Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SIGHTS
CHURCH
PALAZZO DUCALE
See
Click here
.
MUSEUM
TEATRO LA FENICE
See
Click here
.
THEATRE
TORRE DELL'OROLOGIO
MAP
LANDMARK
GOOGLE MAP
(Clock Tower;
041 4273 0892;
www.museiciviciveneziani.it
; Piazza San Marco; adult/reduced with Museum Pass
€12/7; tours in English 10am & 11am Mon-Wed, 2pm & 3pm Thu-Sun, in Italian noon & 4pm daily, in French 2pm
& 3pm Mon-Wed, 10am & 11am Thu-Sun; San Marco)
The two hardest-working men in Venice stand
duty on a rooftop around the clock, and wear no pants. No need to file workers' com-
plaints: the 'Do Mori' (Two Moors) exposed to the elements atop the Torre dell'Orologio
are made of bronze, and their bell-hammering mechanism runs like, well, clockwork.
Below the Moors, Venice's gold-leafed 15th-century timepiece tracks lunar phases.
The clock, designed by Zuan Paolo Rainieri and his son Zuan Carlo in 1493-99, had one
hitch: the clockworks required constant upkeep by a live-in clockwatcher and his family
until 1998. After a nine-year renovation, the clock's works are in independent working or-
der: 132-stroke chimes keep time in tune, moving barrels indicate minutes and hour on the
world's first digital clock face (c 1753), and wooden statues of the three kings and angel
emerge from side panels annually on Epiphany and the Feast of the Ascension. Tours climb
steep four-storey spiral staircases past the clockworks to the roof terrace, for giddy, close-
up views of the Moors in action.
MUSEO FORTUNY
MAP
MUSEUM
GOOGLE MAP
( 041 4273 0892;
http://fortuny.visitmuve.it/
; Campo San Beneto 3758; adult/reduced with Museum Pass €10/8 ;
10am-6pm Wed-Mon; Sant'Angelo)
Find design inspiration at the palatial home-studio of Art
Nouveau designer Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, whose shockingly uncorseted Delphi god-
dess frocks set the standard for bohemian chic. First-floor salon walls are eclectic mood
boards: Fortuny fashions and Isfahan tapestries, family portraits and James Turrell's sub-
