Venice

Today was the last day of our cruise. We have been very fortunate with the weather for the vast majority of this trip, but today was not a good weather day. We had constant light rain with a high of 59.

We spent the day in Venice. Fortunately, we have been here before, so we did not feel pressured to see a lot. We walked around (a total of 7 very wet miles) starting early in the morning. Our only goal was to get Paul into Saint Mark’s Basilica as he did not go in there last time we were here.

Grand Canal view

Water produce stand

Now, we could have been smart and taken a water taxi straight to St Mark’s Square, avoiding the waterlogged walking, but we decided to huff it instead. It turns out that St Mark’s Square floods when it rains. Keep in mind that this was light rain, nothing crazy, just constant, light rain. They had to put up elevated walkways for everyone to walk on to get across the square about an hour after we arrived there. They have what look like drains in the square, but they were bubbling up water rather than draining it out. Less than ideal.

St Mark’s Square: pre-flood

We did make it into the basilica, after standing in line on the elevated walkways. The line, fortunately, moved quickly. Getting into the basilica itself is free, but some portions of it can only be seen for a fee. You can’t take pictures and they have quite a few “hall monitors” making sure that you don’t. I managed to sneak a few anyways. We did pay to go upstairs to see the museum where they keep the original horses (more in a bit). They have quite an extensive museum, most of which is past a small, poorly marked staircase. You also get to go outside on the front balcony of the basilica. I highly recommend visiting this portion of the church.

View from the basilica’s balcony

St Mark’s Basilica’s current building was completed in the 11th century, replacing a prior structure that had been burned down. Its interior is almost entirely covered in mosaics that took centuries to complete. The main work on the interior mosaics was apparently complete by the 1270s, with work on the atrium continuing into the 1290s. It is nearly all gold inside, although they keep it very poorly lit. There are 4 bronze horses (although analysis shows they are actually impure copper), known as the horses of Saint Mark, that were placed on the balcony of the basilica in the 13th century. They had previously been displayed at the Hippodrome in Constantinople and are thought to date back to the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Because of this, the originals are in the interior museum and replicas are now out on the balcony.

Mosaics

Replica horses

Mosaics over the balcony

We did some more walking and came across Chiesa di Santa Maria del Giglio, basically a random church we passed by. They charged to go in and didn’t allow photos, so I just snapped a picture through the doorway. Turns out it is considered to have a notable Venetian Baroque exterior. It was built in the late 1600s and is unusual for a church in that it does not have any Christian imagery on the exterior. We also went to Santa Maria della Salute (St Mary of Health), which was a bit of a walk to get to. This minor basilica was built beginning in 1631 after a severe plague outbreak as an offering from the city for deliverance from the disease. Nearly 1/3 of the population had been killed by the plague the year before.

Chiesa di Santa Maria del Giglio