Venice I

The rain on our first day, Saturday, did not dampen the magic of Venice.

1.Checking out rainy St. Mark's Square from the Correr Palace windows.

2. From this print it seems gondola cruising has been popular for some time.

3. The rain may have kept some people indoors, but not these intrepid tourists.

4. Gallerie dell’Accademia is Venice's top art museum containing great Venetian painting by the Bellini family, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Tiepolo, Giorgione and Canaletto.

Here is a favorite by Tiepolo who specialized in paintings on ceilings, "San Domenico in Gloria", 1723.

5. This impressive church, Santa Maria della Salute, was built and dedicated to the Virgin Mary by the grateful survivors of the 1630 black plague.

6. Sunday brings sunshine and no motor boats on the canals.
Instead there is a colorful armada of rowing craft from around Europe, called Vogalonga, embarking on a 20 mile non-competitive route around Venice.

We saw German and French teams staying in our 'Rialto' campground preparing for the event.
It was fun to see the variety of participants.

7. A rare moment of repose on a stairway over a canal. Venice is laced together by 400 bridges.

8. Gondola passengers and gondoliers make interesting scenery.

9. We encountered this beautiful impressionist painting in the Ca' d'Oro: "Cucendo la Vela" (Sewing the Sail)
by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1896.

10. Rowing standing up is the Venetian style.

11. Ceilings in the Doge's Palace were all about power and impressing visitors.
This painting on the ceiling is "Juno showering gifts on Venice" by Paolo Veronese, 1553.

12. Gondolas at rest.

13. A view from the Bridge of Sighs where prisoners sentenced in the palace crossed to their black and dank cells.

14. A view of St. Mark's Basilica's glorious mosaics.

15. Some of that elusive Venetian Magic.