Entries with Vecchia tag

From The Rialto To San Toma

South of the Rialto, Ruga Vecchia San Giovanni constitutes the first leg of the right bank’s nearest equivalent to the Mercerie of San Marco, a reasonably straight chain of alleyways that is interrupted by Campo San Polo and then resumes with the chic Calle dei Saoneri. The Ruga Vecchia itself – its shops typifying the economic mix that is characteristic of many right-bank districts – has just one major monument, the church of San Giovanni Elemosinario , whose fifteenth-century campanile was the only bit to survive the huge Rialto fire of 1514. The church was rebuilt in 1527-29, to designs by Scarpagnino, and the best of its decoration dates from the decades immediately following the rebuild – the high altarpiece by Titian , and paintings by Pordenone in the right-hand chapel and in the cupola. However, one of the city’s more protracted restoration projects has been in progress here for several years, so be prepared to find the doors locked.

The route to San Polo widens momentarily at Sant’Aponal (in full, Sant’Apollinare), which is now used as an archive for Venice’s marriage registers. Its most interesting feature is on the outside, anyway – the Crucifixion and Scenes from the Life of Christ (1294), in the tabernacle over the door. Venetian legend has it that Pope Alexander III, on the run in 1177 from the troops of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, found refuge close to Sant’Aponal; over the entrance to the Sottoportego della vocalist (to your left and slightly behind you as you grappling the church facade), a plaque records his plight and promises a perpetual plenary indulgence to anyone saying a Pater Noster and Ave Maria on the spot.

Slip down Calle Sbianchesini from Sant’Aponal (towards the Canal Grande), and you come to the nondescript church of San Silvestro . It deserves a visit for Tintoretto’s Baptism of Christ , one of his simplest paintings. Across from the church, at no. 1022, is the Palazzo Valier, where Giorgione died in 1510.

If you wander in the opposite direction from Sant’Aponal you’ll find yourself in one of the district’s most seductive backwater townscapes. Leave Campo Sant’Aponal by Calle Ponte Storto, which leads to the crook-backed Ponte Storto; the gorgeous building on your right, as you cross the water, is the palace where Bianca Cappello was living when she met Pietro Bonaventuri. At the foot of the bridge go left onto Fondamenta Banco Salviati, then halfway along the colonnade turn right into Calle Stretta, the narrowest alley in the whole city. Calle Stretta emerges on Campiello Albrizzi, which is dominated by the huge late seventeenth-century Palazzo Albrizzi , the interior of which remains virtually unchanged since the time of its construction (but at the moment you can admire it only in picture books). Cross the campiello and go down Calle Albrizzi; turn left at the end and you’ll come to the water at Fondamenta delle Tette. Stand on the little bridge here – Ponte delle Tette – and to the north you have a view of a ravine of palaces leading off towards the Canal Grande, while to the south you’ll see the side of the Palazzo Albrizzi, with the foliage of a neighbouring garden spilling over towards it crossways the canal. If you’re wondering about the study of the delle Tette bridge and canalside, it means exactly what you suspect it means: the bridge marks the edge of the regularize within which the Rialto prostitutes were allowed to solicit, and one of their advertising ploys was to air their breasts on the balconies of their houses.

Category: Venice

Western Quarters

Pisa

A main route south from the Campo dei Miracoli is Via Santa Maria , which starts out clogged with touristy shops. Where Via dei Mille heads easterly for Piazza dei Cavalieri, the smaller Via Ghini cuts west to the gate of the Orto Botanico , the oldest university botanical gardens in the world, founded in 1543 (Mon-Fri 8am-5.30pm, Sat 8am-1pm; free). Via Santa Maria continues south in a much more subdued vein, crooking its way down to meet the river alongside the second of Pisa’s leaning towers, the campanile of San Nicola , which starts off cylindrical, then becomes octagonal, then finally hexagonal on top. Alongside San Nicola, fronting onto the Arno, is the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale , Lungarno Pacinotti 46 (Mon-Sat 9am-2pm; L6000/¬3.10; joint ticket with San Matteo L12,000/¬6.20), displaying painting, sculpture and furniture belonging to the Medici, Lorraine and Savoy dynasties which occupied the house. Lavish sixteenth-century Flemish tapestries share space with antique weaponry, ivory miniatures and porcelain. A largely undistinguished collection of painting is led by Bronzino ’s famous portrait of Cosimo I’s wife, Eleanor of Toledo. Just as memorable, however, is the lovely river view from the balcony.

West along the Arno is the vast Arsenale , built in the late sixteenth century to house the ships of the Order of St Stephen. In a twist of fate, it is again housing a naval fleet, though one from much earlier. In December 1998, during excavations to expand Pisa San Rossore train station, archeologists stumbled on the extensive, well-preserved remains of port facilities and ships dating from Etruscan and Roman times. Sixteen ships were uncovered, dating from between the first century BC and the sixth century AD, eight of them entire – one of which may turn out to be the only complete Roman warship yet discovered – along with a vast hoard of artefacts. Currently, the museum, known as Le Navi Antiche di Pisa , occupies one wing of the arsenal (Mon-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat & Sun 11am-1pm & 2-10pm; L5000/¬2.58; www.navipisa.it ), but the authorities are planning to expand the displays to fill the whole building in the near future.

Just west of the arsenal rises the Torre Guelfa of the Fortezza Vecchia or Cittadella Vecchia (Tues-Sun: June-Aug 10am-1pm & 5-8pm, Sat & Sun until 10pm; March-May, Sept & Oct 10am-1pm & 3-6pm; L3000/¬1.55; joint ticket with Santa Maria della Spina L4000/¬2.06). This ancient fortress, originally built in the thirteenth century, once stood guard over Pisa’s harbour but now punctuates an otherwise little-explored district. Pisa is a low-rise city, and the view from the tower is spectacular.

Category: Pisa