Yesterday we went to San Michele to attend my great-great grandmother’s grave. Robert observed that it is in very good order.
He is right and I don’t know why. There certainly hasn’t been lots of family giving it a rub; the lagoon is fresh water; nevertheless I’d expect a bit of deterioration from pollution; none of the other headstones nearby are so well preserved. I put it down to the quality of Kilkenny marble and good workmanship.
We also took a look at the walled rectangles designed by David Chipperfield. Last time, pre-blog, it looked pristine and pointless. This time I got it. It is a Left Luggage facility for Venetians to park their deceased.
As you can see, it is a work in progress. To put this in context, hitherto Venetians were buried and resurrected as land-fill some twenty years later. The same wil happen in the Chipperfield cloisters but it will be more dignified. It always makes me uneasy seeing JCBs excavating cadavers.
Less morbidly, we have been eating very well. Maybe only good restaurants are open in January? Sardines and polenta, vegetable soup, seafood risotto, liver alla Veneziana with grilled polenta, an excellent pizza, pasta with broccoli …
I’d love to know a little more about your great great grandmother. Why was she in Venice? Why was she called ‘mother’? It’s a beautiful gravestone .
There is a little more about her here: https://christopherbellew.com/death-in-rome-and-venice/
And about her husband who eloped with his mistress and was declared bankrupt here: https://christopherbellew.com/the-ghastly-affair/
Her children put up the memorial stone beneath which she is buried, hence the reference to Mother
A beautiful marker. A small question: why pray tell would the inscription say she died “at” Venice instead of “in”Venice? Cheers cmj
I supposed the children toyed with “in” and “on” and compromised? I expect you have seen many memorials with appalling typos in English churches – I have.