Last Day

Thursday May 18th 2023

This being our last day, we made an early start so as to get into St Marks Basilica. Not early enough! The queues were enormous! I think the only thing to do is to book tickets well ahead, so I’ll bear it in mind for our next trip here. And I do mean book well ahead. The first available very expensive ticket to book with audio guide was next Wednesday. The first available ordinary ticket to book is June 1st! So I suppose we should have booked before we came. It’s either that or queue for hours.

Anyway, we made our way back to the waterside to get a boat up the Grand Canal to go to the Frari - full name Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, but generally just referred to as the Frari. We walked up from the boat dock, only to be told it wasn’t open until 1pm! There was a service inside. So we went round some of the local shops for some retail therapy, and then visited the nearby Scuola Grande di San Rocco to see the Tintorettos. ‘Scuola’ is the Venetian term for a confraternity; most non-noble Venetian men belonged to one, they were charitable institutions. San Rocco was set up as a charitable institution for the sick, financed largely by wealthy Venetians who hoped San Rocco (St Roch), patron saint of contagious diseases, would save them from the plague. The building began in 1515. In 1564, a competition was held to select to select an artist to paint one of the central ceiling panels, and Tintoretto won. Over the next 23 years, he decorated the entire building, on several floors.

The painting with which he won the competition, St Roch in Glory, is a bit dark and hard to photograph, and you can probably see why when you see the ground floor room.

This is the ground floor hall, which has a wooden ceiling. Some of the paintings were so poorly lit they were very hard to photograph, but I liked this one

It’s The Flight into Egypt, as you can probably see. 

You climb a monumental staircase to the upper floor, which has a coffered ceiling with many more biblical paintings, in addition to the ones around the walls. You can take a mirror to look more closely at the ceiling ones.

I seemed to spend a lot of time in this room as there were chairs which meant I wasn’t quite so exhausted looking at the paintings. The chairs were actually placed there for a concert but I was very grateful for them. 

This is one of those I particularly liked, The Adoration of the Shepherds

One of the huge ceiling paintings, of The Crucifixion, was undergoing restoration so it was no longer on the ceiling and was much easier to photograph.

I managed to cut out most of the bits of scaffolding at the back, and some of the wall underneath it.  That partly explains why it’s smaller than my other photos. I had to stand well back to photograph it because it’s so wide, it was difficult to get it all in.

Lunch and the Frari came next. The name Frari is a corruption of ‘frati’, meaning brothers because the first church was built by Franciscan friars, starting in 1250. It was replaced with a larger building completed in the mid 15th century. The interior is striking for its size, but unaccountably, I was so overcome I didn’t photograph it. What I did photograph are 3 masterpieces. This is the huge painting by Titian, over the altar.

It’s the one that really gives the church part of its name, Santa Maria Gloriosa. It’s the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It’s absolutely huge, we watched a short film about its restoration and I think it was described as the largest panel painting in the world. It certainly dominates the church.

The next one is a Bellini Madonna and Child.

 It’s a lot wider than shown in this photo, I took two photos and this is the one I prefer. The actual painting is quite wide because the central figure is flanked by 2 saints in side panels, but I found the centre one so beautiful I stood closer to get more detail in the photo and didn’t bother about the saints.

The last one is by Titian. It’s called Madonna de Ca’Pesaro.

It’s described in one of the guides as showing his mastery of light and colour, with which I’d agree. I think it’s also been cleaned recently. I found it surprising, watching the film about the restoration of the big panel, how much dust there was on the surface. I don’t suppose the paintings get dusted - perhaps it would damage them - and it’s no wonder they are so dirty.

The other remarkable features of this huge church are two enormous memorials, one to Canova, which looks like an Egyptian pyramid and is nearly as big, and this one to Titian. The statues are life size, so it’s huge.

After this, we made our way back to the boat and headed for the Arsenale, because I wanted to have another go at the Scuola we failed to find yesterday. It wasn’t surprising we didn’t find it yesterday. Apple Maps directed us to a canal to the west of the canal on which it is situated, and to the west side of the wrong canal. It’s actually on the east side of a different canal! 

The Scuola is called the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. From Venice’s earliest days, trade links were forged with Schiavonia (Dalmatia) opposite Venice across the Adriatic. By 1420, Venetian rule was established there and many of the Schiavoni people came to live in Venice. By the mid 15th century the colony had grown so large the State gave them permission to form their own confraternity, which was established in 1451. The building was decorated by Carpaccio between 1502 and 1508, and shows scenes from the lives of favourite saints of the Schiavoni. 

The photo above gives the general view. It’s a wooden panelled room, quite small in contrast to the other places we have seen today, with a wooden ceiling and wooden panelled walls. That side of the room shows Carpaccio’s paintings of St George. The one you can see shows him having subdued the dragon, which is cowering and looking quite pathetic and rather sweet. This was not the case when he fought it!

This was the dragon before being subdued, looking much more fierce. Though I have to say it doesn’t appear to be very big.

Another favourite saint is St Jerome, who was rather more elderly that St George. One of the things for which he was known was for having a pet lion. This is the picture of St Jerome Leading  the Tamed Lion to the Nunnery.

I’m not at all sure exactly why he was taking the lion to the nunnery. The nuns certainly don’t look too happy about it!

Up the stairs is a second room, even more decorated, with a coffered and painted ceiling. Over the altar is a polychrome and gilt bas-relief of St George killing the dragon.

This dragon looks a little bit bigger and more threatening, I think. But I had always supposed dragons were enormous, rather than being the size of big dogs.

Paul didn’t think he could stand much more religion, so we left and walked back towards the flat. On the way, we stopped in the Via Garibaldi to buy ice cream, and went into the little adjoining park to sit on a bench to eat it. The main path through the park, which goes back to the waterside, is called Viale Giuseppe Garibaldi and this is Garibaldi’s statue. You might notice it is also associated with the lion of St Mark.

The statue is surrounded by a railing and moat. You can see a little of both to the lower left of the photo. The water is very clear, and is absolutely full of terrapins. Some were swimming about and lots of them were sitting sunning themselves on the rocks at the foot of the statue. You can see them in the bottom left corner of the photo.

Then it was back to the flat to drink tea and rest. Packing comes next, then early bed for a very early alarm!

A lot of churches

Wednesday May 17th 2023

Today did not go as planned at all. We were ready to leave earlier than usual, with our coats and shoes on ready to walk out of the door when I got a message from EasyJet to say our flight on Friday had been cancelled due to industrial action! So we took our coats off again and I sat down at the iPad to work out what to do.

I was fortunately able to book an alternative flight on Friday, though it is in the early morning so we will need to be on the 6am boat to the airport, which will be a severe shock to the system. It means getting up about 4.30, which we will not enjoy!

So I had to go through the whole procedure of re-booking the flights, checking in, selecting the seats and getting the boarding passes. Of course we have no printer so it will all need to be on the phone.

That took some time, but we were eventually off and on our way to the Scuola San Giorgio.We followed the Apple Maps GPS religiously, and it took us to - nowhere! I’d have done better to use a paper map! For some reason, I later found that Apple Maps thinks it is in an entirely different place, on the wrong side of a completely different canal! We walked round for ages since the satellite kept losing us and thinking we were somewhere quite different, and eventually we gave up! Later, when I was sitting having lunch, I used the paper map which was when I  realised that where Apple Maps thought it was, wasn’t where it actually was. Next time I’ll use a paper map! Google maps managed a bit better, though looking at the paper map, I’m not sure that’s completely accurate either.

We walked back to the vaporetto stop and caught a number 2 for St Basilio, then, since all the churches were closed for lunch, we stopped for lunch as well. Then we walked to the church of San Sabastiano where we intended to look at a lot of paintings by Veronese. 

The site of the church was originally a hospice, founded in 1393. A neighbouring oratory was converted into a church dedicated to St Sebastian in 1468. Restructuring and enlargement started in 1506, and the church was reconsecrated in the mid 1500s. It has a very plain facade outside, but it’s anything but plain inside. 

Veronese spend 3 periods between 1555 and 1570 decorating the inside. This is the altar, with Veronese’s last painting which is The Virgin in Glory with St Sebastian and other saints.

I’m not sure who the other saints are. 

It’s not the altar which draws your eye when you first go in though, it’s the coffered ceiling, with paintings illustrating The Book of Esther.

It’s not a good photograph I’m afraid, but ceilings are hard to photograph.

The altars in the side aisles have some interesting pictures. There is a St Nicholas by Titian but it’s rather dark. This crucifixion looks to have been recently cleaned.

Nearby is a rather happier one, of the Holy Family, with a surround of coloured marble inlays.

The sacristy walls and ceilings are completely covered with paintings, but it isn’t clear who they are painted by. They are also not supposed to be photographed. Some are by Veronese, but there are others by Tintoretto and Bonifacio de Pitati, someone else of whom I had never previously heard. I don’t know who painted the Nativity in my photo below but Paul and I both liked it, so I sneaked a quick photo.

Appropriately enough, Veronese is buried in San Sebastiano, near the organ whose doors he painted. I did photograph the doors, but you can’t really see them because of the reflections.

Not far away is the church of Angelo San Raffaele, which is one of the oldest churches in Venice. It suffered fires and had to be rebuilt in the 9th and 12th centuries, and finally in the 17th century. It’s another place where you aren’t supposed to take photographs, but the guardian was busy so I sneaked a couple.

The main attraction in this church is the series of panel paintings on the organ balustrade. They were painted in 1749 by Antonio Guardi, brother of the more famous Francesco, and tell the tale of the blind prophet Tobias, cured by the archangel Raphael, after whom the church is named.

I’m afraid you can’t really see the details in this photo, you would need to photograph each panel separately. What you might perhaps see is the head of the organist who was practising a new piece as we walked round.

This is a photo of the altar, taken from the side to show the painting.

I really can’t remember who painted it, but you can clearly see the Angel. I has assumed that the other figure was Tobias, but perhaps it isn’t. In another part of the church is a sculpture of the Angel and a boy with a fish, because St Raphael is the patron saint of fishermen. 

A short walk from this church is the next one we visited, San Nicolo dei Mendicoli. It was originally built in the 12th century, though it has been remodelled over the centuries. The interior is richly embellished with 16th century gilded wood statues.

I’m afraid you can’t see it in my photo, but it’s another church with a decorated coffered ceilings, mostly decorated by pupils of Veronese.

We made our way back to the vaporetto stop and caught a number 2 round to Rialto as Paul wanted to see the Palazzo Contarini Bovolo, which is near there.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the Rialto bridge, though we didn’t try to fight our way across it this time.

After a fair amount of wandering, we finally found the Palazzo, which is best known for its external staircase. 

In the Venetian dialect, bovolo means ‘snail shell’.

We had hoped to go inside as there are some paintings by Tintoretto, but it was shut. It is advertised as being open until 6, but you can’t get in after about 5 because the guardian wants to lock up at 6 and go home. 

So we made our way back to the vaporetto stop to take the number 1 back to Arsenale and walk back to the flat.

The Doge’s Palace

Tuesday May 16th 2023

Today Paul was anxious to visit the Doge’s Palace, as he couldn’t remember our last visit there, which was in 2008. There was also a Carpaccio exhibition that we wanted to see in the same place, so we set off for San Marco. The boat stopped at San Zaccaria and we walked from there, which gave us the opportunity of looking along the canal that goes along one side of the Palazzo Ducale and photographing the Bridge of Sighs.

0I imagine that most people already know the legend, that the bridge, which was built in 1600 to link the Palazzo with the prison, takes it name from the lamentations of the prisoners as they made their way to the prison and the offices of the feared state inquisitors. Later we had the opportunity to walk across it to view the prison, and, fortunately, to come back again.

We started at the Carpaccio exhibition, which brings together paintings and drawings from major museums and private collections all over Europe and the United States. Unfortunately, photography isn’t allowed, as I discovered when I took one. So I only have the one photo, though it’s quite an interesting one.

It’s interesting because it was originally a single painted panel, probably on a door. It was sawn in half at the end of the 1700s, with the lower half, the Two Women, being acquired by Teodoro Correr (we visited the Correr Museum yesterday). The upper half, Fishing and Fowling on the Lagoon, moved to Rome. This exhibition brought the two halves together in a view not seen for over 200 years. Paul thinks that the two women in question are bored out of their minds waiting for their husbands to come back from a day of sport!

Not only was photography not allowed, I was told off for touching the wall. The labels were placed at waist level so you had to bend to read them. My back got tired after a while, so I put my hand on the wall near the label and was immediately told off! 

There were some beautiful paintings which I really liked and there didn’t even seem to be postcards to buy, which is a real shame. However, I found one of the ones I really liked on the internet.

It was painted in 1500 and is called The Virgin Mary and John the Baptist praying to the Christ Child. As well as really liking it, I find it amusing the the holy characters have become wealthy Venetians.

At least there were some seats in the exhibition. Once we got into the Palazzo Ducal, there were none and I became very exhausted. It’s not realistic for ladies of nearly 80 to have to spend hours on their feet! 

The Palazzo Ducale started life in the 9th century as a castle, but this and subsequent buildings were destroyed by fire. The current building dates externally to the 14th and 15th centuries. The interior decorations are 16th century or later. This is a view of the internal courtyard.

It backs onto the basilica of St Marks, as you can see. We had hoped to get into the basilica, but the queues were several hundred yards long, and it was quite impossible for me to contemplate standing for that long.

The tour of the Palazzo Ducale starts with all the public rooms. To demonstrate the wealth and power of the state, the rooms were all painted, on both walls and ceilings, and encrusted with gold. This is the Council Chamber.

It’s rather different from the Tandridge Council Chamber, where Paul and I went to have our first Covid vaccination! 

Below is the Senate Chamber, which is even more embellished.



I felt obliged to photograph the ceiling as well, to give a better view of the encrusted gold embelllisments.



By the time we had examined about 8 or 10 of these highly decorated  rooms, I was beginning to feel I could hardly bear to look at any more opulence, but there was more to come. My final photo of this part of the Palazzo is the Chamber of the Great Council. 



The reason I included this one is the huge painting, taking up the entire wall. It is entitled Paradise, and was painted between 1588 and 1592 by Domenico and Jacopo Tintoretto. Given its size, I’m not surprised it took 4 years.

After all these public rooms, we passed on to displays of weapons, by which time I was too tired to do more than walk past the displays of armour. swords, lances, billhooks, then guns and finally a cannon.

After that, we passed on to the picture gallery. There were some interesting paintings, amongst which I have picked out this Hieronymus Bosch. 

It’s simply entitled Apocalypse.

After the pictures, we crossed the Bridge of Sighs to visit the prison. I would have photographed the bridge from the inside, but it’s just a stone tunnel with one barred window which you can’t really see out of. The prison is pretty forbidding too.

This was one of the taller doors. Some of them were only just over waist high and you would have had to bend over to get in. I found it quite claustrophobic. The prison seemed interminable, with what felt like miles of stone corridors and stairways, and I was glad to finally get out!

We refreshed ourselves with a visit to the café, then set of to visit a Scuola not too far away, where there are more Carpaccio paintings. But the rain started, and my phone’s GPS decided not to work. Paul’s phone had run out of charge, and we were getting quite wet. So in the end I gave in and we decided to go back to the flat, so we went to wait for a boat. This is the view from the boat dock. The number 1 boat is approaching us but it has to wait for the gondola which is in the way. In the background, the yellow Alilaguna boat is on its way back to the airport.

The people in the gondola don’t look happy. It is very windy and cold, as well as raining. I don’t know what it was like in the gondola, but the boat dock, which is floating, was pitching and tossing quite a bit. Getting into and out of the boat wasn’t easy, and it was too windy to put umbrellas up on the walk back. I was glad to be back. My cold is streaming, and now Paul is sneezing like mad, so he probably has it too.

A church and a Museum

Monday May 15th 2023

Fortunately, I woke up feeling a bit better this morning. I’m still sniffing and snivelling but the throat is hardly sore at all, though I’m still coughing a lot. At least I didn’t need to spend the day in bed. It was a very warm and sunny day too, a real treat for a change! We set off late, as usual, and walked across to San Pietro island to pay a visit to the church of San Pietro Di Castello, where we have never been before, and which I mentioned in an earlier post. 

The island of San Pietro was one of Venice’s earliest settlements, and it was originally occupied by a fortress  - hence the ‘Castello’ part of the church’s name. The original church was probably founded in the 7th century and was the cathedral for Venice until 1807. It was originally not dedicated to St Peter but to a couple of Byzantine saints. A new church dedicated to St Peter was built in the 9th century, but that was destroyed by fire in 1603. The current San Pietro replaced it, and it was built to a Palladian design.

The free-standing campanile, of which I posted a photograph last Friday, predates the cathedral by more than 100 years, as it was built in 1482, though the cupola was added after the new church was completed.

Inside, the church has a great many baroque embellishments, which were produced in the mid 18th century. There are some quite dark and ugly paintings, in my opinion, though are a couple of interesting ones. Above one of the side chapels there is a late Veronese, St John the evangelist with St Peter and St Paul. Even that one is dark and hard to photograph because of reflections. I had to take the photo from one side, and it’s still dark.

Another chapel houses a painting by Luca Giordano, but the reflections are so bad you can’t really see it, and the chapel which houses it is stuffed full of baroque statues.

The high altar is quite amazing, being designed to include an assortment of statues, as well as being embellished with polychrome marble. 

The vault is decorated with ceiling paintings, as are the side altars.

Other things I found interesting were an ancient chair, claimed to be the chair of St Peter from Antioch, but probably assembled in the 13th century using an ancient funerary stele.

It has has inscriptions on it from the Koran in Sufi script! 

In one of the side chapels there is a mosaic based on a Tintoretto cartoon, whilst in front of it is a fragment of Roman mosaic, which is claimed to be from the original church. 

As we left, we passed something that probably wins the prize for world’s most uncomfortable chair - for more than one reason! 

We walked to the nearest vaporetto stop, and took a boat round to San Marco, which was incredibly crowded. As it was such a lovely day, the tourists were out in force and it was quite difficult to get through all the crowds of people. 

This is the Basilica of San Marco. I managed to find a path through the crowds and find an un-crowded area to take this photo.

The queues for the Basilica and the Doge’s Palace were very long, so we decided to visit the Correr Museum which I don’t recall having visited before. The museum is housed in a 19th century royal palace, and there are various different collections. I had unfortunately forgotten to put on my back brace as my back felt very comfortable this morning, but this was a mistake. The museum does not have many seats, so I’m afraid I rushed past some of the collections in order to get to the paintings. I’m afraid I paid little attention to the Canova collection or to the Venetian history section or to the archeological section, and only briefly paused at the section on arms and armour. The library is particularly stunning though.

I was also amazed to see Marco Polo’s will - though I couldn’t read it!

The paintings are on the upper floors and are displayed chronologically. I was quite taken with this coffin-reliquary, dating from around 1290.

This is an odd story. This is the coffin-reliquary of the blessed Juliana, who established a nunnery in 1222 on the island which later became the Giudecca. Her body was discovered in 1290 to be uncorrupted 30 years after her death, and the nuns had this coffin-reliquary made to display her body.

The section on early paintings contained quite a few by Veneziano, and this rather strange one by Giambono, dating from around 1443.

The Virgin looks rather sly, I think, and I’m afraid I think the baby Jesus looks completely drunk. I’m sure that neither interpretation was quite what the painter intended! 

We passed on to later painters, and I really liked this one by Pieter Bruegel the younger.

The label gives only his dates of 1564 - 1638, rather than the date of the painting. And I have no idea why every painting I photograph is squint!  

I also enjoyed one in the manner of Hieronymus Bosch, though as it was behind glass, it was hard to see and impossible to photograph. There were a couple of beautiful Bellinis, but as I’ve already posted one of the Virgin and child, here is a portrait one.

It seems to be called Portrait of St Fortunato, and dates to 1475.

After the paintings, we passed into the restored Imperial Apartments, the sumptuous rooms of Sisi, the Empress Elizabeth, laid out in the 1830s and the 1850s. This one is described as the Dining-room for weekday lunches.

As one who eats most lunches, weekday or other, crouched over an iPad on any handy chair, I was almost speechless!  I can’t quite imagine what the dining room for formal evening meals might have looked like. 

We were quite tired by then, so repaired to the café for coffee and repose. I was able to take a good photo of San Marco from the window of of the café.

Most of the crowds had by then dispersed so the square was almost empty.

It being almost closing time, we left and made our way to the nearest vaporetto stop, catching the number 1 for Arsenale so as to walk back to the flat.

The Accademia

Sunday May 14th 2023

Today has not been exactly successful. I had a very bad night, keeping the whole house awake with loud coughing. I didn’t sleep until after 4, then woke at 6 with severe hip pain, necessitating paracetamol. When I finally woke it was well after 10 and it became clear I had, yet again, developed a very nasty cold or something similar. After a leisurely brunch, and a shower and hair wash, I found it was once again lunch time by the time we left. I was anxious to have another go at getting into the church of San Stae, and Paul wanted to visit the Accademia.

The only boat which stops at San Stae is the very slow number 1, so we took a very long slow trip as it zigzagged up the Grand Canal. At least it gave us time to look at all the buildings and the river traffic. 

It being Sunday, there were crowds of people, and the gondolas were busy. It was cold though, you can see everybody was well wrapped up. I do love the views down all the little side canals. How nice it would be to live along one and have a little speedboat instead of a car to get around!

The number 1 boat is always very crowded, and quite a crowd of us got off at San Stae, having been seduced by information on the internet that it would open at 2.30. This was a lie! It didn’t open at all, so we were all disappointed. Paul and I just got back on the boat going the other way and went back to the Accademia.

We visited the Accademia in 2019, and there were some differences this time, in that some pictures we had previously seen were no longer there, and we saw things we hadn’t seen before. The first room was substantially the same, but this time, I focused on the room itself, which is stunning if you are able to stop looking at the paintings and take it in.

I find it surprising that I was previously able to look at the paintings without taking much notice of the ceiling and the floor! This is the most stunning room in the gallery, and is devoted to very early paintings. After that, further very plain rooms pass on to Bellini, a particular favourite of mine. It’s just as well the rooms are plain, then you can concentrate on the paintings. I find I have photographed at least 6 by Bellini, all of which I love, though I’m only posting one here.

This one is the Annunciation, painted in 1490. It’s definitely one of my favourites.

After the Bellinis, including a monumental one entitled Martyrdom of Saint Mark, we passed on to Titian, but one was missing as it had been lent to an exhibition somewhere. The one I really like, Tobias and the Angel, has been posted by me before on an earlier visit, so I’ll pass on to another favourite of mine, Georgione. There are quite a few of these, but the one below is new to me.

It’s supposed to be of the painter’s elderly mother, and it was painted in 1502.

We passed on to Veronese and Tintoretto, neither of them being favourites of mine. This is Veronese’s version of the Annunciation.

This was painted in 1578. I can see that’s it’s more spectacular than Bellini’s version, but I still prefer the Bellini.

The most spectacular Tintoretto I think is this one, called St Mark Saves the Slave from Torture. It was painted in 1547, so it’s an early work, and one of his first commissions.

It refers to the legend of a Christian slave or captive who was to be tortured for some act of devotion to St Mark (incidentally, the patron saint of Venice). He was saved by the miraculous intervention of the long dead evangelist, who shattered the instruments of torture - you can see them broken at the bottom of the painting. I found this one remarkable for its theatrically, and for the strange and rather compelling appearance of the evangelist swooping in from above. Many of Tintoretto’s paintings exhibit this mastery of perspective.

As we passed on down a loggia with rooms behind devoted to other painters, I was very taken with this one, The Adoration of the Shepherds

It’s by Jacopo da Ponte, known as Bassano, and was painted in 1548. Actually, I prefer this style of painting to that of Tintoretto, it seems more accessible to me, more rooted in reality, and I love the faces of the people who you would not be surprised to meet in the street today.

Downstairs, we saw groups of plaster casts of antique Greek and Roman statues which were used for the teaching of art. I particularly liked the Horse of St Mark

We passed on to Tiepolo, a wonderful picture of 1730 or so, but a rather strange concept.

It’s called St Joseph with the Infant Jesus, and Saint Francis of Paola, St Anne, St Anthony, and Saint Peter of Alcantara. It has always seemed a very odd concept to me to paint people together who were not alive at the same time and never knew one another. The baby is very ugly too.

The next one I liked was for years attributed to Caravaggio. It’s called The Chess Players.

Apparently it is not now thought to be by Caravaggio, but by one of his followers. I still like it though.

The gallery ends with some ceiling paintings, which, fortunately for the viewer, are not displayed on the ceiling, so one is not obliged to lie on the floor to view them. This one is by Tiepolo.

It’s called The Feast of the Cross, which I find another strange idea.

By the time we had got to the end of the gallery, we had been there for a couple of hours and it was becoming clear to me that I was far from well. My throat was sore, I was both coughing and sneezing and longing for my bed. So we caught the slow number 1 back to Arsenale and walked back to the flat - or stumbled, in my case. Actually I am far from sure how I managed to write this as I just want to be asleep! I hope to be able to sleep tonight, rather than spending the entire night coughing and keeping everybody awake.