Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I Frari
CHURCH
(Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari;
www.chorusvenezia.org
; Campo dei Frari 3004, San Polo; adult/
reduced €3/1.50; 9am-6pm Mon-Sat, 1-6pm Sun, last admittance 5.30pm; San Tomà)
This soar-
ing Gothic church features marquetry choir stalls, Canova's pyramid mausoleum, Bellini's
achingly sweet
Madonna with Child
triptych in the sacristy, and Longhena's creepy Doge
Pesaro funereal monument hoisted by burly slaves bursting from ragged clothes like In-
credible Hulks - yet visitors are inevitably drawn to the small altarpiece.
This is Titian's 1518
Assumption
, in which a radiant Madonna in a Titian-red cloak
reaches heavenward, steps onto a cloud and escapes this mortal coil. Titian outdid himself
here, upstaging his own 1526 Pesaro Altar-piece near the entry. Titian was lost to the
plague in 1576, but legend has it that strict rules of quarantine were bent to allow his buri-
al near his masterpiece.
Museo di Storia
Naturale di Venezia
MUSEUM
(Fondaco dei Turchi; 041 275 02 06; msn.visitmuve.it; Salizada del Fontego dei Turchi 1730, Santa
Croce; adult/reduced €8/5.50; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun, to 5pm Tue-Fri Nov-May; San Stae)
Never
mind the doge: insatiable curiosity rules Venice, and inside the Museum of Natural His-
tory it runs wild. The adventure begins upstairs with dinosaurs, then dashes through evol-
ution to Venice's great age of exploration, when adventurers like Marco Polo fetched pe-
culiar specimens from distant lands. Around every turn, scientific marvels await discovery
in luminous new exhibits.
As you might expect from this lagoon city, the marine-biology exhibits are especially
breathtaking. The most startling ceiling in Venice isn't a salon Tiepolo fresco but the
museo
's 19th-century
wunderkammer
(cabinet of curiosities), covered with shark jaws,
poisonous blowfish and other outrageous sea creatures.
