Our first stop of the day took us to the famous St. Marks Campanile. The Campanile is the one that has been replicated and copied the world over, even finding its place in Vegas. Coming in at about 98 meters (325ish feet), it is a huge building in an otherwise fairly short city.
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| St. Marks from the mouth of the lagoon |
The Campanile is old, very old. It reached its current state in 1514. The foundation for St. Marks was laid in 912. That's right, the foundation for St. Marks is over 1000 years old. The campanile has been the source of controversy, being where Galileo Galilei demonstrated his telescope (wouldn't end so well for the church...) as well as a symbol of the city.
In 1902, The Campanile collapsed and was painstakingly rebuild, brick by brick (with added reinforcement of course) to the exact specifications of the nearly 500 year old building.
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| oops... |
With that in mind, we decided that one way to see Venice in a very cool fashion would be to take the lift to the top and check out the sights above. It was a cloudy day so that kind of put a damper on the view but it was still amazing.
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| Tilt the screen over... |
The bells of St. Marks are also pretty amazing. This bell tower has 5 bells, each with a different sound, signaling something different. The
Renghiera (or the
Maleficio) announced executions; the
Mezza Terza proclaimed a session of the Senate; the
Nona sounded midday; the
Trottiera called the members of the Maggior Consiglio to council meetings and the
Marangona , the biggest, rang to mark the beginning and ending of working day. we were there when the Mezza Terza bell went off and it was one of the most ear-shattering experiences of my life. Very loud. The video doesnt want to load and I have class so I will try to update this when i get a chance but here are some shots of the bells.
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| Don't touch |
It was a cold windy day so we made our way back down and went over to St. Marks Basilica...
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