Looking out our living-room window. Look how low the water level is now. Note what I presume is high-tide line of stuff-on-pavement.....
I got distracted, when taking this pic, by the cute little cup. Our apartment had a whole set of these.
This is supposed to be a pic of The First Espresso I Ever Made, but you can't even see the coffee.....
We had two of the screw-together, water-in-the-bottom, coffee-in-the-middle, coffee-ends-up-in-the-top coffee makers in our apartment. We bought some coffee. I had seen this sort of coffee maker in use, once upon a time, so I gave it a try.
I must not have been paying attention (or else I forgot how this works) -- this was pretty bad coffee. We decided to forget making our own, and buy it already made!
On the 31st, we had gotten up extra early. If you want to see the inside of San Marco, either you wait in an enormously long line, and then pay for the privilege of getting in, or you go to mass. It was Easter Sunday, so we thought we'd go to the early mass. My daughter did the research, and learned that the people who live near San Marco attend another church, so we hoped it wouldn't be too crowded.
Daylight savings turned on for Italy, early that morning, so we got up REALLY early to make 8:00 mass. (Which was one reason for the coffee.....)
Hardly anyone showed up for 8:00 mass. Fifty or sixty people, max. My daughter had read that there was a special person coming to a later mass; maybe a lot of people went then.
We sat quietly, and looked at the inside of San Marco, which is as heavily embellished as the outside. The ceilings (including the insides of the domes), and walls, are mosaic with gold background. Some of the mosaics were a lot older than others. Some looked quite Byzantine, and some looked much newer, with figures appearing to have volume and weight.
No pics, of course, even when there's no service and you've waited in line and paid for entry.
San Marco, on another gray, wet morning.
If you want to go to mass, you don't go in the front door. You go down the left side (see where the two people with blue umbrellas are going, at the bottom left of the building?). You walk a ways down the side of the building, and there's a doorway.
I have no idea how much more you get to see, if you wait in line and pay. Waiting in line is not my favorite way to spend my vacation time.
Another look at the top of the campanile.
Another look at the piazza. Rain must play havoc with the cafe-owners' profits.....
Looking down. Floors in Italy are often very interesting. This was either in a shop, or was the floor of one of the sheltered walkways at the edge of the piazza.
Looking up -- embellishments on buildings.
Later in the morning of the 31st, we went to the Academia to see paintings from the 14th century to the 19th.
(Digression: I charged our entry tickets. The charge was treated as a cash advance rather than as a purchase. I discovered this upon returning home and scrutinizing my credit card bill. "Interest charge? For what???" I called up the credit card company. The first person I talked to was fine with removing the 50-cent charge, but had no idea why it had been made in the first place. I had to go through two other people -- and be on hold for 15 minutes before getting to the third one -- before I found out what had happened.
I told that third person that it was an art museum, and I'd charged entry tickets -- no cash advance! She was fine with removing the charge, but seemed to think it was my problem that a purchase had been marked as a cash advance.....
I was advised to pay extra on last month's bill, to cover the interest I would be charged between the time last month's bill was figured and the time they got my check for it, so that no charges will accrue for the NEXT month [!!!]. I have to call them again when my next bill arrives, to get whatever interest charge appears on *that* bill removed, and then I should be done.
Good grief!!!! Are they doing this to everyone who charges their tickets to the Academia? Does no one else complain? Why doesn't Visa get in touch with the Academia and get it straightened out?
Watch those credit card bills, people, and make sure they're not charging you for something they oughtn't be! Sheesh!
End of Digression.)
Entering the Academia.
Speaking of labor-intensive embellishment. Wow. The ceiling of a big room was covered with these.
Also labor intensive......
I got scolded for taking pics (I hadn't seen any signs saying I couldn't), so that was that.
(Digression: No. No, do not try to stop people from taking pics of art that is hundreds of years old. Yes, tell them they can't use tripods or lights (including flash), but let them take their pics! What is your motivation for forbidding ordinary people from taking snapshots? There is no way it can cut into your bottom line. Especially when you're not selling any postcards of any of the art people would like to remember they saw in your museum!!!! Letting people take their own no-flash pics of out-of-copyright work harms no one, as far as I can tell, and it makes the photographers happy.
And then there's the stupidity of making rules you can't enforce. Given that (essentially) every single person now has a camera in their phone, there is no way you can stop people from taking pics. Concentrate your energy on protecting the rights of recent artists by attempting to stop people from taking pics of work that is under copyright, and don't waste your time hounding people who want to take snapshots of Titians and Bellinis!
Hooray for the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam -- not only can you take your own pics, but they have a huge number of images of their collection on their website, which you can take and use for whatever you want. This is the way of the future!
Wake up, art museums, and notice that we are living in the 21st century!
Let's do all we can to protect copyright on recent work, and let's realize that there's no benefit in preventing people from taking no-tripod pics of out-of-copyright work!
End of Digression.)
When we came out of the Academia, it had stopped raining.
It was lighter than it had been -- we are starting to see some reflections in the canals!
This is one of my favorite renditions of San Marco's lion.
Another tower.
HEY!!!! LOOK!!!! Blue sky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another tower.
My lunch. A very good goulash. It was full of vegetables, and had what were either very small dumplings, or very fat noodles. Mmmmmmmmm.
The bottom of the bread basket. The bread was forgettable, but I really liked these taralli. We started buying them in groceries, and eating them when we might have had a cracker, at home. Yum. (I neglected to give you any way to tell the scale -- these are about an inch and a half in diameter.)
Glass, with reflections and shadows.
In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.
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