Today was a fun and busy one for IMFA, and if you ask anyone in our group, you’ll be sure to hear many and varied stories about what people saw and experienced. For this post, I’ll guide you through the day as experienced by Jessica Paul, my Venice buddy, and me.

We left Duino at 7:45 in order to catch an 8:40 train from Monfalcone to Venice’s St. Lucia station, which arrived around 10:30. We then broke into various subgroups, with most of us heading in the direction of St. Mark’s Basilica. As Jessica and I had visited that wonderful place last year, we instead began with an espresso at a cute hole in the wall, and then proceeded along Strada Nova in search of the baroque composer Barbara Strozzi, who was baptised at the church of St. Sofia and lived in a building near the Rio dei Santi Apostoli.

Inside the church of St. Sofia is the beautiful and mysterious black Madonna.

The building where the composer Barbara Strozzi lived.

By then, we were ready for a break, as the sun was becoming oppressively intense. We went to a place I had scouted earlier on the interwebs, known for its ciccetti (Venitian tapas). Yum.

A wonderful little cafe/trattoria off the Strada Nova.

It was then time for a little more religion. Following the signs to the ospedale (hospital), we came to the Basilica of San Giovanni e Paolo, a huge baroque church on the northern end of Venice. Lots of beautiful chapels surround the main sanctuary; if you look carefully along the south wall, you can even see a relic of Catherine of Siena, one of the few women granted the title of Doctor of the Church.

One of the ceilings of a side chapel in the basilica.

Last planned stop was the church most closely associated with Vivaldi, known locally as “La Pietà.” Not much to see inside, just a beautiful, white space, built just after Vivaldi’s death and near the place where he worked with the orphan choir and earned the nickname “Red Priest.”

Inside the church “La Pietà,” where I think they have a recording of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” on a constant loop (but with good reason!).

A plaque outside a church near La Pietà, marking the place where Vivaldi was baptized.

As we headed back in the direction of the train station for our rendezvous, we ended up back at a favorite spot discovered last year in the Jewish ghetto–a wonderful bakery with wonderful air conditioning and a clean bathroom. Just before meeting the rest of our group, we discovered what seems to be a relative rarity in the most visited sections of Venice–a park. Good spot to rest before beginning the journey home.

If you turn right from the train station (away from most tourist traffic), you’ll come upon this lovely spot.