Day 11 Doges’ Palace

For a large part of Venice’s history it has been ruled fairly democratically. The administration was headed the by Doge, an elected leader whose powers were carefully defined by the Venetian constitiution. Real power lay with the Council of Ten and the 2000 or so members of the Grand Council, from whose number the Doge and his advisers were elected. The Doge’s Palace was built in the 14th and early 15th century ( a fire destroyed the previous one) It is light and airy and Gothic. It was the seat of government ( hence large rooms for grand occasions and ones with rows of chairs around the walls for meetings) , the administration centre of justice ( hence prison rooms ) and the home of the doge. There were all sorts of lavish huge paintings – one said to be one of the largest paintings in the world 7.5 m by 24.7m by Tintoretto ( and his helpers) of Paradise. I thought it a bit boring – thousands of happy looking people. There were assorted odd things – several rooms had exhibitions of weapons – row after row of spears , guns etc, a room of Hieronymous Bosch which I quite deliberately walked straight past, a room with what one of my books described as one of Bellini’s best paintings, a room with a display of the re evaluation as genuine and then subsequent restoration of a Carpaccio painting. In the dungeons, I met a woman from San Fransisco. She was in Venice for 10 days doing a language course. We were both finished that museum so we had a cup of coffee together and talked for quite a while. She was of a similar age, had 2 grandchildren, a husband but he was busy and she regularly travelled alone. She said the good thing about a language course was that it gave you a community. More thought required for my next trip . ( I should do a search on ‘more though required’ and make a list.)

I then went to the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni which was set up in the late 1400s as a meeting place for the large community of Slavs living in the area. Vittore Carpaccio was commissioned to paint the place with scenes from the life of Christ and the legends of their patron saints, St George ( as in slaying the dragon) and St Jerome. There are lots of interesting people in the paintings and architecture from different places in the world – not necessarily where the action is set, but maybe where the people have been. Many things have significance that the average viewer would not pick up. When I walked in, there was a couple there– he spoke Italian, she was American and the guy who collected the money at the door was talking about the paintings. The Italian speaking American ( I assume) was translating and asking many questions. There was a painting of Augustus who had just had a vision from the dead Jerome with books – apparently Venice was one of the first places in Europe to start printing books – and a few other things. Carpaccio was known to put things in paintings from the wrong time to show off what a wonderful place Venice was. Another Italian couple got in on the discussion – they seemed to know lots about Augustus and his theories and writings and some of the symbolism in the painting. It was very interesting. I could just follow the American’s Italian – he spoke slowly – but not the Italian guy – he spoke too quickly – but the American translated for the other lady.

I then went and had lunch. I had sussed out the places along the waterfront – all are more expensive than the back street places, but I thought it reasonable to have 1 meal with a view. I had worked out where most least unreasonably priced and went there. It was nice being so close to the water.

Today I saw black underwear in a shop and black underwear on a washing line – so disregard what I said yesterday.

This afternoon I have walked all over Venice trying to find a bookshop with a book on Carpaccio. It wasnot very pleasant. All the groups of teenage school kids here on excursion were out, loudly, wandering the streets with no teachers to keep them in a cohesive group. I gave up and sat watching the sunset having a bellini actually sitting at an outside table ( twice in one day – what is the world coming to)

I have been thinking about why I have got into the habit of having my lunch out – and usually a main meal. They are 2 separate things. As a single diner, I think I feel less conspicuous at lunch time – whether in a restaurant or sandwich place. If I ate out at night time it would be later – I tend to be in bed by 9pm and read for a while before going to sleep. There have been days when I have had a sandwich out at lunch and cooked myself some pasta from the supermarket fr dinner. Another factor is that I tend not to sit down from when I leave here in the morning to late lunch time ( excluding ferries and churches ( except for a few that have the pews roped off))– so by then I am keen for an excuse and walking back here adds another ¼ hour. I have got into the habit of having lunch as the main meal because there were quite a few specialities I wanted to try and I cannot be bothered deciding what to cook – I am on holidays. I tell myself that when I get to London I will cook – although people tell me take away food is reasonable. Who knows.