Bon Giorno! Our first morning in Venice started with a trip to the local supermarket. BB made a beeline for the produce section to pick some favorite fruits but was immediately chided by a local for touching the nectarines. No produce must be touched with bare hands; plastic gloves must be worn to handle and pick any fruits and vegetables. Who knew? We looked around and learned the correct protocol. The produce must also be weighed ahead of time and the resulting price sticker attached to the bag before heading to the checkout counter. Gotta love traveling and learning new ways of doing the same thing.
After a breakfast that included baguette with olive oil con pimiento, we were ready to start our day. We made a beeline for Saint Mark's Basilica. Lines were long as predicted but really not that terrible and moved along pretty briskly. The intricate gold mosaics on the roof are too stunning to comprehend. Just when you think you can't wrap your head around the ceiling artistry, you look at the intricate patterns on the floor in wonder. Each tiny section is like a complicated jigsaw puzzle of multicolored marble tiles. If it takes me a month to put together a puzzle that is barely a quarter of the size of one slab, what must it have taken those that built this church? And how long to assemble those elaborate mosaics on the ceiling where each piece is barely the size of half a penny.
At the neighboring Doge's palace, we gawked at each of the heavily gilded ceilings and the ostentatious paintings. Il Paradiso by Tintoretto is the largest painting in the world. We sat in admiration in that grand hall imagining what it would've been like in the 13th century filled with ministers and council members making important state decisions surrounded by such beauty, It's amazing how the rulers around the world patronized art and artists in those days. How much money and time was invested in creating masterpieces that have withstood centuries.
The highlight of the Doge's palace for BB was crossing the bridge of sighs to visit the prisons and dungeons. It was fun pretending that we were bidding the lovely world outside goodbye and entering the prison cells where no lights penetrate. BB was excited to romp the maze of cells. Gold medal to ammamma for climbing all the stairs here and all over elsewhere without a peep.
We lunched outdoors on the main Canal sipping our prosecco, iced tea, and sprite to beat the humidity. Our pastas and pizzas were delicious as they tend to be everywhere in Italy. And then it was time to retire for a siesta.
Late in the evening, we strolled towards Rialto bridge. BB consumed a few gelatos on his way back and forth. Limone is his favorite flavor, although he did like the frigonada (strawberry). We also got some souvenir shopping out of the way. This is mask country and BB says he's already sick of seeing them everywhere. But only after he spent more than an hour in a store trying on every one of them. Not every store allows you to try the masks and some charge you extra for taking pictures with them. Ours wasn't fancy enough for all that. I suspect our masks are made in China and not really hand painted in Italy.
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