Well, yay, it finally stopped raining! Even though it is kind of cold out, the weather is a vast improvement over yesterday. Today we decided to continue our church art tour and to stop in at the shop where we bought our painting last May.
After breakfast, we took a route over the Accademia bridge to La Perla, the shop where we bought a painting last year. The shop had reopened in larger premises but we didn’t really find anything there that we “couldn’t go home without.†Actually, we can’t take home anything since we packed our tiny suitcases as full as they could be before we left. I feel guilty about not bringing anything back for the kids but there’s just no room. Any way, from there we made our way across the Rialto bridge which was way too crowded with tourists and over to San Paolo, San Rocco and the Frari churches.
We saw many Tintoretto’s . I especially like the Ultima Cenas (Last Suppers). Tintoretto places the table at a diagonal with Jesus at the end or near the end of the table in the foreground. This makes Jesus bigger without ruining any of the perspective and what with all the figures twisting about , the whole painting is awash in movement while being spotlit. We also saw the great Bellini work in the Frari and as many times as we’ve seen this altarpiece, it’s still amazing.
After tromping around for several hours we decided to head back to the hotel and eat somewhere nearby. We had pizza and salad at a so-so place on the Guidecca Canal. Although John will never cry “uncleâ€, I could see that after not sleeping so much last night (I slept great) and walking all over Venice this morning that by 3 PM he was dragging. So we went back to the room and he had a big nap.
Tonight we had dinner at Taverna San Trovaso. I had a scallop antipasto and some spaghetti. I wasn’t feeling too adventurous. John had sarde in saor (sardines in a sweet and sour sauce) and a fish soup full of various crustaceans. His meal looked like a lot of work. I would rate this dinner as mediocre. It is hard to find non-touristy food in Venice. I think we should go back to the place we ate last night for our last night here. The food there was memorable.
Tomorrow we visit the Accademia. I have been waiting for a sunny day since the paintings are lit by ambient light. I think it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow.