San Marco Basilica & Mama Lucia

Venice to Florence, Mon Jun 15

We checked out around 9:30 and left our gear at the hotel to run through the San Marco Basilica prior to departing for Florence. The line was slightly longer than when we saw it the day before, but it progressed fairly quickly. You could actually go into the Basilica and have a look around for free, but you had to pay to see any of the really neat stuff. They had cleverly hidden St. Mark's tomb and the altar piece with some columns and tapestries, so you had to pay $2euro each to go back and check them out. St Mark's remains were under the altar and just behind the altar was an 8ft wide by at least 6ft tall altarpiece made of gold illuminated scenes decorated with hundreds of rubies, topaz, and pearls and plenty of other jewels that I can't think of right now. Some of the scenes depicted how the Venetians acquired St. Marks remains from Alexandria, some showed scenes from St. Mark's life, and others covered Mary & Jesus and plenty of angels, saints etc.

Another $3euro got you into the treasury which housed a collection of booty stolen from Constantinople. The collection included ancient Egyptian pottery, glass & metal cups from the 800's and 900's, and plenty of 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th century holy articles such as monstrances, chalices, swords, and vessels containing holy relics such as bones and pieces of fabric from saints.

Finally, an additional $4 euro got you access to the upper floors of the Basilica and to the outer terrace. Being that much closer to the ceiling, you quickly realize that the entire ceiling is a mosaic -- tiny squares of multi-colored stones patterned to form religious scenes. I can't even begin to imagine how long it took to decorate using this technique. You could probably only complete a 5ft x 5ft area in a days work...and the total surface area of the walls and domed ceilings is about 8000 square meters -- essentially astronomical. Even with scaffolding, you would be craning your neck to look up at what you were working on. I take my hat off to both the original artist as well as anyone doing restoration work. Glad its not me.

Upstairs featured a museum area. The first part contained models showing how some of the mosaics on the ceilings had been restored using extensive scaffolding and supports. Just beyond were the original 4 copper horses that face San Marco Square. They were stolen from Constantinople during the 4th Crusade. I would guesstimate that these were roughly larger than life-size. A quick walk over to the outer terrace allowed for sweet buttock views of the replicas that now adorn the Basilica. Oh, and also a great view of the square itself. But back to the museum. Just past the horses were remains of the original frescos from the church walls. Most actually still resembled the original image, others seemed like a stretch of the restorer's imagination. Still pretty neat.

After climbing back down a now packed staircase (the same narrow staircase is used to go both up and down, brilliant), we grabbed our bags from the hotel and walked over to pick up a vaperetto to get back to the train station. After two stops, our boat was so packed that I half wished I was back in that crowded staircase. Ok, maybe not...but it was pretty annoying and I was stuck in the center of it. Oh well. In Italy, despite having a rail pass you still have to pay ~$10 euro to reserve a spot on the train-- so we booked our tickets and headed off for Florence, only a few hours away. Joe actually spent the extra $$ for first class! The train was one of the nicer that we've been on, so I guess it was worth it.

We made it to Florence in late afternoon/early evening without a reservation for a hotel. Kev took up the search for lodging this time around while Joe and I stood vigil over the bags at a park just up from the train station. Kevin was gone for over 40 minutes, at which point we'd come up with some scenarios for what might have happened --he either ditched us for the Cinque Terre, got lost, or was jumped. Thankfully none of that happened, and he came back with two options-- $140 a night in a hotel, or $70 a night staying in one of Mama Lucia's roomed. We opted for the later. Was an extremely basic room with one king bed and a cot, no A/C, and bathrooms down the hall. Crazy thing was that she had Wi-fi! Best part about this experience was that Mama Lucia (I kept expecting her to make us some pasta) insisted on putting the sheets on the cot. So the three of us guys stood and watched a 70yr old woman make Joe's bed for him. Haha. Felt like she was our grandmother or something. She also didn't speak much English, so it was fun trying to communicate. Kevin used hand gestures that I've never seen before, not even on ancient egyptian tombs. The room ended up being fine-- was kinda hot the first night and there were some mosquitos, but we weren't in the room much so it served its purpose just fine.

The only thing we did the first night was get dinner. We wandered down a couple sketchy streets to an area recommended by our guide book. Went into the first Italian restaurant we came across that had outdoor seating--it helped that they had employed a pretty attractive promoter girl who was pitching the restaurant to everyone that walked by. Ha. I didn't realize until later that there were 6-8 restaurants all around a small square just beyond this first place. We all ate WAY too much. Kevin had a 4-5 course chef's special -- it included wine, espresso, dessert, an appetizer and 2 courses. Both Joe and I struck out on our own, each selecting a first and second course. I had ravioli for the 1st, which was really enough for an entire meal. My second course was a steak with peppercorns in a cognac sauce. In Italy, they don't ask you how you want your steak, you just get it medium-rare --and it was quite tasty, I really enjoyed it. I finished my meal with a shot of espresso while watching Kevin eat pie. Afterwards we scoped out the other restaurants on the small square and got some gelato from a small shop there.

We took a slightly different route back to the hotel along one of the main streets. We walked past a bar that was showing the USA vs Italy soccer match, so we ducked in and caught the last 20 minutes. Intended to have a beer, but the tap wasn't working too well and the staff seemed content with not serving us..so we didn't have any! The score was 1-1 when we tuned in...and we had the pleasure of watching the staff celebrate 2 Italian goals en route to a 3-1 victory over the Americans. The last goal was incredible. A ball fake along the sideline by a striker, who took it to the end line and chipped it onto the penalty spot where one of the midfielders half-volleyed it into the corner of the net. Sweet. We ducked out at that point and checked off another day in Europe.

BTW, how many believed me when I said Mama Lucia had wi-fi?