Day 15 - Ca' Pesaro, Ca' Rezzonico, Museo Correr and mask shopping

First stop this morning was Ca' Pesaro. This huge, grand palace has an impressive baroque facade and huge courtyard. Inside however, was yet again another dull, stripped interior. The collection of artwork, however, was a nice change; mostly artwork from the 19th and 20th centuries. One highlight was Gustav Klimt's Salome.

The next palace was Ca' Rezzonico. Unlike Pesaro, there were a few rooms (from a grand ballroom, to a tiny boudoir) here that have been preserved, to varying extents. The top couple of floors, however are plain walls used to display Renaissance painters, which we were experiencing a bit of overload from. An interesting discovery was a preserved Venetian pharmacy from the 18th Century, tucked away in the upper floors.

This style of Murano glass chandelier has been a common feature of all the historic houses we have visted in Venice.

View from the upper floors of the Ca' Rezzonico.

As if we hadn't visted enough museums already, we visited the Museo Correr in San Marco. It has an interesting collection of Venetian items, including an almost complete display of all coins minted for the Republic. Another interesting display showed some of the games and sports played by Venetians.

Attached is the Museo Archeologico, with ancient scuplture. Through these rooms are the grand rooms of the Libreria Sansoviniana. Grand rooms, for sure, it was disappointing the displays were reproductions.

We had intended to buy some masks while we were in Venice, so we'd been keeping an eye out for a good store. While every second store in Venice sells masks, they mostly look the same - probably mass-produced. We spotted one store, Ca' Macana, which had masks that looked a little different. One of their claims to fame, it turns out, are the masks from Eyes Wide Shut. We looked around, and tried a few on, and settled for a couple of nice masks that weren't going to be too difficult to bring home.

Ca' Macana, on the Fondamenta della Toletta.

For dinner, we used the advice of the reception staff to find an Indian restaurant, Gandhi Ji. It was a nice change from the melted-cheese brigade. Food was good, staff were friendly and the prices were ok.