Day 4 Accademia

This morning I was up early so thought it was a good opportunity to get to the Accademia when it opened at 8.15 and avoid some crowds. There is a local market that sets up every morning in Via Garibaldi ( Via Garibaldi runs parallel to ‘my’ canal about 200m north. According to one guide book it is the widest street in Venice. It is where I have been in the habit of sometimes eating, buying food and strolling with all the other people ( just about all locals)in the early evening) Trouble is, at 7am, they were just starting to set up. I had my morning coffee and croissant on the way and got to the Accadamia at 8.10. The Accademia is a gallery which contains the largest collection of Venetian art in existence in 3 former interlinked religious buildings. There were 23 rooms. I had a few different sources of info and concentrated on, on average, 3 paintings per room – enough for me, though I did skip a few rooms full of dark gloomy paintings and 2 rooms were closed. They were arranged in roughly chronological order. I quite like Carpaccio’s paintings – sort of Brughel’ish – lots of detail. I even went to buy a book about him and his work, but they had none in English. There was a large painting by Veronese that took my fancy. It was commissioned as The Last Supper but was rejected and he was brought before the Inquisition because of the drunks and other hedonistic details. He was told to change the painting – he did – the title is now Feast in the House of Levi. Reminiscent of Caravaggio being told off for painting Christ with dirty feet. My timing paid off. Only in the last few rooms was there someone other than me. At 10.30, when I left, there were about 20 people plus a tour group of about 15 in the first room. It had started to rain while I was in the gallery so I caught the vaporetto home. For the first time I saw ticket inspectors. They had a little machine that they checked peoples imobs with.

After a very early sandwich, I set off again with a plan that started to go wrong from the start. I just missed a ferry – but that did not matter. I got to where I wanted to go in Dorsoduro, another of the sestiere – the only working boatyard that makes gondolas ( about 10 per year apparently) but it was too wet to take a photo. Never mind, I walked on to a shop that had been recommended to me to have a look before I go to Murano. They had beautiful stuff, but a bit out of my price range. Never mind, I walked on to a church that I had read about – it has 2 entrances, both the same but on different sides. Apparently it was built on neutral ground between 2 feuding families so had to have 2 entrances. ( What would JC have said about that?) It was closed and it was too wet to take a photo. (There are advantages in umbrellas) Never mind, I walked onto the next place – the church of Angelo Raffaele that Sally Vickers’ Miss Garnet was interested in. It was boarded up – very closed. Never mind, the next place was open – another church – San Sebastiano. It was being renovated and 2/3 of the paintings and things inside were covered or blocked off in some way. Never mind – time for coffee and something nice. I walked to the nearest large campo where there was sure to be something. The first place was too small ( I wanted to sit) , the second place was too fancy, the third was too full, the fourth was good – nice coffee, nice tiramisu ( apparently this originally came from Venice) . I had had enough churches and thought I would walk directly home rather than take a vaporetto. The most direct route made use of a traghetto but the closest one was not working. Never mind, I walked to the second, which also wasn’t working. Maybe they donot work in the rain?? I was pleased that I was not getting annoyed – just amused. This had taken me a fair way from the most direct route and I had to go further away to cross a bridge. There are signs on the major thorough fares to major land marks, but I was trying to avoid the major routes. It was raining more heavily and I was trying not to look too often at the map but on several occasions my navigation left a lot to be desired. While I knew my Gortex jacket was very waterproof, surprise, surprise my lightweight trousers were not. After a while my thermal pants got wet too. I stopped at a bar for a drink and finally got home about 5.30. Hopefully enough clothes will dry before tomorrow.