This may be the most exotic locale from which I have ever posted. It is about 8:30 PM and I am siting in the dusky twilight beside a canal in Venice as the striped shirted gondoliers glide past with their charges and the hum of the city is punctuated only by the sound of their oars hitting the water. Twenty yards away across the canal, a drying line full of laundry breaks up the symmetry of the crumbling brick wall and a chorus of church bells chime out an even tide serenade. The situation calls for wine, poetry, beautiful raven haired women and opera.....none of which are in my current arsenal. The couples in the gondolas slide by so close that I can practically high five the men who are all sporting that Im getting lucky tonight...uh huh! grin and the women are feigning boredom, as if this sort of thing happens every day. Ah well, back to my narration which I started earlier.... Toto, Ive a feeling were not in Kansas anymore.... or.....If youve seen one Doges Palace, youve seen em all! Trying hard to choose an opening line for this post. The first opener from.....drumroll, please!....the wizard of Oz reflected how I felt as I stepped into the first stairwell on my tour of the palace. The second line also reflects how I felt because I had never before seen a Doges Palace and I have to believe it is pushing a high water mark for opulence in Western Culture. It also is very unique, thus there arent any more of them to see. Confused? Good! So am I most of the time. We are burning up a little turnover time in Venice after the cruise and before meeting the tennis group and decided to stroll around. Face it, strolling around in Venice is about two hundred times more interesting than strolling around any place in the US. Just like Rome, you can just turn a random corner and get hit with some 500 year old carved marble church front that doesnt even warrant an interpretive sign. No brass plaque, no engraved formica slab, no e the painted metal....nothing. This afternoon, Dar and I were checking out the detailed carving on this one particular, huge stone chapels facade and she asks, Whats the name of this? I poke around a little looking for some public marking and all I got was a photocopied piece of paper written in 4 languages that says, PLEASE DONT SIT ON THE STEPS. Even in Doges Palace which morphed into a combination of the Venitian White House and Capitol Building for over two centuries, signage is minimal. This afternoon I did a self guided tour of the Doges residence, the Legislative and government administration offices and the attached prison - it took me 20 minutes and a couple of irritated Italians directions to help me find my way out of the place. Every night, there have to be dozens of confused tourists spending a terrifying night in one of the oldest jails in the Western Hemisphere simply because they couldnt find their way out. I wish I had taken some photos of the directional signs in the prison - literally hand drawn Magic Marker red arrows on copy paper taped to the stone walls. They need to persuade some rich industrialist with a philanthropic streak to, rather than build a fountain or erect a statue as in ancient times, simply fund the creation of some decent signage for some of Italys tourist trade. So much for the rant, John, whats in todays pictures? #1 - The gondola traffic at twilight. #2 - Random fantastic unmarked church facade. Dar is in pink in the lower left. Next comes a series of pictures inside the Palace. #3 - Inside the first stairway going up....which inspired Johns Kansas comment. #4 - Example of the preserved quality of the art covering virtually all ceiling and wall space in the government chambers and next, to put it in perspective, #5 - the size of the said chambers. Absolutely jaw dropping in its enormity! Enough for now. Im overloaded and I would hate to pass it on to others. Just be thankful I have not been posting my Rustic Italy photo collection of peeling paint, weathered shutters and crumbling brickwork.....also breathtaking but for a different reason.
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 19:43:33 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015