Private tour through Castello and San Marco

OK, we didn't tour the whole of these two sestiere, but it seemed like it! We took the vaporetto to the Arsenale where we met our guide, Helene. She showed us around two years ago and proved to be charming and knowledgeable and a lot of fun. When you have a Venetian guide, you see how small the city is, only a bit more than 55,000 inhabitants, because she seems to know everyone.

While waiting for her, Ira and I visited the naval museum. It was jut a quick dip in, we'll visit more if it tomorrow. We saw an incredible personal submarine from WWII that attaches to a submarine. Two people in scuba gear then ride it into enemy waters. We saw tons if cannon and guns, and even an automated gun firing system that took into account speed, direction, waves and relative position of the enemy.

Our first stop was the entryway to the Arsenale, a wonderful Venetian concoction of styles and statues. The Arsenale is famous for building ships. In the 14th century they could turn out a ship a dy using an assembly line process.

San Martino, a church in the shape if a Greek cross, was our first sacred visit. It's most famous for its organ and sacristy ceiling painting. Throughout our tour, a student was practicing the organ, so its tones resinated with us throughout. We had special permission to enter the sacristy, which was a working one as evidenced by the clothing laid out on chairs and tables. The ceiling fresco was done by Baroque painter Antonio Zanchi. It's heavily damaged, with seams running through it, but the colors were still vibrant and the composition very fresh.

Next up was San Giovanni Batista in Bragora, which had an amazing painting by Cima de Coneglione, the baptism of Christ. Its colors were lively. The putti floating above were kind of silly, but the respective poses of Jesus and John were breathtaking. They seemed to be performing an elegant dance rather than a rite. Vivaldi was baptized in this church, and there were flowers laid out by fans next to the font.

We stopped at a nearby pasticceria for coffee. It was a lively, local place, with plastic chairs and no atmosphere except that brought by excited, chattering Venetians.

Our final visit was to the Palazzo Sandi, which houses a magnificent Tiepolo ceiling in what is now a conference room. It must be one of the best conference rooms in the world. Along with the ceiling fresco, there's a frieze in grisailles by Nicolo Bambini. Even the modern furniture is terrific, with a huge glass table by Scarpa and sleek chairs. It seated about 40, so it must make for an impressive gathering. We'd been there two years ago, but both of us wanted to see it again.

Dinner was special tonight at Antiche Carampane. I started with grilled shrimp and figs, with salad and purple grapes. The tastes all melded together gloriously. Ira had a simple salad of tomatoes and mozzarella. For the main meal, I had the best St. Pierre ever, with mushrooms. I'm not sure what it's called in American, but it's John Dory in English. Ira had the fritto misto, but I ate most of it. 

We had a lovely walk back to the vaporetto, and now to bed.