Day 3 San Polo

More mist and poor visibilty.








I have taken quite a few photos of different boats – working barges, luxury canal boats, ambulance boats, fire boats etc. This morning in ‘my’ canal, garbage bins were being emptied into a rubbish-collecting boat. The workmen were visibly perplexed at why I should be taking photos. Later I passed several coast guard boats but there were many official looking people loitering and I chickened out.

I had my first ride in a traghetto today. There are only 3 bridges that cross the Grand Canal that winds through the centre of Venice. At various points along the canal you can cross for half a euro by standing up in a traghetto. This is a large gondola shaped boat with an oarsman either end and a maximum of 20 people standing.

Today I visited several places in the San Polo sestiere. The first was the church of Santa Maria dei Frari – a huge, plain Gothic church built by Francis of Assissi’s followers. It had some impressive paintings but I particularly liked the intricately carved wooden choir stalls. A funeral was starting as I was leaving. I went to visit another place – the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. Scuolas in Venice were mainly built in the 13th century by lay groups of people for the charitable benefit of needy groups of people – the sick or ethnic minorities etc. They had rich benefactors who paid noted artists of the time to decorate the walls and often ceilings. The Scuola di San Rocco was one of these set up for the sick. St Rocco was the patron saint of infectious diseases so people believed ( hoped?) that if they gave money to the Scuola they would be spared from the plague. Tintoretto was commissioned to paint the walls and ceilings. After that I went back past the first church and the funeral was coming out of the church. The coffin was put into a waiting ‘hearse’ boat and escorted off by a boat rowed by 6 oarsmen, I reckon all over at least 60, in white and purple outfits. I then went to the Campo ( Square) of San Polo. It’s the second largest campo in Venice but is fairly bleak and boring. Mind you, it was a bleak, drizzling, grey, cold day. It was used for bull fighting.
After my afternoon rest, I went to look at a local church. It used to be the main church in Venice but is now in a quiet area surrounded by boat building yards and, for Venice, a fair bit of green areas. I then had a hot chocolate. Every bar advertises ‘ hot chocolate with cream’. I asked for mine without cream, but I still could only eat – not drink – half of it, it was so rich. I’m pleased I’ve tried it.