20 Sept 2026

I am not up todate with my blogging but been quite tired . So this is what we did yesterday . We went to the Giardini Reali ( translated as the Royal Gardens ) to have a morning coffee .

We walked through St.Marks loggia to get to the gardens because the apartment was 2 minutes away from St.Marks piazza .

In love with all the terracotta pots .

Since we had time to kill before the lunch reservations , we went for a gondola ride. 30 minutes ride for €90 for the 4 of us, isn’t too bad .

The gondola ride was awesome. Enjoyed this very much . We made lunch reservations at the Wildner which was recommended by Ann . This is along the side of  St.Marks square .

It was a fab lunch. After lunch since it was so hot , we went to visit Ca’Rezzonico which is a palazzo on the Grand Canal . A little bit of history of the palazzo is that it was acquired in 1755 by the Rezzonico family . This gave the name to the palazzo. However, the Rezzonico’s family were short lived as no male heirs so the family died out in 1810. Then , it was finally purchased by the city of Venice in 1935 and became the museum devoted to 18th Century Venice . There were 2 paintings by Canaletto in the palazzo .

There were 3 floors but I found the first 2 floors more interesting . The third floor  had paintings which did not interest me much . There were 2 paintings by Canaletto as below. I do not know much about this artist but it’s Ann favourite artist .

Who is canaletto ?

Canaletto was one of the great Venetian painters of the 18th Century Venice.

Canaletto was actually Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697–1768). He became famous for incredibly detailed “vedute” — paintings of real city views, especially Venice.

He painted places that I have  been walking through:

• St Mark’s Square
• The Grand Canal
• The Doge’s Palace and surrounding waterfront
• Venetian churches, bridges and streets
• Festivals and everyday life in 18th-century Venice

What makes him fascinating is that his paintings are almost like photographs of Venice before photography — but with very carefully constructed perspective and light. He sometimes altered or combined buildings and viewpoints too, so they aren’t always completely literal records.

He also spent about 10 years in England, from 1746, painting London and the English countryside for wealthy patrons.

And here’s a lovely connection: his biggest promoter was Joseph Smith, the British consul in Venice, who helped make Canaletto enormously popular with wealthy British travellers on the Grand Tour.

So when  there are old paintings of Venice with the Grand Canal, gondolas and St Mark’s looking almost eerily precise, there’s a very good chance you’re looking at Canaletto — or an artist influenced by him. Read all this by the way haha

That ends my day in Venice. We went back to the apartment and made dinner which was way cheaper than eating out .