We seemed to be moving very slowly and it took us a while to finally be ready to leave the apartment. Destination: San Giorgio Maggiore, the island just across the lagoon which has a big church (of course) and a tower. We took the vaporetto from San Toma, got off at San Marco and walked along the crowded Riva, taking in the grandeur of San Marco and the Bridge of Sighs in passing, and got on the vap at San Zaccaria to cross over to the island. I had been over here with Kris but didn’t remember any of the art. The center of the church is totally under restoration:

We watched a slide show about the restoration and how they got the statue of St. George back on the top of the church.
Then we rode the elevator up to top of the tower; you cannot climb the stairs. The views were incredible out of each of the four sides. Here’s the classic view of St. Marks:

Here’s a shot of the tower from the back side.

Then we walked around the marina to the exhibition called “Le Stanze del Vetro”, Rooms of Glass. There were eight rooms with works by brother and sister, Alessandro and Laura Santillana. At first there is a hallway with smaller pieces on shelves but when we got into the rooms the work took my breath away. The larger pieces, some wall mounted and some free standing, mostly about 3 feet squarish. I love a light green series. Ken was really taken with a bright room of mirror like pieces:

After the show we took the vap back to Zattere and started walking.
We stopped for lunch (touristing makes me hungry) at Taverna San Trovaso. We had prosecco and pasta dishes–mine with tiny scallops, loving the color of the orange roe, and Ken had his with tomatoes, peppers and mussels. And we had a very buttery side of spinach. I thought the food was nothing special but certainly hit the spot.
We walked to San Barnaba to check out the gourmet food shop I had read about called Pantagruelica. It is so much smaller than I had imagined. Ken tried his salami and said it was too fatty for him and that got us off to a bad start with the owner. We did get some really sweet prosciutto and montasio cheese. Stopped at the little store in Campo Santa Margherita to get some liquid soap and more hangers and walked home.
It rained most of the afternoon so we just relaxed and read. Went out quickly to get some bread near San Toma, when it stopped. Came back home and had the great bread
and ham and cheese for dinner. We took a nice long walk afterwards; it had stopped raining but it was pretty chilly.