Water in the streets and water from the sky
Today, in Venice, *RAIN*. Occasional outbreaks of chucking it down intersperse a general state of drizzle.
Not to mention, *COLD*.
However, sights have nonetheless been seen, starting with St Mark's. We got up specially early in the hopes of avoiding the massive queues across the Piazetta, but it was still straggling past Florian when we arrived, though moved fairly expeditiously.
All the same, I am sure that when I was on a day-trip in Venice in 1970-something, I didn't have to queue to get into St Mark's, it was not a shuffling crowd inside, that they weren't then charging for access to various bits, and that the average punter could get up to the galleries inside the domes - instead of just the bit behind the loggia, though I'm not sure they had the museum there then. O tempora, etc.
Still worth seeing, but one would, really, like to do so in less of a crush.
Then, after coming back to get bags (not that they turned out to be actually stopping people with bags, and not taking photos is pretty much a dead letter unless the photographer is standing bang next to a member of staff), put on extra layers etc, we walked to the Scuola San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, aka Scuola Dalmata di San Giorgio e Trifone (enquiring minds on S Trifone: who he?). Smaller than the other scuole we've seen, I think, but has a terrific set of paintings by Carpaccio, inc St George + dragon, St Trifone (Tryphon, according to Wikipedia), and others, inc an amusing one of St Jerome with several monks fleeing before him, having noticed his signature Big Puddytat following him, something of which the saint himself appears unaware. Carpaccio seems to have been given to including various animals, relevant and irrelevant, in his works.
After that we took a boat to Murano. This would probably have been a more enjoyable visit in better weather, as it was not a day for walking around being not merely wet but windswept. The Glass Museum, however, was well worth a visit. The thing I particularly loved was an enormous C18th table centrepiece (there is a technical term which eludes me) of a formal Italian garden, done in glass (I don't think the one illustrated there is my favourite, but it is a similar thing). This is probably the influence of one's inner 8-year old on one's sense of taste, since the love comes pretty much from the same place as fascination with doll's houses, miniature rooms, etc.
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