I hope you enjoy this look at the ever-changing skies of Venice~

Sometimes the sky is vivid blue~

Sometimes it is partly cloudy~

Sometimes there's a moon~

Sometimes the sky is reflected~

Sometimes the sky is gray~

Sometimes there are orbs!

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

La Biennale di Venezia opened this week and already, there are some great articles and images on the web. So I thought I'd share a few links~

Why Venice Matters

Slide Show of most memorable works

Venetian Finds (emerging artists)

Official Twitter page (you can find many more links here)

And if you need a little break from the modern, a look at Venice's past~

Venice in Ten Artworks

This year for the first time, the Vatican has a pavilion at La Biennale. Below is a photo from Flickr of the Patriarch of Venice at the Inaugurazione padiglione Santa Sede (Opening of the Holy See Pavilion).

I hope to resume regular blogging soon - hope everyone is having a nice spring.

A sculpture at the NC Museum of Art - I'm not sure who the artist is but I'm sure you'll agree, it works for this week's theme!

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

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

Another lovely street shrine in Venice. The inscription on the top, Regina Pacis Ora Pro Nobis, translates from Latin to "Queen of Peace, Pray for Us."

There's a black-and-white print inside the shrine showing the Mother and Child with Saints, surrounded by a number of ex-votos, little metal ornaments with ribbons on top. These votive offerings of devotion are given in gratitude for an answered prayer.

Also inside this shrine, nestled in the bottom corner surrounded by pink roses, is a statue of Santa Rita da Cascia (1381-1457) - an Italian nun who became a saint.

And a charming little quirky detail - the yellow tulips are in a vase with a picture of a cartoon donkey kicking up his heels. Not sure who he is!

Electric power cords on one side, graffiti on the other~

Hard to see because the glass caught reflections of the buildings across the street from the shrine, but you can see another saint down at the bottom behind the tulips. This is San Pio X (Pope Pius X) who was pope from 1903-1914. Before he was pope, he was the Patriarch of Venice for ten years. He was canonized in 1954.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

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

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean, on the North Carolina coast~

Sunset in Venice~

Another sunset in Venice, behind the church of San Giorgio Maggiore~

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend. It's almost Spring!

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

Last night I watched some of the coverage of the papal conclave in Rome. I wonder how long until we see the white smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel chimney? It's exciting, and there are a couple of Venice connections that I thought I'd share.

The Papal Conclave of 1799-1800 was held in Venice (and that was the last time that it wasn't held in Rome). At that time, Rome was occupied by Napoleon who had given Venice to the Austrians; they allowed for the Papal Conclave to be held in the church and monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore.

In my post about that church, I wrote about the kind monk who allowed me to go upstairs to the chapel where the conclave was held. I wanted to visit this chapel not because of the historic conclave but to see the Carpaccio painting of St. George and the Dragon over the altar. It was interesting to see that the chapel still commemorates the conclave with the names of the cardinals on the tables.

The Venetian Papal Conclave was a long one - 105 days, from November 30 1799 until March 14, 1880 when Pope Pius VII was elected. A charming little detail - because all the papal treasures were in Rome, they had to make a papal tiara in Venice from papier-mâché. Venetian noblewomen donated jewels to decorate this make-shift crown for the new Pope, and a few subsequent popes continued to wear this tiara because it was light-weight and comfortable. This Venetian-made tiara is now in the Vatican museum.

A view of San Giorgio Maggiore~

And another Venice connection - one of the leading candidates to become the new Pope is Cardinal Angelo Scola, who was the Patriarch of Venice from 2002-2011 (he left Venice in 2011 when he became the Archbishop of Milan). I actually attended Mass with him a few times in Basilica di San Marco when he was the Patriarch. Oddsmakers have him as the front-runner, though some people think it's time for the Church to shake things up with a younger and/or non-European pope. But it has been 35 years since the last Italian pope - perhaps that's the direction they'll go?

A 2009 photo of Angelo Scola celebrating Mass in the cathedral on Torcello~

A couple of shrines in the Rialto Market area of Venice~

This first one overlooks the Pescaria (fish market). The tabernacle with gothic columns dates back to the early 1300's, around the same time that the market began. The Madonna and Child relief inside the shrine dates to the 16th century. The "Ave Maria" inscription is faded but still legible, and there are always flowers on this shrine.

This Madonna can be found in the Sotoportego L'Erberia overlooking the outdoor dining area of restaurant Bancogiro. At one time, this area was part of the wholesale market which is now mainly on the other side of the building. The book, I Capitelli di Venezia, reports that at one time, the caretaker of this shrine was a gentleman named Terzantonio Gavagnin who had a wholesale booth underneath the shrine. Mr. Gavagnin was an activist in favor of continuing the tradition of blessing the fruit and vegetable market (erberia) on San Iseppo's (St. Joseph's) feast day which is coming up soon, on March 19.

The capitelli book says that this shrine was restored in 1920. I have a feeling that it's been restored again since then because it has those "go away pigeon" spikes on top. What are those things called?!?

When in Venice, do as the Venetians do and eat cichetti, delicious little bar snacks usually eaten standing up and enjoyed with a glass of wine or two. One of the best places for cichetti is shown in the photo below, Cantinone gia Schiavi (also known as Al Bottegon), an eatery ranked in the Top Ten restaurants in Venice on Trip Advisor despite the fact that it's not a "sit down" restaurant at all - it's an osteria (a wine bar that serves food). It's a lively place, filled with both locals and tourists, and the food is wonderful. You can also buy a bottle of wine to take back to your hotel or apartment.

I love that this place has its very own shrine to the Madonna next to the entrance. She has a halo of electric red lights around her head~

The photo above was taken in 2007 while the one below is from 2010. The blue paint outlining the shrine had chipped off but she does have some flowers this time~

Another view of Cantinone gia Schiavi. This osteria is across the canal from the church of San Trovaso in Dorsoduro.

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

Happy Saturday! Here are a couple of scenes from a recent daytrip to the North Carolina mountains (Ashe County).

You can see why they call them the Blue Ridge Mountains~

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

One of the oldest and most breath-takingly beautiful palaces on the Grand Canal in Venice, Ca' d'Oro (golden house) was built in 1420-1431 by the Contarini family in the Venetian Gothic style.

Over the next four centuries, it had at least a dozen different owners until 1894 when it was purchased by Baron Giorgio Franchetti. He did an extensive restoration and left the palace plus his fantastic art collection to the state.

Today it's an art museum: Galleria Giorgio Franchetti. Well worth visiting if you are in Venice!

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

Some vivid yellow flowers next to a street shrine in Venice~

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

I learned about this artist while reading Hugh Honour's Companion Guide to Venice (a fantastic book organized as a series of thematic walking tours).

Before he reached the church of San Sebastiano in Dorsoduro, Mr. Honour pointed out a red Gothic palazzo and said that it had been the home of artist Filippo de Pisis (1896-1956), "one of the few modern painters who has successfully caught the flicker of Venetian light." High praise indeed!

I was happy to find (via Google) many of de Pisis' paintings on the web. He was born in Ferrara, lived in Paris and Rome, and then spent most of the 1940's in Venice. Sounds like he was quite a character - he would set up his easel in the calli and campi, and paint with his pet parrot, Coco, sitting on his shoulder. He also owned his own gondola and employed a full-time gondolier.

He painted many Venetian scenes including a number of churches (and not only the most famous ones). I like his work a lot.

I posted his painting of the church of San Lorenzo here and a few more are below.

San Moise

San Pantalon

Santa Maria della Salute

Gesuati

Thanks so much to Bert for sending these photos of the palazzo where de Pisis lived. The plaque above the door says that the artist lived there from 1943-49. If anyone knows anything about the other degraded plaques on this house, please let us know!

I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season. Best wishes for a wonderful new year - I hope that we all will be able to spend some time in Venice (or anywhere else on your travel wish list) in 2013.

I wanted to let you know that A Lover of Venice has a new game in progress: Campanili! 56 photos of bell towers and belfries to identify. It's challenging but I'm having lots of fun with it.

Here's a mini-quiz, not too hard. Can you identify the three towers in this photo?

I love looking in to the street shrines of Venice to see what sacred image is inside. Most of the shrines are dedicated to Mary, and she has many many faces.

The second most popular saint honored in Venetian shrines is San Antonio (St. Anthony) who lived in nearby Padua (Padova), part of the Venetian Republic.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year.

Like so many of you, I've been heavy-hearted about this latest mass murder here in the USA. So I decided to join the 26 Acts of Kindness campaign to honor the children and teachers from Sandy Hook Elementary. Right now, I'm 17 out of 26, and plan to complete the rest before the new year.

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

This photo just makes me smile. Thanks so much to Andrew for answering my call for someone to check this out, and also for sending the photo to me and giving permission to post it here. Andrew took this photo on November 21, 2012, the day of the Festa della Salute. Happy to see such beautiful blue skies for that lovely celebration.

What cracks me up is that if you look at my photos from 2007, 2008, and 2010, and compare them to Andrew's photo, it is clear as a bell that NOTHING is happening here! Decorative scaffolding, a project completely stalled for some unknown reason. We'll continue to monitor the "progress" on this one. :)

And speaking of Venice and towers, I stumbled across this article about Pierre Cardin's controversial plan to build a "futurisitic" tower in Porto Marghera. It wouldn't be in Venice but would be visible from Venice. What do you all think? I vote yes.