May 27, 2018

   We awoke to a sky with a thin wispy cloud layer.The temperature was 24°C and there was a light breeze. 

    We had checked yesterday about the times that the Naval History Museum would be open. We walked over to see it. During the walk at each quarter hour church bells were chiming. The walk took us over the Rialto Bridge (there are 54 steps up and then down from the top platform), but we had already crossed five other bridges.  The bridge was not crowded at 10 am on a Sunday morning. When crowded about 14 people can fit shoulder to shoulder across the center section and 6 or 7 people on each of the side pathways. We passed through St. Mark’s Square where there was just a five minute line to get into the cathedral, but about a ten minute line to get into the Doge’s Palace.  It was sunny as we walked along the San Marco Canal. At the waterbus station, we were watching to see if we could notice any Celebrity Constellation passengers with excursion stickers on, the Celebrity Constellation docked in Venice for the day and night and its passengers leave tomorrow.  We will be starting our cruise on it tomorrow.

    We had crossed 13 bridges by the time we arrived at the Naval History Museum. Unfortunately, most of the Naval History Museum is closed for renovation. (A reason to return to Venice some other time.) The museum is located in the Arsenale district of Venice.  The Ships Pavilion was open. It houses the collection of actual size historical ships. The Ships Pavilion was built in the later 16^thcentury. In 1577 and for a few years later, it housed the Venetian Great Council after a catastrophic fire at the Doge’s Palace left some of the council rooms in ruins but restoration was completed within five years.

   Venice was once a powerful maritime power because of its trading alliances with European and Arabic countries and its shipbuilding prowess, especially during the middle ages.  In what is now Italy, there were four Maritime Republics or city states - Venice, Pisa, Genoa and Amalfi.  

    The original use of the building was to make oars for the ships and there was a blacksmith workshop and storage. In 1866 when Venice was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy the Military Engineers used the Ships Pavilion and renovated it.

    Included in the collection is the Royal Motorboat from the 1920s used on royal visits and had at least nine sets of oars. There was a 1930s style decompression chamber for divers.  It looked like an iron lung used in the 1950s polio epidemic in Manitoba. The salvaged boiler room of the 67 meter long yacht “Electra” is displayed. The “Electra” was owned from 1919 to 1937 by Guglielmo Marconi. It sank in 1947.  In December 1902, Marconi had transmitted the first complete message to Poldhu, Cornwall, England from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909.  During the First World War he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Italian Army then midway through the war transferred to the Navy attaining the rank of Commander. 

   In another part of the building was a funeral gondola that was used to ferry corpses to the cemetery island.

   Next, we walked through the Castello district to the Canneregio district toward the northern part Grand Canal and to the Ponte Degli Scald near the train station. There are only four bridges that cross the Grand Canal, the Rialto Bridge being the most famous. We have crossed two.  En route we strolled through narrow alleys, wide streets, small and large squares. Along one lane we saw a novel set of apartment bell knobs shaped like tiny masks, rather than just a push button.  Most dog owners that we have seen in the past few days, have the dogs on leashes and carry bags for cleaning up after their dogs. The squares in this part of Venice did not have the water fountains trickling water, but we used the one near Rialto Square to fill our water bottles on this hot (26 °C) day.  Just after the noon bells chimed we stopped at the Coffee Joint for coffee and to rest. There was a McDonald’s across the street. We had walked 10,169 steps and 7.7km almost our daily walking distance goal.  As we got closer to the train station, we saw porters with trolleys of luggage struggling up and down the stairs of the bridges. 

The area by the train station was busy but not overly crowded. There were 40 steps up and down the Ponte Degli Scald bridge and we were less than 10 minutes from our hotel.

    We went for lunch to the same place, Ali Baba Pizza and Kebob, to buy a beer and Aperaol Sprintz and a ham and mozzarella wrap to share for a take away lunch. Then returned to the hotel to eat lunch in the peaceful outdoor courtyard, write the blog and decide where to walk later in the afternoon. By the time we returned to the hotel we had crossed 17 bridges.

     The destination decided upon was the Accademia Bridge or Ponte dell’ Accademia We had not been in that district of Venice yet. However, the bridge was being renovated. There are two temporary pedestrian bridges attached to its’ sides, one on each side and its wooden structure and the views of the Grand Canal are completely obstructed from view.  Restoration work is expected to be completed by October 2018.  It is a wooden bridge on an iron frame work connecting the Dorsoduro district of Venice with the San Marco district.  It is the long route to Saint Mark’s Square from out hotel, but we did not go in that direction but wove our way through the canals and streets to the Rialto Bridge back to Santa Croce district and stopped at our favourite gelato shop on the way back to the hotel. (The shop is only a 10 minute walk from the hotel.)

     We freshened up and again, went to the restaurant next door, Trattoria Pizzeria Antico Gafaro for dinner and Prosecco.  We chose spaghetti with clams followed by salmon and grilled vegetables or lasagna followed by fried calamari and grilled vegetables.  The dessert was like a bread pudding.

   Total steps for the day 23,071 for 17.16 km.