So we have a leisurely morning - no early start, just a relaxed breakfast - and the waiter came over with a lovely packet of cookies for Alison for her birthday - they obviously take note when they collect our passports when we check in - and then a stroll through the streets of Venice...
What a unique and amazing city this is. The woman in the cream coat in this photo was singing opera as they glided along. You pay more for a serenade, so it would be good if you were in the gondola in front coz you could hear it for free!
Up more and more winding streets...
..until we arrive at our first stop - Teatro la Fenice - the Opera House.
We are doing the audio tour so we pick up our headsets. We are quite the accomplished tourists now as we have our own lanyard to attach the headset to so we don't have to carry it and our earpiece so we don't have to hold it to our ear. We start in the foyer.
There is an introduction to the theatre - it has burned down twice and been rebuilt and so it is called the Phoenix - which is such a coincidence with the old Whitehorse theatre being called the Phoenix! Very appropriate today! The design was another one that was by competition and it has been recreated the same after the two fires.
Into the auditorium and it is quite magnificent.
The ceiling is painted to look like it is a dome and there is a Phoenix in the circle at the top of the proscenium arch.
See there are individual chairs rather than rows. The original red carpet has been replaced with parquet flooring and there is air conditioning/heating units under every seat. The orchestra pit can be lowered completely under the stage (for an opera) and raised all the way up for concerts and such.
The next stop is a Maria Callas tribute foyer - she performed here regularly and was huge at the time. Lots of photos and quotes and things.
Then into the royal box - very fancy! They had to take out six of the original boxes to create it as it wasn't built with one originally.
See I got the royal box and here is Alison in the cheap box...
Still a good view though!
And a few other shots...
Our next activity is only a 13-minute walk away but with Venice's weird streets and canals, we have an hour and a half to find it so off we set. We do cross the Grand Canal and it is like a postcard!
Over the other side and we head to where we think we should be. We do ask for directions and it turns out we are right where we need to be, with half an hour to spare so there is time for half a sandwich and a coffee. Then we head into...
..Ca' Macana for a private mask workshop. How cool is that?!
We have a look in the shop itself before heading across to the workshop with Nancy, our instructor. She is from Senegal originally but has been living in Venice for 19 years.
So we start with a slide show and story all about the origins of the mask. You can see on the slide on the left, the owner and creator of Ca' Macana - he makes all the moulds - which is the hard part.
Nancy explains that all masks are not made of fancy products - paper, water, glue and imagination (might be more, I didn't write them down!) She also has slides and some examples of the mould process.
Then the history of the masks - they have been in Venice since the 12th century. They originally were all the same - white, worn with a cape with lace and a hat to hold the mask in place - no strings needed. They were worn by men and woman and the purpose was to allow the wearer to do whatever they wanted and nobody knew who it was, everyone looked the same.
It was a very liberal and fair society, by all accounts. There was lots of gambling - the croupiers didn't wear masks, only wigs. There were also mute masks that could be worn by women - mute because the masks were held in place by the mouth. These weren't like a burka, restricting women, they were to allow women freedom to choose and do what they wanted without consequence, almost.
The masks were worn by everyone, it equalised the rich and the poor and the men and the women - all the same, no consequences. And only in Venice. Until Napoleon stopped it. And it stayed stopped until the '70s when Carnivale was revived and continues to this day. Very interesting to learn all that - not sure how clear this is...
Then it was time for us to paint our own masks! We have two and so first have to chose our prototypes. Then Nancy explained the different techniques and demonstrated...
..and we tried to follow...
It was basically paint, or apply decorative paper and then paint, dry, wax, paint decoration, dry - in a nutshell, it was great fun and Nancy was great at encouraging and helping us along. And here are the finished products...
What a way to spend an afternoon in Venice - and where else to make a mask or two but in Venice!
We head back towards St Mark's Piazza, past the Grand Canal again...
..so many people!
It is time for birthday cake so we head to one of the beautiful sidewalk places in the piazza with musicians playing and expensive coffee and cake - but how often are you in Venice, on your birthday?
And the waiters obviously get asked this a lot as he immediately says he will take the photo from both sides, so here we go...
Amazing experience, sitting there having cake and listening to the music and looking at everything. The band even played happy birthday!
Back home for a quick rest before heading out again, this time for a gondola ride - we need to start before 7pm coz they charge more then! As we are looking at the gondola info, a Chinese girl asks if we want to share - you pay per boat so if the four of us go, we divide the cost by four. We agree immediately and off we set - she is with her father so none of us are after a romantic glide through the canals. It's pretty magical...! I'll let the pictures do the talking...
Then around to St Mark's for a traditional Italian pizza - delicious!
And happy birthday, Alison!
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