April 2 -- meandering through Venice

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A look around Campo di Santi Giovanni e Paolo.

This guy was being Very Good Indeed, as all sorts of foot traffic went within a step of his little self.  He was told to Stay, I am sure, and by gum, he was Staying.  I hope his owner deserves him.

Scuola Grande di San Marco again.  Cupids, and San Marco's lion? and isn't that a satyr, in the upper left corner?  Having seen this mix of subjects in the decoration of this building, it made sense to me when I read it was built for secular use.

Trompe l'oeil archway (basically flat, really), with bas relief lion.

That's one seriously fancy tail.  It only seems fitting that he appears to be wearing shades.....

Looking up at the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo, known in the Venetian dialect as San Zanipolo.  All that green stuff can't be good for the roof.....

Doesn't that hole look like it goes right in?  I wonder if does....

Love the fancy brickwork.

Inside the San Zanipolo.

Many plain surfaces, but many, many, many hours of embellishing, too.

This reminds me of the Frari church we looked at before.

Again -- many plain surfaces, but much embellishment, too.

Teapot in a shop window.  I didn't notice the orange bench (chair?) until I was editing the pic.

I've souped up the saturation.  Now you can see the bench reflected in the shop window above the pot, as well as the bench reflected by the pot.

I couldn't find this one in the art book.  I found it in Google maps, satellite view, at the corner of Barbaria della Tole and Calle Torelli, but there's no label.

Strolling, looking in shop windows.....

In a restaurant window.

Hey, look -- Venetian blinds, for sale in Venice!

Love the way some of the glass is frosty, and some isn't.

Ink drawing.

Modern art.

I'd read before we got to Venice that the bottom floors of some buildings have been abandoned, as they are always under water.

I believe this would be the only time I saw an example.

These doors were moving, significantly, in and out, as the water pushed them, and the piling (bottom right) waved to and fro in the current.

I don't know for what purpose this building was constructed, but right now, it's a high school.

The front.

The side.

The street behind the school building. 

(Digression:  note neatly bundled and carefully attached wires, upper right corner of the above.  A stark contrast to the scary birds' nest of wires I photographed the last time I was in Europe, in another country.

It seemed to me, everywhere we went, that Italians were working hard to make things work.  Wires were neat and organized.  New things were being built, and old things were being reconstructed.  Trains and other transportation ran on time.  Trash bins were everywhere, in public spaces.  Roads (in towns, and in the country) have plentiful signage.  People working in restaurants and other service-industry jobs are pleasant, helpful, and efficient.

All of this may not be Italy's reputation.  Italians told me that Italian public services, like trains, were such a mess that Italians never use them.  When I replied that in my (limited) experience, trains ran right on time, Italians were surprised to hear it.

I am left wondering if Italy isn't suffering from a bum rap.

From my perspective, Italians are working hard to get the job done.

I hope their government (about which many people worried, talking to us) will step up and be a better reflection of what Italians are doing, personally, than many people believe it is at present!

End of Digression.)



Not as bright a day as we could hope for, but we were glad it wasn't raining!

In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.

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