Churches in Venice

A fun theme that gives us an opportunity to honor the fluffy and furry creatures we share this planet with!

I've said this before, but some of the cutest dogs I've ever seen live in Venice. Both of these guys were hanging out at the entrances to stores; maybe their owners were inside shopping or maybe they are the store owner's dogs. Cute fluff, for sure.

And even though you don't see as many cats as you do dogs in Venice, the kitties are around. This "Erba per Gatti" (cat grass) was for sale at a Venetian florist shop and shows how much they love their fluffy felines too. I grow this stuff for my own cats sometimes (they love it!).

And speaking of fluffy felines, this Oriental print was hanging on the wall of the B&B where I stayed the last time I went to Venice. It was over the table where I had breakfast each morning, and I loved looking at these cats.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

A lovely neighborhood shrine in Venice. Here's the approach down a narrow calle (street):

The plaque underneath the tabernacle says that the residents of this neighborhood erected this shrine in 1958 to honor and remember the victims of war.

There are hundreds of shrines on the streets of Venice, but this one is unique in that they went to the trouble of putting that wallpaper up behind the shrine. It's rather homespun but very sweet.

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!

The 14th century Palazzo Ducale (or Doges' Palace) was for centuries the seat of power for the Venetian empire.

From "Venice and Its Lagoon" by Giulio Lorenzetti:

"The Doges' Palace - the seat of government of the old Republic - was the highest expression of the glorious and powerful Serenissima in its splendour and magnificence of art. It was the Doges' residence, the main administrative building, the public Archives and the Palace of Justice; the most decisive events in the history of the thousand years old Republic, both those culminating in greatness and in misfortune, took place between its walls."

John Ruskin, author of "The Stones of Venice" and worshipper of Venetian Gothic architecture, called it "a model of all perfection" and "the central building of the world."

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

There are many icons of Mary in the churches of Venice, and you can even find a few in the street shrines.

Venice also has a Museum of Icons close to the Greek church (San Giorgio dei Greci), and this first shrine below is near the museum with one of the icons represented inside.

This street shrine on the island of Murano pays homage to one of Venice's most revered icons, the Madonna Nikopeia in the Basilica di San Marco.

This one can be found on Giudecca.

Another one in mosaic that honors the Madonna Nikopeia.

This one is close to the church of Santa Maria Formosa.

If you're interested in icons (not just in Venice), I highly recommend this book by Sister Wendy Beckett, Encounters with God: In Quest of the Ancient Icons of Mary. It's a "road trip" pilgrimage book about Sister Wendy's travels to visit the eight oldest icons of Mary. These icons survived the 8th century wholesale destruction of all icons and religious art, making them some of the oldest Christian art in existence.

Five of them are in Rome, and the other three are in London, Egypt, and the Ukraine. The book has nice color photos, and it's amazing how unique and powerful these ancient sacred images are.

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!

Happy Equinox!

First, I wanted to let everyone know that we had to add word verification to the comments on my blog. The Slow Travel blogs were getting bombarded with spam which made things go funky.

The good news is that it's (hopefully) a user-friendly verification, not one of those blurry hard-to-decipher codes. Under my comment box, you simply type my name (Annie). I'm very grateful to everyone who visits my blog and takes the time to leave comments, so I'm glad that Kim from Slow Travel was able to come up with a solution that should be easy and painless. Please let me know if you have any problems!

So J is for Jurassic, the age of dinosaurs and also the name of a cool little store in Venice.

This shop sells fossils, stones, crystals, and jewelry. I'm not a rock collector, but I do enjoy looking at them. But what really attracted me to this place were the swirly spiral fossils on the sign and also in the window.

They reminded me of the fossils that I love to look for when I visit the churches in Venice. These fossils are embedded in the marble floors and are fun to find. This particular one is in the church of Angelo Raffaele (dedicated to Archangel Raphael).

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!

Happy weekend! I wanted to let everyone know that there is now word verification on the comments on my blog because all of the Slow Travel blogs were getting spammed. The good news is that it's (hopefully) a user-friendly verification and will be easy to do. Under my comment box, you simply type my name (Annie). There's a clue there to remind you.

When I saw the "shoes" theme, I knew what I wanted to do, but I couldn't find my photo. Thanks SO much to my friend, Bert, who knew exactly what I was looking for, sent his nice photo and allowed me to use it for this theme. You can see more of Bert's photos on Venice Daily Photo.

This relief is on the former headquarters of the German shoemakers or cobblers (Scuola dei Calegheri Tedeschi) in Venice. Three shoes on the bottom and an image of the Annunciation scene on top. The Blessed Virgin of the Annuciation was the shoemakers' patron saint.

The German shoemakers came to Venice and established a presence in this neighborhood in the late 14th century. In addition to their scuola, they had warehouses and shops, and there are at least four shoes etched into pillars around here. Many of these shoemakers are buried in the nearby church of Santo Stefano.

These chunky heel, square-toe shoes are back in style, I think!

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

Today (March 25) is the Feast of the Annunciation which celebrates Archangel Gabriel's visit to Mary, bringing her a lily and the news that in nine months, she would give birth to Jesus.

And legend has it that March 25 is also the date when Venice was founded, in the year 421 AD. Garry Wills' book, "Venice: Lion City" explores "the religion of empire" and all the many ways the Venetians interwove their history with the sacred Christian stories. He notes "the serene assurance Venetians had that the Virgin of the Annunciation blesses everything they do" and makes the funny observation that "only the Venetians could be confident that their city, born miraculously from the sea, is an earthly echo of the conception of the Saviour himself." (!)

There are scenes of the Annunciation all over Venice, most notably on the Rialto bridge and also at the city's highest point (on top of the San Marco campanile). Here's a smaller and more humble one, which can be found on the same building as the one in the my last post.

Archangel Gabriel on the left and Mary on the right~

March 25 is always a day of celebration in Venice, but this year, the festivities include welcoming the new Patriarch of Venice who was appointed by the Pope in January. After visiting various churches on the mainland, the Patriarch came to Venice, did a blessing of the children ceremony at Santa Lucia station, processed down the Grand Canal, stopped at Santa Maria della Salute for prayer, and then went to San Marco for Mass. There are some photos of these festivities on Flickr. Benvenuto Patriarca Francesco!

The door above leads into Parco Savorgnan. The last time I was in Venice, I visited this park because I'd heard there were some cats living there.

It's a nice neighborhood park, lots of green even in winter time and pretty yellow leaves that had just fallen. There were some children playing and even a Madonna overlooking the park.

I walked around for a while and then I found the kitties, three beautiful tabby cats. They looked very healthy and well-cared for. I fed them some cat treats and hung out with them for a while.

There were a couple more cats underneath the shrubbery, too shy to come out while I was there. I put some treats out for them and moved away, then one of them popped out.

I also found the Kitty Condos where they live. There were a few shy cats hanging out inside these houses too. Nice to see a colony of stray cats being taken care of like this.

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!

Many of the street shrines in Venice have artificial flowers. They are beautiful, and it's not always easy to tell if they are real or not.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.