TELGEN VACATION REPORT
Venice, September 2000
Hmm. Bill has a business meeting in Venice, one of the most
picturesque cities in Europe. Mom has offered to come over and watch David whenever
we'd like. I think you can figure out what happened next: Bill and Diane get a
long weekend alone in Venice! Woo-hoo!
Venice is a series of coastal islands at
the top of the Adriatic Sea, on the right side of the top of Italy's boot. So
the weather wasn't particularly Mediterranean, but it was pleasant all the
same, for late September. From this picture you can see we had some sun,
although Diane did get caught in an absolute downpour while waiting for the
waterbus one day. This picture was taken from a boat on the Grand Canal, the
main waterway that snakes through the central island of Venice. The church is
the Santa Maria della Salute, one of the of "plague churches" the
Venetian Republic pledged to build if they survived the epidemic of 1630. There
are tons of domed churches around the island, and if you look behind the two
domes here you'll see the campanile, or bell tower, that accompanies most of
these churches. As you can see, the water in the canal goes straight up
to the exterior of the buildings, meaning there aren't many places you can walk
along the canal. But as the waterbuses are plentiful, reliable, and easy to
use, that's no great problem, although walking through the interior of the city
can be rewarding in itself.
It's late September, so I don't know where all these tourists
came from (probably the U.S.), but this is where you find most of them in
Venice: the Piazza San Marco, which occupies an L-shaped space along the
south-central edge of the island. One wing of the L consists of two- and
three-story Byzantine arched arcades that now have shops and museums, but used
to house the procurators, the high officials of the Venetian Empire. Another
wing houses the Doge's Palage, the doge being the head of the republic. At the
junction of the two wings is one of the most astounding churches I've seen: the
Basilica San Marco. First, there's the outside. If you look closely at the
bottom of the building, you'll see numerous columns surrounding the door; what
you may not be able to distinguish is that the columns are made of different
types of marble, in various shades of green and pink. Then there are the
mosaics, such as the one you can see above the door. That one is of the Last
Judgement, and it's quite striking with the sun shining on all the golden
tiles.
The interior is just as spectacular.
Golden mosaics cover the entire ceiling of the basilica, while the floor is an
intarsia executed in wood in various geometrical patterns. Then, behind the
altar, is the Pala d'Oro, which is a huge gold panel studded with jewels. It
depicts scenes from the life of Christ as well as various evangelists,
prophets, apostles, and angels; it was commissioned in the late ninth century
and was augmented over the next 500 years. The church itself was built in the
early 800s, shortly after the Republic captured the relics of St. Mark from
Alexandria. Local legend has it that the Evangelist was shipwrecked near
Venice, and an angel told him it would be his final resting place. At least,
that was the Republic's story, and they're sticking to it! Anyway, it was a
good enough excuse to capture Mark's relics, and later to similarly
"acquire" four huge bronze horses from Byzantium, copies of which now
rest on the balcony of the basilica.
Now, if you're in Venice and your husband is busy
all day in meetings, what's a gal to do? Go shopping, of course! Just to the
north of Venice is the island of Murano, which has been world-famous for its
glassmaking since the thirteen century, so I made a beeline for it on my
"single" day out. I didn't spend all my time in the shops; there was
a very interesting museum on glass and the glassmaking process, and the island
itself has a lovely lighthouse, some pretty bridges, and this outstanding
Byzantine church. The SS Maria e Donato dates to 1140, just before the height
of the Venetian Republic. By this time Venice controlled the Dalmatian coast
and ruled the Adriatic, giving it a unique opportunity to oversee trade between
East and West. That's why so many buildings in Venice and the surrounding
islands were constructed in the Byzantine style.
On our final day in Venice, Bill and I managed to explore some
of the more historical sights. We visited the Maritime Museum and saw the
Arsenal, where the powerful Venetian fleet was built (at its height it had
16,000 workmen). But the highlight was our tour of the Doge's Palace, which has
been rebuilt and added onto several times since the first palace was built over
1000 years ago. The present building was started in 1340, was rebuilt in 1424
and 1483 due to wear and fire, and was finally completed towards the end of the
seventeenth century. The interior not only contains the personal rooms of the
doge, but rooms where the ruling families of Venice would meet to pass laws,
try legal cases, and jail prisoners. You can reach the infamous Bridge of Sighs
from the Doge's Palace, as you walk over it to reach the dungeons. Of course
the interiors are beautiful, filled with frescoes (including ones by Titian and
Hieronymus Bosch), gilded stucco ceilings, and antique treasures, but we found
the Palace fascinating for its insight into the Venetian Republic. Venice was
an intriguing anomaly in Europe, as it retained its independence almost into
the nineteenth century even after it lost its pre-eminent position as the
richest and most influential maritime power in Europe. Although the position of
the doge became hereditary in 1297, the doge wasn't the ultimate power and
eventually became a figurehead; the ruling families of the city were the ones
with the power, as they elected the Council of Ten, who used a secret police to
help discover and prosecute crimes against the state. In the palace there were
at least two boxes, Bocca di Leone, in which secret denunciations could
be delivered to the government; there was also an Inquisition Room (connected
by stairway to the torture chamber), and the aforementioned jail cells for
prisoners. Then you had the Sala del Maggior Consiglio (from which this picture
was taken—those domes in the background are San Marco) a room which could hold
the parliament of ruling families, as many as 1600 of them. So we really got a
sense of all the politicking and intrigue that must have gone on during the
centuries of the Venetian Republic.
So we had a great time in Venice. Of
course, we took a gondola ride around the canals; we also attended a wonderful
concert of Vivaldi, Mozart, and contemporaries, performed by musicians in
period dress, accompanied by dancers, and held in a thirteenth-century scuola.
Then there was all the lovely glass; unfortunately I was limited to the amount
I could carry on the plane... Maybe there will be a next time…
Copyright
© 2000 by Diane Telgen. All rights reserved.