Basilica San Marco

I had a tour today of the Basilica in San Marco.

I left the hotel after breakfast and walked around to San Marco. I was there almost 1 1/2 hours early, it was a lovely morning, sunshine and not a sign of any 'mist'.

The Grand Canal in the sunshine

Lovely sunshine today

I went for a walk out the back of San Marco, there are so many bloody tourist shops everywhere that side of Venice. Where I am staying there is one or two tourist stalls, and a couple of 'Murano' glass shops (the glass comes from China, don't know how they get away with calling it "Murano"). It is very different here in the winter to the summer. In the summer when you walk through San Marco you have to battle your way across from one side to the other. Now there is plenty of clear space to just wander around.

I watched kids feeding the pigeons (illegal, 500 euro fine) with food given to them by their parents then parents take photos with their kids covered in the birds thinking it's cute (imagine all the germs!!) then the kids chase the pigeons. Then I watched kids just chasing the pigeons. Then I watched kids and people trying to kick the birds. There were also people just ignoring the birds and leaving them to do bird things. I saw a couple of people trying to stop the kids. Not many though. It made me wonder if any research has been done on why people do this. Maybe there's a PHD in it for me to do some study!

Protectors of all things important

Plenty of room to walk around San Marco this time of year

I met the tour organisers at the designated time. I was the only person. They handed me my head set, I asked if I was the only person. No, I was to catch the group as they walked out of the Doge's Palace and join them. In the meantime I asked where is a rubbish bin to put the plastic bag my head set came in as I picked up a plastic bag off the ground. The guy didn't know so I went looking. There are no bins in San Marco piazza! I went back to the group and the girl told me there are no bins for security reasons and that I could hold on to the bag until I met up with the rest of the group, there was a bin there, so I did that. No bins in San Marco where thousands of people are every day.

I joined the group, we went into the basilica. It was quite lovely, mostly gold, some colour mosaics, but no photos allowed. I don't know why. I get why when there are frescos or paintings but not mosaics. The guide thought it might be because of copyright. Who knows.

Some of the photos I managed to sneak inside the Basilica -

all the gold and colour on the walls and ceiling is mosaic glass, the floor mosaic marble

I wasn't overwhelmed by the inside as I thought I would be. But I would have liked to have been able to take proper photos, not some I snuck, so I could see better.

I left San Marco after the tour and walked to the Rialto Bridge then on to San Polo where I went to find the artist studio in the fog but gave up because I was cold and wet. I found San Polo like a piece of cake this time, not like the other time when I came from the other side of the Campo. I had a snack for lunch while I waited for the shop to open and sat in the campo for a while. They have set up a temporary ice skating rink, so I was watching a few people skate, a nonna collecting ice from the side of the rink and giving it to some kids around 3 or 4 years old and they were making snow balls and throwing them at each other. Everyone in their group thought that was so cute, until it ended in tears, then there was a gabble of Italian spoken as the group disbursed.

Fun until someone ends up crying!

By this time the shop should have been open so I went to check it out. Still closed. I tried to ring the phone number on the door, no answer. So I asked the shop next door if they knew if the shop would be opening today, she didn't know, so I asked the shop opposite. No, it won't be opening, because the woman is on holidays. After all that!