The Second Week...out and about in Venice and Padua

The group spent quite a few days on site visits in Venice, and then in Padua. We visited three great churches, the legendary Santa Maria della Salute, San Zaccaria and the 'Frari'. These places are stacked with extraordinary art, paintings and sculpture, and what I can show here is only a tiny part of what was seen. We visited the fabulous Palazzo Grimani, a palace that's just been restored to something that approaches its Renaissance splendour, with the fantastic tribuna now reinstated with the original mass of ancient sculpture, collected by the Cardinal Grimani

On Saturday we had a day out to Padua, where we visited the extraordinary Scrovegni chapel, decorated by Giotto in the early 14th century, the Ovetari chapel with the remains of Andrea Mantegna's teenage virtuosity, and ended up in the Basilica of Saint Anthony, where we had the privilege of being allowed behind the high altar (not open to the general public) to admire the superb work of Donatello.

The group was also introduced to some of the finest paintings in the Accademia Gallery (the 'National Gallery' of Venetian art)