Venice Sunday 18, Day 25

A lovely quiet Sunday morning. After breakfast we pottered down the quiet streets to the Zaretta vaporetti station, and caught the boat to Saint Marks Square, to visit the Museo Correr. This has a collection of artefacts and representations of Venetian life and history, mostly from the 1500's on, plus some artefacts from bronze age and Etruscan inhabitants of the area, lots of Roman marble, and other stuff.

The representations of Venice and its naval history are interesting, enormously detailed. We could see the canal where our hotel is located, and you can make out the four lions outside the Arsenal, in the same place they are today.  Some of the more everyday items were striking and gave an insight into what Venice must have been like on the past. There are shoes which have wooden stilts built in, about 150cms high, which must have been for walking through flooded streets and squares.

After the museum we felt a little weary - perhaps museum fatigue is setting in - so we went for a walk along the shore front down to Arsenale. Once the crowds cleared the walk was pleasant. I guess in Venice there is always a sea breeze, as it is surrounded by water, but the air and the water and the sun this morning seemed particularly fine.

I wanted to show Anne the four very disparate and distinctive lions that guard the entrance to the Arsenale. Like so much in Venice, there is a rich history behind each.  Anne like the one on the extreme left best.

This is the Piraeus_Lion looted from the harbour of Athens in 1687 by the Venetian navy during the Great Turkish War.  The lion dates from at least the first century AD, and has runes carved by Scandinavian mercenaries employed by the Byzantine empire visible on his shoulder.   One of his companion lions is even older, said to date from 400 BC. And they are all just sitting there, on the edge of the square, exposed to the weather and the vagaries of the tide of humanity that sweeps past them.

We wandered a bit further along past the gardens then by pure luck caught a ferry which came express back to our local stop. A quiet afternoon, then headed out for dinner, to find that our planned dinner location was closed, as were most other restaurants in our local area. We had pasta outside on the square at San Barnabas then explored in a new direction, over towards the University. The squares over that way were party town, with lots of young people standing outside bars clutching drinks and having a good time. Some sore heads tomorrow though I think.

So, our last day in Venice. Tomorrow Ravenna.