Venice from on High, Venice from the Water

by Anne | Jun 21, 2014 | Hotel al Ponte Mocenigo, Interpreti Veneziani, La Piscina, San Giorgio Maggiore, San Zaccaria, Squero, venice

Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Venice, Italy

Interested in a Music and Markets Tour? We’d love to hear from you!  Join us on a summer tour on the Amalfi Coast, in Provence, or in Amsterdam/Belgium

Our tour days begin with breakfast in the lovely courtyard of Al Ponte Mocenigo. There is so much to appreciate about this property – walls covered with exquisite silk in the spacious bedrooms, an abundant buffet breakfast with homemade pastries and jams, smiling and helpful staff, an excellent location- no wonder everyone raves about it!

Whenever possible, we appreciate getting “above it all” to see our surroundings – it’s a great way to get a perspective on a city or area. The best spot to do so in Venice is from the belltower of San Giorgio Maggiore, across the basin from Piazza San Marco. So we’re on our way, chugging down the Grand Canal on the morning bus. The gondolas are already booked, cruising and singing on their way.

We walk back onto an island at the San Zaccaria stop, and before boarding another vaporetto (the buses of Venice, so named because they were originally powered by  steam – vapore) walk through a passage under buildings lining the broad Fondamenta. We’ve got time to go through centuries of history in one little church, San Zaccaria. On the left, as we enter, is one of Bellini’s best, a jewel-toned Conversazione Sacra (Sacred Conversation), Mary and chosen saints chatting, with musical accompaniment by the sweetest angels and their stringed instruments. This masterpiece was completed in 1505, when Bellini was 75 – a super long life at that time!

Tucked away in chapels behind the main church are centuries of treasures…traces of mosaic floors from the original structure, begun in the 7th century, a Tiepolo or two, and the first trace of the Renaissance in Venice in the vaults above a fabulously ornate Gothic altarpiece. The Tuscan artist Andrea del Castagno painted the lifelike figures in 1442, actually BEFORE the gilded structure, a prime example of spiky Gothic below, was built.

Down a few rickety steps is yet more of the ancient church, with several tombs of Doges and a simple altar posed on the shimmery floor, as usual, covered with a few inches of water…we walk on a raised brick path across the room.

Then we’re on our way to San Giorgio Maggiore, a tiny island with a majestic Palladian church, and the perch we’ve anticipated. From the belltower (we advise descending before the bells strike on the hour!) the view’s the best – Saint Marks across the water,

the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal spilling out into the Basino (when on the water, you can always tell when you hit the Basino  – it’s rougher than the canals), with the exclamation point of the Dogana in between.

Next stop, the Zattere, the broad waterside path where the Dorsoduro Sestiere (one of Venice’s six neighborhoods) meets the Giudeca Canal.

A waterside lunch awaits us at La Piscina, where the view is as delicious as the food.

We stroll through the Dorsoduro neighborhood on our way back to the hotel, pointing out galleries, intriguing shops, and one of the few Squeros, Gondola workshops, left on the islands.

Interpreti Veneziani completes our day, with melodies of hometown boy Vivaldi high on the program.

In the elegant church of San Vidal, we’re surrounded with the beauty of this talented ensemble along with graceful sculptures and an impressive Carpaccio of San Vidal himself.

Buona Notte, Venezia…