Quiet days, spent winding down and wandering. Yesterday we spent the morning shopping, then came back to the apartment for lunch. We actually caught the vaporetto back instead of walking. Here are two pictures from the platform of the San Samuele vaporetto.


After our afternoon rest (are we becoming Italians or what?), we went to Palazzo Ca’ D’Oro. After staying in Cannaregio three times in the last five years and having Ca’ D’Oro as our closest vaporetto stop, we finally decided to go into the Palazzo. It has a very long history and has finally become an art gallery. There are no pictures of the art collection but I was able to take pictures downstairs on the ground floor.



The art revolves around Venetian artists and there was also a special exhibit on “Treasures of the Ghetto” which were newly discovered Jewish artifacts that had been hidden from the Nazis during World War II. After leaving there we forced ourselves to stop for gelato at the Ca’ D’Oro Gelateria. Then home and later dinner of fresh made spinach and ricotta ravioli that Alan had picked up in the morning at the bakery. Are we getting spoiled or what?
Up at the crack of 9 today and since the bakery around the corner is closed on Sunday, I had to cross the canal and go to Rosa Selva to get pastries for this morning. I didn’t think BJ was awake yet, so I had a cup of coffee while I was there. We managed to get out of the apartment by 11:30 and decided to explore Western Dorsoduro. In order to get there we headed for Campo Santa Margherita and just happened to pass by Tonolo. We resisted the pastries but did get a couple of cappuchinos, my first of the trip. By the time we got to Santa Margherita we were hungry and it was about 12:30 so we got a piece of pizza and then needed a gelato which we got from Il Doge. We passed by the Scuola Grande dei Carmini, which was open and went inside. The ground floor has monochrome paintings which are beautiful, but the salone had ceiling paintings by Giambattista Tiepolo. These are exquisite and well worth the visit. Then we headed west into the much less visited part of Dorsoduro. We passed by the church of Angelo Raffaele (Archangel Raphael) which was closed and San Nicolo dei Mendicoli which was closed.




It was raining and getting cold, so we headed back the long way and eventually got home to rest a little and have leftovers for dinner. We only have 2 more days in Venice and so we are trying to empty out the refrigerator. I suspect we will still manage to have two more good meals at restaurants.