What happens in Venice Stays in Venice was a concept well before Vegas. Depending on who you believe the wearing of masks was either a social equalizer or a licence to misbehave. One mask that definitely had a practical purpose was the Medico Della Peste—the doctor’s mask. This white beaked mask held herbs that they believed repelled the plague (which attacked Venice numerous times) and covered up the horrible smell of the disease. The genuine mask shops here are fabulous.
Well, we don’t have any secrets that need to stay in Venice, but we did have a fabulous last day. The Guggenheim Museum is housed right on the Grand Canal in the former home of Peggy Guggenheim. Peggy, herself Jewish, fled Paris just days before the Germans arrived in WWII. With her she took and protected a very large collection of Modern Art that would have surely been destroyed. We are still benefiting from her efforts—we were personally delighted by the Jackson Pollock and the setting. Now, not everything we enjoyed yesterday was valued at millions of dollars. Probably my favourite memory of the day was taking the traghetto across the canal. The traghetto is a gondola that transports locals from one side of the canal to the other for 70 cents (2€ for non-residents-the thrifty tourist’s gondola ride). An older man stood along with us. Italian leather lace-ups....a suit jacket...faded blue eyes...a cigarette hanging from his lip...a certain dignity that comes with age. “Good morning, sir”, I said in Italian. “You are German”, he asked in German. “No, Canadian”, I replied. “You will never forget Venice”, he said with a smile. Simple, but profound—No, we will never forget Venice. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom.
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Burano~Burano Lace~Bought a pillow cover I really hope to never find the dog sleeping on😄
All of you Shakespeare fans will have made the connection that The Merchant of Venice takes place in Venice, but do you recall which play was set in Padua. That’s right—Taming of the Shrew. Well, Our absolutely perfect day trip to Padua began with gelato at 9:30 in the morning. We were the first ones into the shop and it is a good thing there are a lot of Gelaterias in Venice as we probably can’t go back there again. Dad did not make a new friend using up all of his small change to pay for our cones😄 Primarily we went to Padua to see The Scrovegni Chapel. It is over 700 years old. Giotto completed painting the frescoes around 1305. It is considered an important masterpiece of Western Art. Tickets sell out months in advance as they only let 25 people at a time and you only get 15 minutes in the chapel. We planned ahead. Our time slot was for 1 o’clock—we were anxiously lined up at the door to be the first ones in. Was it worth it? Honestly, I was instantly choked up. The colours are so vibrant. It is intimate, personal—you are so close to each painting. The emotions in the biblical stories are so real—honest. Repeatedly I am asked what my favourite moment has been on this trip. We have seen so many varied things that they are hard to compare, but I know without a doubt I will never forget the moment I first saw the Scrovegni Chapel. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. My brain was definitely in overload at St. Mark’s Basilica. The interior (you can’t take pictures) is covered with mosaics and tourists. You are not sure where to look or where to step. Then we climbed up to the loggia, where far fewer tourist go, and it was like we were in the heavens. We were right next to the most amazing mosaics and there was a terrace open to the outside where we could stand with the bronze horses and look over St Mark’s square. The tourists looked like tiny specs.
St Mark’s is famous for more than its Mosaics. In 828 AD relics were more than just religious symbols. A city that had a significant relic had prestige and power. Two Venetian merchants headed off to Alexandria to “rescue” the relics of St Mark. Legend has it that they were smuggled to Venice in a pork barrel. The rest is history and the reason for so many lion statues—the symbol of St Mark. Still Loving Venice and Gelato. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Just returned after watching the sunset from the Rialto Bridge. I still can’t believe we are actually spending the week in Venice—definitely a dream come true. We were up and down the Grand Canal today seeing as many things as we could fit in a day, but probably the most well known site we saw was the Dodge’s Palace.
Dodges were the elected leaders of Venice until the 1700’s. They had a lot of power and ruled until they died. Well, at least that was the plan. Some were exiled and others helped along to an untimely death. While they were ruling though their job included making sure that justice was applied in Venice. Everyone had a say and there was even a mailbox type thing called the Boche de Leon (mouth of the lion) where all citizens could slip in a written complaint. Being a Dodge actually seemed like a pretty complicated and enormous job, but they did get to live in a spectacular palace. The art was amazing. Another ton of things to see tomorrow. You are Always in My Prayers. Love Mom. A rainy day in Venice. Our cute little VRBO is just over 100 steps from the Grand Canal. We’ve got our Venice and Vaporetto Passes and are ready to hit the ground running tomorrow. We did a little orientation walk of St Mark’s square just to soak up a bit of the atmosphere—and with this rain I mean we were literally soaking up Venice. Half the fun was taking our grunting and chugging Vaperetto down to the city centre and back again to our St. Toma stop. Of course gelato is easily consumed even in the rain. Today’s flavour was Dolce Latte. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. With the Julian Alps in the distance and our rented e-Bikes cranked up to full power we headed off to Vintgar Gorge. The air was crisp and the leaves on trees are just starting to turn. It was certainly a blessed way to spend a Sunday morning. Exploring the many little villages was almost as much fun—and explore we did as we got totally lost many, many times. Hallelujah for e-Bikes.
This evening we said goodbye to Lake Bled with a traditional Plenta boat ride out to the island. Our oarsman has been guiding for 22 years. His boat’s name is Barbara. We asked him if he named the boat after his wife. He laughed...no, you name your boat after your mother....your mother’s name never changes but your wife’s might. He was quite a character. Do you like mysteries? Have you heard of the Enigma coding machine that German Intelligence used in WWII? Well, Legend has it that it was disposed of and is somewhere at the bottom of Lake Bled. So goodbye to e-Bikes, mountains, mysteries, and fresh apples outside our door every morning. Tomorrow we head to Venice. You are Always in My Prayers. Love Mom. Today we headed off with a map to try to hunt down some pieces from Zagreb’s Street Art Scene. It was really quite an adventure because Street Art in Zagreb is tucked away in the most unusual places—small alleys, side walls, and even on or tucked under stairs. Also, the Street Art we saw today is definitely less political than we saw in, let’s say, Columbia or Greece. I wonder whether the political pieces get more quickly painted over or perhaps the Street Artist are not yet comfortable enough to paint political messages. I’m sharing three with you and then I want to hear from you😄 First tell me which of the three is you favourite. Then I would like you to tell me something about your favourite that you think makes it feel Croatian. This is our last day in Croatia so you probably have a lot of great ideas. Your choices are: the inventor, the rooster heads, or the lady on the stairs. I look forward to your opinions and ideas. You Are Always in My Prayers. Love Mom |
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Ray & Diane
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