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Venice Landmarks

The next morning we found another coffee-and-croissant place which was marginally larger than the one we’d found the previous morning, but which had pretty much the same menu. But at least this one had a few stools to sit on for the short time needed to consume breakfast. Then we linked up with Philip and Connie, who were looking forward to walking off their massive breakfast. Our plan was to explore the area across the Grand Canal from the Westin hotel, but there was a slight problem. Away from the train station area, there are only two bridges across the Grand Canal. One is the Rialto Bridge, a considerable backtrack from our intended destination, and the other is the Accademia Bridge, closer to us but still out of the way. Since there are only two bridges across the canal, this is a common predicament, and Venetian enterprise has come to the rescue with the traghetti. The traghetti are gondolas in strategic locations which are used exclusively as passenger ferries. One wishing to cross the canal pays a small fee and is paddled across, either sitting or standing, along with what is usually a small group of other people with the same intent. We found a traghetto near the Santa Maria del Giglio vaporetto stop and took the ride. Interestingly, one of the two boatmen didn’t want us to take any pictures of him, for unknown reasons.

Traghetto Ride	Traghetto Ride HD Video (17.0 MB) SD Video (11.4 MB)
Palazzo Barbarigo	Palazzo Salviati

We disembarked a short walk from the Santa Maria della Salute church, our first destination.

Santa Maria della Salute

Approaching Santa Maria della Salute
HD Video (17.1 MB) SD Video (6.8 MB)

The Santa Maria della Salute church is a large domed church which is a major landmark near the seaward entrance to the Grand Canal. It was built to give thanks for the end of a plague which had wiped out nearly a third of the city’s population in 1629-30. It was built from 1631-1687, octagonal in shape and baroque in style.

Santa Maria della Salute	Philip Climbing Stairs
Philip and View Across Canal	Santa Maria della Salute HD Video (15.6 MB) SD Video (4.5 MB)

Family on Stairs (SD Video, 5.3 MB)

A number of artworks can be seen inside, by artists including Titian and Tintoretto. The statuary group at the high altar is considered the masterpiece of Giusto Le Corte and is called Virgin and Child Expelling the Plague. It depicts Venice as a beautiful young woman and the plague as an ugly old woman being thuggishly driven away by a cherub.

Connie and Main Altar	Virgin and Child Expelling the Plague (Giusto Le Corte, 1670)
Main Altar, Painting, Dome Interior HD Video (19.5 MB) SD Video (5.3 MB)	Connie Lighting Candle (SD Video, 6.5 MB)
Floor and Front Door	The Descent of the Holy Ghost (Titian, c. 1545)
Altar of the Descent of the Holy Ghost HD Video (11.5 MB) SD Video (2.9 MB)	Altar of Our Lady of the Assumption (Luca Giordano, 1667)

Church Interior

From Santa Maria della Salute, we continued to the point of land at the Dogana di Mare, the former customs house for ships arriving from sea and the beginning of the Grand Canal. From this point one can see San Marco and the islands of San Giorgio Maggiore and Giudecca, and we also had a nice view of our hotel. On our visit, for some reason there was also a white statue of a naked boy holding a frog by its hind leg. Posted nearby was a guard to deter any unsavory ideas which may have occurred to the mischievous.

Westin Regina & Europa Hotel	Campanile and Doge's Palace
Naked Boy Statue	Naked Boy Statue and Weathervane HD Video (13.0 MB) SD Video (2.2 MB)
Dogana di Mare Weathervane	View from Dogana di Mare HD Video (21.2 MB) SD Video (7.0 MB)
San Giorgio Maggiore	Il Redentore Church, Giudecca

Our next destination on this side of the canal was the Accademia Gallery, the world’s largest collection of Venetian art. Artists represented include Tintoretto, Titian, Canaletto, Carpaccio, Veronese and Tiepolo, among many others. We have no pictures to show you from this museum, as they were prohibited and the prohibition was enforced. The outside of the museum wasn’t all that impressive, but here it is.

Accademia Gallery Building

But just outside the museum was the Accademia Bridge, which looks impressive in its own right and is a nice spot to take pictures from. It was also the only remotely nearby footbridge back to the side of the canal we came from.

Accademia Bridge and Gondolas	Around the Accademia Bridge HD Video (10.1 MB) SD Video (5.7 MB)
Santa Maria della Salute from Accademia Bridge	On the Accademia Bridge

View from the Accademia Bridge
HD Video (14.5 MB) SD Video (4.8 MB)

After crossing the bridge, we were startled to see a few young African men sprinting toward the bridge carrying large bundles wrapped in what looked like bedsheets. A few seconds later we saw an official-looking Italian man running after them. This was probably an attempt to enforce the law against the sale of counterfeit merchandise. Occasionally when walking around in Venice, one sees vendors with designer handbags, wallets, etc. arrayed on bedsheets. It’s pretty clear the merchandise is bogus – real designers sell their stuff in their stores, of which there are plenty in Venice, and not on bedsheets. The bedsheets, besides protecting the merchandise from the ground, also make it easy for the vendors to quickly pick up everything and move out, in a hurry if necessary. The vendors we saw were most likely converging from different sales locations to reach some sort of refuge on the other side of the canal. This is probably an ongoing game between the lawbreakers and the law enforcers. We never saw how this turn played out.

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