. Dodging the water! |
Next we had to deal with the excitement in St Marks Square. The walking tables were all set up past and into the Basilica because the Aqua Alta had put in an appearance. The entrance to the Basilica was under water and it had seeped into the lower levels of the entrance hall. The Basilica is a colossal Greek cross shape with mainly Eastern and Byzantine influences and the ceiling is a series of gorgeous gold mosaics.
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| A damp square with the Clock Tower behind. |
We paid a few extra Euros to climb up the narrow stairs to the museum and to step out onto the terrace that looks down over St Marks Square. From here we could see the long queue of people waiting to enter the normal door. These guys hadn’t done their research, for only 1.50 Euro you can make a timed booking online and go through the reserved entrance, we had waltzed straight past the line and gone straight in at our allowed timeout felt just like a Disney fastpass!
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From the terrace we also had a great view of the water bubbling up into the square from the round drains and also even from the cracks between the massive pavers. The seagulls were loving it, splashing and swimming around the deeper sections. One side of the square must be much lower as the water was significantly deeper on that side and the orchestras of the cafes on that side had packed up shop and given it up as a bad job!
We, like all the other tourists, took photos of the water and there was the odd twit who decided he wanted the wet feet shoes photo. He hadn’t even bought himself a pair of the disposable waders that had suddenly appeared in all the souvenir stands,
We walked down to the waterfront again and watched the gondolas bob up and down as the waves splashed over the edge of the canal. We decided to stroll east along the water to take a look at the Arsenale. This was the area that is still owned and managed by the Italian Navy, that in the past was a colossal ship building area and gave Venice much of its mastery of the seas.
Heading inland we meandered back through some quiet residential lanes and along small canals til we arrived back in familiar territory near the hotel. Lunch was a couple of pain is in a tiny cafe where the girls were running like crazy to keep up with the orders.
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| The Arsenale |
We did a little more shopping before going back to the hotel to get warm ( it’s been very cold again) and to rest up before our dinner and opera . Around 6pm We set out towards Accademia to find somewhere for an early dinner before we needed to be at the Palazzo Barbarigo for our concert. It was pretty cold so we opted for a little cosy ristorante near Accademia which was just OK. The food was excellent, my pasta was tasty and fresh but the service was very slapdash. Our salad and vegetables never arrived but they were Apologetic when the bill came and we had to ask to have it adjusted.
The Palazzo a Musica is run as a musical club, so you needed to sign in just as we would in a club back home. We found the entrance down a little alley and climbed the candlelit stairs into the main sala where chairs were about 50 chairs were set out for the first act. The quartet came in and plaid the familiar opening strains of the Barber of Seville ( I had visions of the Bugs Bunny cartoon going through my head) and the magical evening began.
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| Grand bedroom – Final Act stage in Palazzo Barbarigo |
The singers were wonderful and it was such an intimate way to be part of a marvelous opera. Figaro and Rosina sang their asides to the people in the front rows and the faded grandeur of the room helped make the story come alive. At the first interval we enjoyed a glass of Prosecco in the ballroom facing out on the Grand Canal before being ushered into another grand sala for the next scene. the final scenes were performed in a gorgeous bedroom with cupids on the ceiling and and grandly draped bed. Sadly we were asked not to photograph the performance but I took a shot of the bedroom and also our view over the canal during interval.
It was a marvelous way to spend our final evening in Venice…