Chet got up early and dashed down to Piazza San Marco to photograph the early morning light with clear skies and good weather. He made it there and back to the hotel in less than an hour!
We went to the Basilica today, and got another dose of amazing and opulent sights. This building has Byzantine, as well as medieval and Renaissance architectural elements - not surprising, as construction began before the 11th century. The mosaics are amazing in their color and their detail, and they have been very well preserved. Lynne loved Napoleon's horses (hah!), really Constantine's horses, probably Greco-Roman in origin. The originals are now inside the Basilica museum, while replicas stand over the basilica door on the loggia. Splendid and so very life-like.
Being in Venice is like stepping back into the 18th century, since cars don't exist here and most of the buildings are from this era as well. You are living and breathing the history every minute you are there. Quite an amazing place in that they've been able to keep the past alive. There are stone wall memorials to people who lived, loved and died in this home - that have dates from 1756, and that are probably much the same inside and out as they were then (well, with the addition of running water, electricity, and TV dishes, anyway!).
After visiting the Basilica, we jumped on to one of the vaporetti and took it up to Murano, the island where the glass-blowers ply their trade. We didn't know it, but there are many different glass artisans there who all compete for business. It was also interesting to see a sign in one of the windows declaring that all the glass inside was locally made and that "glass made in China is killing Murano". An interesting insight into global competition. No doubt, the glass makers in Murano could never afford to live on the low wages of the Chinese.
Walking around Murano was a lot of fun - although there is an awful lot of cheesy Murano glassware. And the nicer stuff tends to be quite expensive. Nonetheless, we did manage to find some very nice glasses that were practical and beautiful without being exorbitant. Chet promised to carry them home .....
Finally, we took the vaporetto back to the Fondamenta Nove, near our hotel, stopped off for a bit of a rest, and went back to San Marco to take the Vaporetto 1 up the Grand Canal. Quite a different sight, seeing Venice by water. We went up as far as the area known as the Jewish Ghetto, which is quite near our lodgings, and found a nice place to have dinner. It was a more local spot, where we enjoyed a lovely caprese salad with mozzarella di bufola, and a spaghetti with monkfish. Yummy.
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