Seventh Day
This morning we did not have breakfast at the motel, so we stopped in a little convenient store while still at the lake and bought some food. We sat around for a while than left for Venice. We were going to do some hiking, but the dolomite was closed down completely. Between ski and summer season everything is closed, the cable cars, restaurants, hotels....(usually in May every year).
Anyway, we wanted to spend as much time in Venice as we could.
Venice
We arrived there about 2 p.m. We parked our van in a parking garage at Rome square and walked to our hotel. It was a good thing to have David around...He was not only our bus driver, but also he could find everything very quick. We did not really like this hostel too much, but at least it was in the heart of Venice and In minutes we had dropped our bags and were ready to go.
We all wanted to visit
SAN MARCO
WHICH IS THE HEART OF VENICE. First we Went to the
Saint Mark's Basilica.
The Basilica is a wonderful example of Byzantine Venetian architecture.
It
used to be the Doge's chapel but it was also the mausoleum for Saint
Mark, the patron saint, whose life is narrated in the golden mosaics on
the walls.
The basilica originally built for this purpose, begun in 829, was burned
during a revolt in 976; the present structure, one of the most beautiful
buildings in Europe, was completed in 1071. The plan is an Eastern
symmetrical Greek cross (see church) surmounted by five domes. The
design is distinctly Byzantine, and both Byzantine and Italian
architects and craftsmen probably worked on it. The interior is
decorated with mosaics on a gold background; the floor is of inlaid
marble and glass. In the restricted light their colours glow
fantastically. Over the centuries, the church has benefited richly from
the addition of sculptures, mosaics, and ceremonial objects.
Saint Mark's Basilica.(" Britannica Concise Encyclopedia."
2004. Encyclopędia Britannica.)
After climbing the tower of San Marco we all were ready to play with the pigeons. Here are some of our pictures feeding them. You can buy bird seed all over San Marco....Venetians must like to have millions of pigeons around (sure they looked healthy and well fed...some were very fat like some Americans with too much tasty, but unhealthy food).
We all heard stories about the problems Venice has to face with the rising sea-level.
I found this information: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venice/about.html
The major problem in Venice is the subsidence of the ground on which Venice is built, combined with ever higher tides caused by rising sea levels. When storm winds blow from the south, the Adriatic floods the lagoon, causing acqua alta, or high water. Under certain weather conditions, the flooding can be catastrophic. Venetians have kept up with the rising water by raising the level of floors and pavement. This has deformed elegant buildings, created awkward doorways, and left very little room to keep building up in advance of acqua alta.
Another alarming sign is
the green ring of algae at the high-water mark. Ominously, this line has
crept above the impermeable foundation stones that have long kept
saltwater from seeping into walls, slowly destroying buildings from
within. Infrared images show that the saltwater is indeed inside doing
its damage.
Venetians, however, are not without a plan to save their city. Engineers
have proposed a multibillion-dollar series of gates that will rise off
the seafloor at the entrances of the lagoon whenever acqua alta is
forecast, holding the sea back until the high tides subside (Watch a
video about the proposed gates)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venice/gates.html .
By blocking the canal water Venetians can insulate their foundations
(In this section, if otherwise not stated, the pictures were taken by, and the property of Dr. Anna Balog-Szabo)