Heading To Florence
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We’re in Venice – it’s stinking hot here, but we’re having a great time. We finally made it to the Santa Maria Gloriosa church this morning. It’s only taken us three trips to Venice to hit one of it’s major attractions, and it was worth it. The mausoleums of the artists Titian and Canova are in there, and they are incredibly impressive. The enormous sleeping winged lion in front of the entrance to Canova’s mausoleum, and the huge black marble slaves holding up the artifice of one of the Doge’s mausoleum were worth the price of entry. (Not to mention the black marble life-size sculptures of mummified screaming skeletons as harbingers of death… it’s enough to scare anybody into repenting.)
We goofed around the Rialto market this morning. We got there as the fish and produce vendors were setting up, and before the rest of the tourists got there, so we got some fantastic pictures. I guess it’s something about living in Marathon that makes us believe that taking pictures of fresh, colorful produce is artistic. It’s great fun watching the boats unload, and the locals interact and haggle over the day’s catch.
We spent much of the afternoon on the island of Murano – the glass artist island – and marveled alternately at the incredible artistry of the glass blowers, and the tasteless grotesqueness of some of the pieces (vis – “Viagra man” – you don’t want to know…)For the most part, the glass artists maintain the flower and nautical themes of Murano glass, and they range from cool and modern, to traditional, to horribly misguided tackiness.
Regardless, we’re off to Florence on the 5:12 train. The plan is to stuff ourselves stupid on fantastic gelatto, then take it from there. As usual, we miss our families, friends and dogs…
Noel & George
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