Churches in Venice

I only guessed #5, and got it right, some others looked familiar, but alas, I need more time in Venice.

Cool links!
Great information...thanks for sharing!

Hi Annie, I was still in the 0-5 score :) but am happily willing to return to Venice to improve my scores.

The Lover of Venice is a really cool blog. Thank you for sharing the link and this cool quiz, even though I didn't do so well.

I found all the stories you linked to very interesting. Cool on the seaweed/electricity, interesting on the Vampire skull story, fantastic news on the Save the Stone Lions law. I was sad to read about the tourism situation on Italy. It's amazing how our economy can have this worldwide affect. Hope things improve for everyone's sake.

Great post Annie! And that's a very cool picture of what the Save the Stone Lions law will be saving! Have a great day!

I failed miserably on the quiz, I only knew two: the Ponte della Costituzione and the gorgeous Annunciation relief above the door, near the church of SS Giovanni e Paolo. I wasn’t looking for the relief and when I saw it just before crossing the bridge, I had one of those (many) moments when I was reminded of seeing something you had blogged about.

The articles where all very interesting, in particular the one about the vampire skull. I hope to soon forget seeing the photo of the brick-in-the-mouth skull.

About the island of Lazzaretto, there’s a book that someone mentioned on ST titled “The Abandoned Islands of the Venetian Lagoon”. I’m interested in buying it but the price seems quite high for a paperback with 240 pages. Did you by chance see it in any bookstore in Venice last December? The price on Amazon is $80.00 and on the publisher’s website is about $50 with S&H (shipped from the UK).

Maria, I hope that photo doesn't give you nightmares. :) And as Kathy said, doing poorly on the quiz is a good thing since it means you have to go back to Venice ASAP!

I read about that book on ST too. I looked at a book about the islands in a bookstore in Venice - it was hardback with tons of color photos, but I'm not sure if it's the same one (it was in Italian and I didn't see an English version). Wonder why that one costs so much? Maybe the guy at The Most Beautiful Bookstore in the World will have a cheaper used copy?

Annie, it seems that this book was originally published in the late 70's and this new edition is the first in English. It also appears that both editions were published in paperback. The only justification I can find for the high price is that a portion of the sale of the book will go to fund restoration work at Lazzaretto Nuovo. I saw a first copy of the book for sale on the website of San Marco Press for $100 (!).

I wished the owner at Acqua Alta had a website. I'd love to go there and come back with a suitcase full of his books.

Hmm..so it's a reissue. There's another bookstore in Venice named "Filippi" (with two locations) that specializes in books about Venice and esp. reissues and reprints of old books(that's where I bought my copy of Lorenzetti and I'm not going to say how much I paid for it...a lot!). :) I'll definitely look around for the Island book next time I go.

There's an out-of-print book about The Churches of Venice, huge and beautiful and the only comprehensive book ever published. I found a used copy selling for 300 Euro. I didn't buy it! But the nice family at the Locanda own it so when I stay there, they let me borrow it. :)

I was very happy, Annie, to see the answers to the Venice quizz because I did so poorly on it -- the only answer I could even guess at was the Ponte della Costituzione!

As Candi said, I clearly have to spend a lot more time in Venice to improve my knowledge.

Interesting news stories, the "vampire" skull piece was fascinating. I can just imagine how, in earlier times, people must have been so baffled by what happened to corpses. And suspected the worst!

I saw the ANSA story about preserving the lions earlier and thought it was brilliant! In fact, I'd support a levy on cruise ships visiting Venice (perhaps one euro per person?) to help pay for the lions' upkeep!

Sandra, that is such a great idea! I personally wish they would dock those cruise ships far away because they are such an eyesore but then charge a levy too!

I only partly knew #5 & 6 and knew #7. Pretty poor showing. It was great to see the answers. I did check a few weeks ago but they weren't up yet. Glad you posted the link for us.