Woke up to a totally gray and overcast day with the prediction of rain.  The plan was to take the vap, but when we finally got out it didn’t seem too bad so we started walking.  Wanting to try a new route, we went via the Miracoli church.  As we were coming around from the back, I heard something that sounded like a bunch of cow bells.  What could it be?  We were walking towards the noise and soon discovered it was (to our complete delight) a group of young school children marching, singing, and banging on old pots and pans with wooden spoons.  It was San Martino day! They were so full of life and smiles.  What a treat!

Let’s just say, I didn’t take us the most direct way to the Accademia bridge.  I took this photo in Campo Santa Marina:

Finally we found ourselves in Piazza San Marco.  Lucky for us because there had been a bit of acqua alta and we got to see it.  In some ways it was beautiful.  I couldn’t take any pictures because we were on the elevated platforms and there was quite a bit of traffic on them.

Passing by a deconsecrated church (maybe san Maurizio?) which is a musical instrument museum.  We had never been inside, so we went.  They have a beautiful display of string instruments, but not guitars.  Mostly violins which are old–as far back as the 1600’s and look so similar to the current ones.

the altar

the little one is so tiny!

We stopped in a lovely bar called Le Cafe, in Santo Stefano for coffee.  They had great art work on the walls and a really nice bathroom 😉

Finally we arrived at the Zattere.  Jill had messaged me about the photo show Rivus Altus.

poster for the exhibit

On the back wall, paper prints which you could take with you.

We really enjoyed our time there. The photographer makes collages of his prints all about the Rialto Bridge.  There were also big black and whites of people in a photo journalism style.  In addition to the gallery show where we spent a good amount of time, there were quite a few iron sculptures in the courtyard.And (we are really not sure about this) a display of creative flooring finishes on big, say 4′ X 8′, slabs of concrete.

After the exhibits, we wanted to walk on the Zattere a bit so we made a right and walked down to the western end.  Rain was imminent, so we walked back to the Zattere stop and rode, slowly, home.  By the time we got off at Fondamenta Nove, the rain had stopped so we did a quick shopping run into the Coop.  Everything else was closed.  We had planned to go out in the evening for cicchetti, but with the rain we decided to just stay in.

So we did nothing the rest of the day. I am grateful we have enough time here to be comfortable to just do nothing!

We played cards, read and watched “The Crown” again–I really like it and I am so not into the royals.

A lovely San Martino day!