Italy - Day Five - Road to Perugia

Perugia was the Target of the day.

So the plan was to stop on the Way at a Town called

Raveena

So we took off early and made it there early in the morning.

First was to stop at the Basilica di San Vitale

This was an octagonal domed church known for its elaborate, richly colored Byzantine mosaics.

We were lucky and got a carpark right behind the building.

Surprisingly it was busy inside due to all the school groups.

This was an oddly shaped building.

While we waited, we went into a small chapel

 called the chapel of Saint Maria Maggiore

This was a small chapel built over 200 years ago.

The Basilica was easy to get to. And it looked normal

Once inside we looked up.

WOW, the tile work here was incredible.

And the floor work the same.

how they did it, we could just imagine the amount of work that went into it.

and the workmanship would  amazing

 the ceiling was all Tiles.

 The Mausoleum di Galla Placidia was next to the Basilica

 5th-century chapel built in the shape of a Latin cross, embellished with colorful Roman mosaics.
This is a chapel with a large Tomb in the middle to it.

This was still an amazing place.

 After this, we went for a walk around the town.

 We found other chapels

This the Baptismal of Neon.

 This was part of the Duomo o Basilica Ursiana
Again this was amazing

 We stopped for Lunch enjoying a Pizza and Blood Red Orange Juice

 The Drive to Perugia was long so we got there late afternoon.

this was the First Mountain Town we had gotten into.
The streets were very tight and finding parking was near impossible.

 The town was an interesting one.

we explored the local Basilica.

 This was an interesting Basilica

 Very fine detail everywhere.

it was placed to hide out of the rain.

after exiting the Basilica

we crossed the road to the hall of Notaries.
It is still a functioning hall.
Across the road was a museum of Art.

 A Gothic palazzo houses this collection of regional art & artifacts from the 13th to 19th century.

The painting was not what we expected.
but it was still a good museum
we could see from the windows the narrow streets we had to walk down to leave the Place.

 the streets were very tight

 The sculptures were good and the details very fine.

Once out there, we had dinner down the alley

Perugia is a mountain town and what view.
This was so impressive we decided we would see Assisi in the morning.
we were halfway through the Italy Holiday and it was proving to be the best Holiday for YEARS.

Italy - Day Four - Venice

Venice was a 20-minute drive. We had been told that it doesn't come to life until 10:00 in the morning. so we left about 9:00 

 enjoyed cruising down the Grand Canal a second time

 as it was Monday, it was busy with commercial traffic

And the Gondola's were still covered up.

but hey did look impressive

we went under the Rialto bridge again
First stop was the Gallerie Del Accademia
This place has a collection of beautiful artwork

and it was Beautiful

alter piece's and more

 most from the grandmasters

this one was my favorite. it was part of a larger masterpiece

this is just the detail in the below

as was the little girl in the painting

 this was what was on the ceiling.

 but it was the artwork here that was special

big images

little ones.

 this one was a De Vince

 or the clay models of the horses

and once outside we set off for the St Marks Square again.
saw some piles being replaced

cut passed statues of unknown men.

 and into St Marks Square

The queue for the basilica was open and crowds not so big.
Probably the rain was the cause.

Once inside the Basilica interior came into view, and WOW what a place.

All gold and decorations. This was a very nice building.

The tiles were made of gold and colored on top.

There wasn't a space that wasn't covered.

It was fantastic to be able to see this.

 Upstairs were the original horses and the weather damaging them.
So here they and you get up close to them.

Outside on the roof, we got to hear the famous bell of St Marks come.

 And get close to the horses that are copied now.

 it was wet, but I could see the queue for the tower was miles long.

St Marks Square was filling up. The tourists were arriving.

Also in the upstairs museum are
some of the artwork Sculptures that would normally be outside.

there was a lot of stuff being kept save now.

and the details on it was very fine considering
it would have been very high and almost out of sight.

After we came back down from the museum, we had to cut through the cathedral again.

We then slipped around the corner to the Doge's Palace.

In the courtyard was his covered Gondola

We marched up the beautiful stairs

not a bad ceiling for the main entrance

Great panels were made on display.

Inside it was just as elaborate

Just the paintings were bolder.

Displays were limited

sometimes very limited

But it was the rooms and the ceilings that were impressive

Outside you could see the islands of Venice beyond

Inside there were some large tapertresies

The Palace rooms overlooked the courtyard be
After the Palace, we cut across the Square to the
Museo Correr.

There was some Furniture on display.

The statues of the different doges  were that impressive

They had a collection of globes dating back ago way back.

There were paintings of the Coronations,
After this, we found the day was late so we
wanted to explore a bit more fo Venice.

The Gondola's were working the canals
and the sun was shining now.

And I got some of the best Pictures to remember.

The shop displays were fantastic.

 The Canals plying their trade.

We decided to go to see one last small museum.
This one was House called the Cario Goldoni's House

Cario Goldoni was a powerful merchant

 This house did have much to display

 But the rooms and some of the contents.

 The furniture was beautiful

the painting was impressive

 And the View from the terrace was breathtaking over the Grand Canal.
JUST AS A TOOK THIS PICTURE MY PHONE BEEP TO K+LET ME KNOW A MESSAGE HAD COME IN.
Little did we know that Michael and Kym were in Venice.
 So we set off after checking out the last of the paintings.

 This one from Bernardo Strozzi was my Favorite of the Day.
So we caught up with Michael and Kym
The chances of being here at the same time would have been very unlikely but they were here at the same time and this was proof.

We enjoyed dinner by the Grand Canal.

The beautiful Gnocchi was my Favorite.

 On the way Big to the Car after saying goodbye we stopped to make sure we had something to snack on tomorrow on the way to Perugia