Venice

I am having a good, if sweltering, time in Venice... even though the city is infected with tourists to a near-fatal point, it is still a lovely and beautiful place to visit.

I have seen paintings, both old and new, in the Galleria dell Accademia and the Guggenheim Venice [you figure out which is which]... I went to St. Mark's and to the Doge's Palace... I'd been to Mark's place before, but in the several times I've been to Venice, I've never ventured to the palace... and it was full value for the entry... there are a lot of paintings by the big names of Venetian art [Tintoretto, Titian, Veronese, Bellini, Carpaccio] located in the places for which they were painted, including some stunning ceilings... some of the individual panels were too big for the studio spaces the artists had, so they had to find alternative places to work. The capper of the tour of the palace is a visit to the prison... dungeon... it was supposedly built as an improvement in conditions over the other facilities available... it still didn't look too spiffy. Anyway, you get to that side of the workings via the Bridge of Sighs... a most famous sight... I put my hand out the grill at the side, and I am sure that it will show up in about 350 tourist photos... there were a gaggle snapping away below when I was going over. The odd thing is that, unlike, say, Paris, Venice is crowded outside, but inside most sights there are not the gigantic crowds... saying that, one does have to stand in line at St. Mark's, but this seems mostly so one can be hassled for too short a skirt, uncovered shoulders, having a backpack, etc. [my skirt was acceptable... in case you were wondering].

Well, I am off to have dinner... I don't know where, yet. I have had two meals in places I have been before and liked, both a little away from the grotesqueries of tourist exploitation located near the Grand Canal. More later. Ciao!