A day in Venice....
Once again, check these posts for photos added later. Just to give you all an idea of what my day was like today:
1) I spent 2 hours in the Accademia. I was the first person there at 8:15 and was pretty much alone for about 45 minutes. Imagine being alone with all those paintings. The Mantegna St. Sebastian was gone, for reasons that will be divulged later.
2) I took the Vaporetto over a few stops, sailed under the Rialto bridge, and spent some time shopping for glass baubles in the narrow streets.
3) I stopped in at Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari to see the Titan Assumption, probably the most famous Venetian Renaissance painting, and a bunch of others. Every other street here seems to have a fabulous church that's like a museum as far as the paintings there.
4) San Rocco, the scuola and the church, to see what is known as Tintoretto's Sistine Chapel. This is where I fell in love with Tintoretto and decided he was my favorite painter of all time. His crucifixion left john Ruskin speechless, and me too. Vasari said something about how he had the most terrible mind of any painter. I think he was talking about Terribilta in a Leonardine sense.
5) After a delicious lunch I decided to make a pilgrimage to Madonna dell'Orto, where Tintoretto is buried. He and his kids painted a bunch of stuff in the church, too.
6) I went to the Franchetti gallery, mainly to see the other Mantegna St. Sebastian since I couldn't see the one at the Accademia. This is where I began to suspect a Mantega conspiracy, because that painting was gone, too, being restored. I asked the guy at the counter what was up, and he told me because of the celebration of Mantegna's 500th birthday this year, they were restoring that painting and taking all the Mantegnas from everywhere and putting together a huge exhibition later this year. I told him I was studying in Vienna and at least had gotten to see the other St. Sebastian painting there. (Mantegna was somewhat obsessed with painting St. Sebastian, if you hadn't figured that out by now) He said, "A Vienna c'e la vista di Mantegna scenografica, ma noi abbiamo la Mantegna spirituale."
7) I stopped off at St. John Chrysostom and St. Maria dei Miracoli (both incredible but the latter was like a little jewel of the Renaissance) before running up north for a quick visit to the Jesuit church then a long vaporetto ride home.

That's all for now, folks! I have to go home tomorrow but not until the afternoon. I might try to go to the airport by way of Murano if I can. Of course, in the morning I am going to go to Mass in the Rosary church, which is right down the street.