Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, 2025

San Giorgio Maggiore lies just beyond the mouth of the Grand Canal. We reach it by vaporetto.

The island has a famous Palladio church, two art galleries and a monastery which now houses the Cini Foundation.

Bill and I have disembarked at the vaporetto stop on San Giorgio and are looking back at St Mark's Square.

Inside San Giorgio Maggiore: a Palladian Renaissance church that dwarfs the visitor.

Le Stanze della Fotografia (Photography Rooms) had a show of Mapplethorpe's most respectable pictures (no gay S&M). I had never seen this 1975 portrait of Patti Smith.

We walked to Le Stanze del Vetro (Glass Rooms) nearby. Bushes were in full spring blossom.

They had a wonderful collection of Art Deco Murano glass

originally exhibited at the Venice Biennials from 1932-1942.

The island is remarkably serene. A nice break from the chaos of St Mark's Square.

We made a second visit to the island for a tour of the Cini Foundation, located in an AD 982 monastery with a Palladio refectory and cloister.

What drew us to the Cini was a copy of Veronese's famous Wedding Feast at Cana (1563). Napoleon stole the original which is now in the Louvre.

The copy stands in its original position in the Palladio refectory. Imagine taking your meals under it day after day.

This detail features a self-portrait of Veronese in white, Tintoretto in blue and Titian in red.

The tour took us through three lovely cloisters. 

The second was designed by Palladio in 1615.

It displays an intimacy and warmth missing in his churches.

Book ahead for the tour. It sells out quickly.