VENICE SLOW INTRODUCTION

VENICE SLOW INTRODUCTION

Arriving to Venice after a long flight or an intense train journey, what would you feel like doing? If you are an art and history lover and sense you cannot miss a ‘milestone’ like St. Mark’s Basilica, we suggest you planning a mid-afternoon tour. Around 3.30/4.00 pm there is a wonderful sunlight in the Piazza, your pictures of the façade, with all its golden details and rich colors will be fab! The big crowds will be gone, and there will be room inside to linger at admiring the Byzantine mosaics, the incredible floor, the architecture.

Your guide will sketch the 900-year-long history of this Roman Catholic  church, once private chapel of the Doges’ Palace, today still active as Patriarchal See. You will learn how the Venetians did not hesitate in spoiling other buildings to transform their own church into an enormous jewel-box. The walls, in and out, are totally encrusted with marbles, stones, alabasters, mostly ‘inherited’ from Constantinople 800 years ago.

Constantly flooded by tourists and salt water, this noble construction is struggling to survive and looks forward to quick environmental solutions and a more sustainable form of tourism. From this viewpoint, it epitomizes the destiny of the whole city of Venice, dramatically assaulted by the waters and, at least until 2019, by some 30 million tourists a year. A question our visitors frequently pose: how long will it last?

At this point, a break is advisable: