Venice (again).

If Padua wasn't wonderful enough in its own right (which of course it is), it would still have the wonderful advantage of being close to Venice, to recommend it to the traveller. 

I was reading on the internet a couple of nights ago, about an opera house in Venice ironically named Teatro La Fenice (Phoenix Theatre) which has been burnt down and rebuilt twice since its original construction in the late 1700s.  Although we have been to Venice a few times, the fact that it is only a 30 minute train ride from here means that it is not a big decision to say, "Let's go again.  We haven't seen that, yet!"  So, by 11:00 this morning we had already checked the weather forecast, had breakfast at home, walked to our railway station, caught a train to Venice, wandered across the Rialto bridge, bought a leather handbag, enjoyed hot chocolate and pastries for morning tea, and we were standing in front of Teatro La Fenice.

From the outside, the opera house is not particularly impressive, on the Italian "architectural amazingness" scale, but cross its threshold into the foyer and begin to be stunned.  The massive marble columns, marble floor and walls shine in the reflection of the many humungous chandeliers ... and that's just the beginning.  The theatre interior is superbly opulent, with inlaid wooden floors, red velvet seating, frescoed ceilings and gilded mouldings.

This second image is taken from an internet site, using much better camera equipment than ours - the photo has been taken from the stage, looking out to the audience.

The most recent rebuilding of La Fenice was only a few years ago (after being burnt to the ground by arsonists in 1996) so the luxuriousness of the place has not yet been tainted by the usual tourist legacy of worn carpet, scraped paintwork, stains and fingermarks.  In fact the whole building interior is blissfully fresh and clean, which seems almost out-of-place in Venice.  We were able to sit in the royal box and look at the stage from the same vantage point as important visitors, but even sitting in the downstairs seating area and looking about is a magnificent experience, despite there not being a performance on, this morning. 

There are several other spaces within the opera house building which are used for piano recitals and other types of performances.  This is one of those areas.

Following our visit to La Fenice we went up the Campanile di San Marco (bell-tower of St Mark's Basilica) which is probably the only "touristy" thing we hadn't yet done. The trip up is via a lift, which is a good thing, as the tower is around 100 metres in height.  The 360 degree view of Venice and surrounds from that vantage point is obviously breathtaking - this link gives one panoramic photograph but here are a couple of David's shots as well.  Although today was a bit grey, it was still well-worth seeing.

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