The Basilica

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Our last full day in Venice, so a must-do was a self-guided tour of St Marks Basilica. The original building of this church started in 829 and took seven years to complete. However, it was completely rebuilt in 1063 - the rebuild taking 31 years to complete. The central dome (or cupola) is a staggering 43 metres high - that's like a 14 storey office block!

Here are some pics:

Looking aloft in the Basilic to view some of the many beautiful cupolas that dominate this building.

A view down the central nave

All of the stunning artwork is formed using very small mosaic pieces covered in glass to reflect light

OK, that/s the culture bit done - time to eat. Being our last day, we thought we would eat out at night. We chose a nice restaurant that fronted the lagoon. Spaghetti Carbonara for Brenda and Tagliatelle with scallops and zucchini for me. Then a late night stroll back through the square one last time to our Airbnb.


All the restaurants now closed up for the night

At high tide the square gets flooded by about a foot of water - it dries out again as the tide recedes. When I first came to Venice many years ago, the square never used to get flooded. So either the city is continuing to sink or global warming is increasing the sea level here. Sadly, I suspect it's a bit of both.

Tomorrow we leave Venice behind. A quick vaporetto ride back to the bus station. And a bus to the train station. And there we will collect our rental car. For the next three weeks we will be driving south - at least as far as the Amalfi cost south of Sorrento - before returning to Rome.

The first couple of weeks are going to be spent in Tuscany and Umbria. I love the hilltop towns in these regions having visited most all of them during earlier trips to Italy. For Brenda though, this will be a first time experience, and I will enjoy being her guide for this part of our journey.

Buon viaggio! - as the locals would say.


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