We knew it would be hot and that we should get going early but somehow we just lingered until it was 11:00. First stop–Caffe del Doge and then we went looking for the Church of the Day: San Giovanni Elemosinario. We looked around the little calles near Rialto Market but couldn’t find it. Finally I asked a nice guy standing outside his framing shop and he pointed to it. We have walked by it a million times! The entrance is right on the Ruga!

It’s a small square church with some noteworthy art but the most interesting things to me were the excavation and the old stone carving.
Right in the entrance is a clear plastic piece covering a tomb sized ole in the floor. We looked into it and saw nothing but as you keep looking you can see the remnants of frescoes on the walls of the tomb. They aren’t sure how old it is–sometime before 1000 they think!
And also, on display, there’s a stone carving, nativity scene, which they think is from around the year 700. I didn’t see any sign to explain what it was so I asked the woman at the “ticket booth” about it. She seemed so excited to talk and explained to me that this is a very unusual piece and they aren’t sure where it came from.

From there we went into the market and got a bunch of fruit and veggies. And then on to Aliani where we had a long conversation with “the son” Davide and we bought some meats, olives and very small tortellini stuffed with prosciutto.
Came home for lunch and rest. It was just too hot (over 90) to be walking around the streets. And we never went out again until after dinner. I cooked the fantastic tortellini I had gotten and some spinach. Davide told me they needed to be eaten with just butter and cheese so that’s what we did. We both thought they were about the best thing we’ve eaten in Venice so far!
Our after dinner walk was focused on checking out Vecio Fritolin and making a lunch reservation there and gelato.
I love seeing all the layers in the walls:

and the random beauty crossing every little bridge:

We went back to the San Stae gelato place. Her nut flavors are just amazing (I got nocciola/hazelnut this time) but her fruit flavors are just OK. We ate our gelato down by the canal at San Stae, catching the light just perfectly for the pink show on the Grand Canal: