We woke to a cooler and cloudier day. Often times better for walking. We had a 10 a.m. Free Walking Tour scheduled that met, of course, in another district (Dorsoduro). Our plan was to take the vaporetto, but we still allowed plenty of time. Vaporetto plan failed because the ticket vending machine required a ‘pin’ for our chip credit cards (a problem we have run into before with our ‘signature required’ cards).
We scoured the map for the most straightforward walking route and decided going back to St. Mark’s (directional signs well placed) was our best bet. 8:45 a.m. on Sunday is definitely the time to be in St. Mark’s!
From here we used our newly minted navigational skills to get us to the Accademia bridge. Full confession, there were some signs for the Accademia posted on buildings too, but we still relied on the map and finding streets and campos to guide us there and were truly ‘fist bumping’ proud when we found it!!
The tour took us through the Dorsoduro district on the southern end of the island flanked by the Grand and the Giudecca Canals.
One of the first stops was the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute (health) built in gratitude to the Virgin Mary for saving Venice from the plague in the 1600’s. Every year, on November 21, there is the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, where city officials and the faithful parade from San Marcos to the Salute over a temporary bridge built for the occasion.
The volume of the interior held the sculpture depicting Venice (beautiful woman on the left) pleading to the Virgin Mary (center) while ugly hag (right) depicting the plague is being defeated.
From there we strolled along the Giudecca Canal side of the island. In the past this area was home to warehouses for salt (Venice was the largest exporter of salt, ‘white gold’, in Europe). It was also where the gondolas were (and still are) built.
The prow head of the gondola is weighted to counterbalance the weight of the gondolier and is in the shape of an “S” to represent the curves of the canals. The six “teeth” facing out represent the six districts (sestiere) of Venice. Some prow pieces have an additional three icons between the teeth representing the three islands – Murano, Burano and Torcello. The one tooth facing the gondola represents Giudecca.
The tour concluded back at the Accademia, and our desire to visit the Galleries was doused when we saw the long queue! Lunch was in order. We wandered the back alleyways in search of an ‘off the beaten path’ place. We watched a waiter begin to set up outdoor tables, but it was still before noon and they weren’t officially open. We killed a little more time and we’re back when they rolled up the metal door!
After lunch we went in search of the Opera house and we found it (our navigation was getting good!). However, because it was Sunday, it was closed.
We headed back home for a nap, stopping at the market for a few things for dinner.
We made dinner at home and enjoyed an evening in. Later in the evening we strolled the neighborhood which was surprisingly lively for a Sunday night, and made a ‘timing run’ to the train station. (We have to be there at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning!)
¡Ciao America! 