Today we got to explore the insides of what we couldn’t yesterday because it was too late. We went back the San Marco Basilica and toured the church, the museum, the treasury and also the golden altarpiece where nearby is the sarcophagus that holds the bones of the San Marco (St. Mark), that have been here since 830 A.D. All of them have there own fee, I mean haven’t you learned that by now? Everything in Europe has a cost. They were of course very particular not only with what you could wear in the church (see picture) , but also the fact that there was no photography or filming allowed. Chris is good at sneaking some pictures though. P.S. Don’t tell the Italian government or God!

San Marco Basilica and all of it’s contents make up the most beautiful church that I have ever been to in my life. It was built in the 11th century to replace an earlier church that burned down in 976 A.D. It’s style is of the Byzantine Empire and shows how influential Venice was in the East-West trade routes. It is decorated with all the booty from the Crusades that was returned to Venice from victorious sea captains. The exterior is therefore a mish-mash of several different types and colors of marble. The real cool part though are all the mosaics. There are 43,000 square feet of them covering the entire inside/outside of the church. They were originally put there to tell the biblical stories to the illiterate masses. The backgrounds are gold leafed mosaic tiles and in between these are the beautiful mosaic artworks of the saints and old testament heroes. The floor is even made of mosaics, although it is very rippled and bumpy due to the fact that Venice, and in particular San Marco Piazza/Basilica, floods 100-200 times a year. They are currently spending lots of Euro trying to prevent this, but every year the water level gets higher and the ground level gets lower.

Aside from all the sparkley tiles that amazed me, the other thing that was cool was seeing the four original bronze horses that used to be on top the church. The ones that I photographed that are there now are copies as the original ones were getting destroyed by the pollution levels in the air. (Very sad indeed!) The original ones were in the Museum and were amazing. These horses were built sometime during the days of Alexander the Great (4th century B.C.), although carbon dating suggest earlier i.e. 2nd century. They are very well travelled. They were taken to Rome by Nero, then Constantinople/Istanbul by Constantine, then Venice by Crusaders, then Paris by Napoleon, and then back to Venice when Napoleon fell. Lots of stamps in their passports! Anyway, it was just cool seeing something that old that has survived through so many moves and sadly the only thing that is really destroying them is modern man.

Tags: bones of San Marco,bronze horses,golden alterpiece,mosaic tiles,san marco basilica,St. Mark
Categories: Becky Blogs, Italy
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Happy Halloween from Venice (Venezia), Italy! I have wanted to come here as long as I can remember. We took a night train in from Vienna. I was very apprehensive considering the last night train experience I had going from Spain to Paris back in August, but it was much better, perhaps because I have gotten much better in my travels since then. Anyway, this time we woke up more refreshed. We even had a free breakfast, and a nice chat with our fellow train travelers. After that, the next thing I remember we were crossing the lagoon into the island of Venice. It was enchanting. I mean it was Venice!!! You know lots of old buildings surrounded by waterways/canals and boats everywhere. It was wonderful. I think it was even better arriving by daylight. In our travels we have slowed down quite a bit and the first day into a new town we usually use to just acclimate to the city, so after checking into our scary youth hostel, with a curfew, no doors/curtains on the showers and no toilet seats, (Ostello Venezia) on the beautiful and quiet nearby residential island of Guidecca, we set out just to leisurely wander around the town/island of Venice. As there are no “roads” anywhere, just canals, the only form of transportation is by boat. There are two forms of this though, the common water taxi, or Vaporetti, and the less common Traghetti, or Gondola. The Vaporetti are usually large and people are crammed on them like cattle. The cost about 5 Euro a ride, which lasts an unlimited amount of transfers for one hour. There are two types of gondolas though. The cheaper ones just ferry you across the canal, not down it, for like .50 Euro, but the ones that travel down the canal that all the tourists want to take are pricey. They are 75-80 Euro during the day or 95-105 Euro at night. Add a singer and an accordionist to serenade you and you need to add 35 Euro to that price. OUCH!!!

Venice is an island that is shaped like a big fish (or so says Rick Steves) and though the “mouth” of it flows the Grand Canal, kinda like a Main Street, over which there are three main bridges. It began life about 1500 years ago when the inhabitants of the area sought refuge from the surrounding barbarians and decided to try to claim the lands from the sea by building a city on pole foundations pounded into the marshy soil. In the Middle Ages it became a heavy East-West trade route, and it apparently gained religious notoriety when the bones of St. Mark (San Marco) were smuggled into Venice in 828 A.D. Over all, Venice is made up of 117 smaller islands that are laced together by a network of 400 bridges, 2,000 alleys and 150 odd canals!! All of this screams that despite your best efforts, you are going to get lost. This was the only town so far that we invested the 3.50 Euro and bought a larger scale map to use instead of the smaller less detailed ones that our guide books supplied. We referred to it frequently, but also took some comfort in the fact that even though we may have been lost, we were still on a island and eventually, it seemed, all things lead to the Piazza San Marco where alot of the tourist action was.

With all that said, what did we do today? Well, we took the Vaporetti over to San Marco Piazza and explored that area. We sat and watched the marble covering the San Marco Basilica change many various hues as the sun sat over it. We took an elevator to the top of the El Campanile (bell tower) for some amazing views with the glorious sunset. We even got the chance to be up there in the bell tower while it’s 4-5 bells rang at the hour. I could not only hear the sound with my ears, but I could FEEL it with my teeth and bones it was so loud. It played a long song that was so sweet, I just wish I didn’t have to have my hands over my ears so much so they wouldn’t exploded. LOL We also got a chance to feed the pigeons. Now you may think so what? Well, this is a piazza that is covered with them because you can legally feed them here. There are actually stands where you can buy pigeon feed for 1 Euro. It is cheap fun until they start doing kamikaze diving on you and try to perch on you. More fun to watch that feed if you ask me. Chris got a lot of laughs watching me though. It was a great day!

As an aside, sorry kids, but there were hardly any trick-or-treaters here. We saw a couple of kids that were dressed up but people weren’t really into it and didn’t give out much candy. Some store owners didn’t even know what they were talking about when kids went up to them saying “trick-or-treat”:(

Tags: el campanile,gondolas,grand canal,Guidecca island,Halloween. Venice,Ostello Venezia,piazza san marco,pigeons,saint mark,san marco basilica,traghetti,trick-or-treaters,vaporetti,Venezia
Categories: Becky Blogs, Italy
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