The next morning we found another coffee-and-croissant place which was slightly larger than the one we'd found the previous morning, but which had pretty much the same menu. But at least this one had a few stools to sit on for the short time needed to consume breakfast. Then we linked up with Philip and Connie, who were looking forward to walking off their massive breakfast. Our plan was to explore the area across the Grand Canal from the Westin hotel, but there was a slight problem. Away from the train station area, there are only two bridges across the Grand Canal. One is the Rialto Bridge, a considerable backtrack from our intended destination, and the other is the Accademia Bridge, closer to us but still out of the way. Since there are only two bridges across the canal, this is a common predicament, and Venetian enterprise has come to the rescue with the traghetti. The traghetti are gondolas in strategic locations which are used exclusively as passenger ferries. One wishing to cross the canal pays a small fee and is paddled across, either sitting or standing, along with what is usually a small group of other people with the same intent. We found a traghetto near the Santa Maria del Giglio vaporetto stop and took the ride. Interestingly, one of the two boatmen didn't want us to take any pictures of him, for unknown reasons.


We disembarked a short walk from the Santa Maria della Salute church, our first destination.

The Santa Maria della Salute church is a large domed church which is a major landmark near the seaward entrance to the Grand Canal. It was built to give thanks for the end of a plague which had wiped out nearly a third of the city's population in 1629-30. It was built from 1631-1687, octagonal in shape and baroque in style.



A number of artworks can be seen inside, by artists including Titian and Tintoretto. The statuary group at the high altar is considered to be the masterpiece of Giusto Le Corte and is called Virgin and Child Expelling the Plague. It depicts Venice as a beautiful young woman and the plague as an ugly old woman being thuggishly driven away by a cherub.





From Santa Maria della Salute, we continued to the point of land at the Dogana di Mare, the former customs house for ships arriving from the sea and the beginning of the Grand Canal. From this point one can see San Marco and the islands of San Giorgio Maggiore and Giudecca, and we also had a nice view of our hotel. On our visit, for some reason there was also a white statue of a naked boy holding a frog by its hind leg. Posted nearby was a guard to deter any unsavory ideas which may have occurred to the mischievous.




Our next destination on this side of the canal was the Accademia Gallery, the world's largest collection of Venetian art. Artists represented include Tintoretto, Titian, Canaletto, Carpaccio, Veronese and Tiepolo, among many others. Photography was forbidden inside the museum, so here are some pictures that mostly came off the Internet:



The Accademia Gallery is also the home of Leonardo da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man drawing, but due to its fragility, it usually isn't on display.

Just outside the museum was the Accademia Bridge, which looks impressive in its own right and is a nice spot to take pictures from. It was also the only remotely nearby footbridge back to the side of the canal we came from.



After crossing the bridge, we were startled to see a few young African men sprinting toward the bridge carrying large bundles wrapped in what looked like bedsheets. A few seconds later we saw an official-looking Italian man running after them. This was probably an attempt to enforce the law against the sale of counterfeit merchandise. Occasionally when walking around in Venice, one sees vendors with designer handbags, wallets, etc. arrayed on bedsheets. It's pretty clear the merchandise is bogus – real designers sell their stuff in their stores, of which there are plenty in Venice, and not on bedsheets. The bedsheets, besides protecting the merchandise from the ground, also make it easy for the vendors to quickly pick up everything and move out, in a hurry if necessary. The vendors we saw were most likely converging from different sales locations to reach some sort of refuge on the other side of the canal. This is probably an ongoing game between the lawbreakers and the law enforcers. We never saw how this turn played out. We continued across the bridge and headed toward San Marco, where we would be looking for our next destination - the Doge's Palace.