more of venice (and murano) jan 2012

back facade of san donato, murano

gorgeous mosaic pavement inside san donato

san donato pavement

old roman glass, some going back to b.c age

looks modern but was roman, incredible display cases full of this

and this is the modern glass 

canal scene murano

palazzo franchetti, a 15th century palazzo, on the grand canal

inside stairway in palazzo franchetti, frescoed and stuccoed

pretty Japanese camilla photo

one of the rooms in the palazzo where the photos were displayed. palazzo is now the institute of  science, literature and arts

we just missed the full moon, quiet canal near our hotel

view from our room

the frari steeple on a sunny Saturday

palazzo on grand canal with Christmas trees still up

just another typical venetian grand canal scene!

side entrance to ducal palace

think we are beginning to look as old as the moors at the corner of San Marco

A busy Saturday - we walked over to fondamenta nuova and took vaporetta to Murano. Did some glass window shopping on our way to visit the very old and lovely church of San Donato with its magnificent mosaic flooring and lovely apse mosaic of the madonna. Then we headed for the glass museum just down the canal. On every trip to Venice I like to see something I have never seen, this time it was this museum. The museum is very small but has a great room where the old Roman glass pieces are displayed. They also have a pretty cloistered area with some stone fragments on the walls which are quite old and lovely. The building was originally the bishop's palace and the main rooms have incredible chandeliers in them.
Sunday we saw the Japanese photo exhibit in the palazzo Franchetti which sits on the grand canal. Interesting exhibit of Japanese scenes of the late 1800's when the photos were taken and parts of them were then painted by an albumen process. Must have been very tedious and time-consuming but the result looked like a painting instead of a photograph in many cases.