Still in Venice

Yesterday was a day of extreme pleasure and extreme discomfort. We went to the Accademia first thing. Nice coffered ceilings and portraits by Memling and Giorgione. And a room full of pastel portraits by Rosalba Carriera. The rest were religious paintings which were not my style at all. After a cafe lunch, we went to the Guggenheim Museum which was wonderful. Mind you we had a first rate guide who taught me a great deal about 20th century art. So that was all enjoyable. By then, it was 1400 hours and started to rain. This got heavier and heavier as the afternoon wore on. Not at all the weather for a walking tour of Venice even with raincoats and hats. So the group got grumpier and grumpier until it revolted. The guide was not at pleased but we skipped San Marco and went home by vaporetti to dry off and warm up!!!! In the evening, some of us went to eat supper in a student cafe 100 yards away. Very good value indeed and very edible!

We all agreed that stopping for a coffee in the morning would be a good idea.

I do like Calder. The one below is of silver and was Peggy Guggenheim's bed head.

And she went in for Byzantine marble as well. The above is intended as a well head. It is actually the hollowed out head of a marble column. Below is a section of a throne in the garden which is made up from sections of Byzantine carvings. I thought I would not bother taking photos of the paintings as I would be able to buy postcards in the shop. Not a bit of it. They had hardly any postcards. Oh well!

 

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