Monday 14 October 2013

Last day in Venice

Here I sit on the bed watching BBC news, which occasionally giveis a snippet of Australian news, so that I lnow Bill Shorten is the new ALP leader. There has been much coverage of the refugee boats sinking in the. Mediterranean, and thrre seems to be more sympathy for.their plight than is often  given in Australia.

 Owing to the thin walls in this hotel, I slept intermittently  and badly then the milk I poured on the muesli had soured, and thus so did I.

 This morning I went to the sung Mass in San Marco again. Had I stayed longer I would have heard singing by an Austria choir. I lnow this only because late this afternoon I went to S Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, to see the church itself, Titian's huge painting of The Assumption. I also wanted to see Monteverdi's tomb, the bust, and the open score of his Vespers. There is always a flower placed on the tombstone. I love Monteverdi's music very deeply. At the tomb a man joined me. He is a singer, singing teacher and conductor from Austria. It was good to share our love of this wonderful music.

I speny a few hours at the Correr museum - it is a long time since I have been there, and there is plenty to see and learn. Lots of statues of Canova, many many portraits of the numerous Doges, plenty of religious art. What. Has been striking me is the absence of women in much of the art. Unless you count Mary, the mother of Jesus, and various other saints in crowd scenes you see the women on balconies or in reserved spaces. As I have been watching a documentary on the Pakistaini victim, Malala, who was shot by the Taliban because of her outspoken support for the education of females, it often seems that in the struggle for women's rights there is a long way to go. Imagine commiting murders in order to deprive women of basic human rights and to keep them oppressed.


Tomorrow i. Go by train to Udine  which people say is very pleasant. Nora and John will help get me and my suitcase to the train. They have been very kind, snd it has been a lot of fun, despite the rather awful hotel, and I wonder how it will feel to be on my own.

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