SAINT MARKS CHURCH, VENICE, ITALY
Mentor Huebner (c) 1962
Oil on European Painter's Board 22" X 26"

SAINT MARKS CHURCH

BY

We took a sort of a water-boat-bus-like-Ferry from a dry land dock to Venice, Italy, with the three kids and the huge twin size baby buggy we had bought in France. It was a packed ride/sail but the baby buggy helped to establish air room.

Once we left the Gondola/Ferry the baby buggy became a liability. We hadn't realized what should have been obvious: Venice is a water city. A water city connected to itself by bridges. Hundreds of bridges.

Some bridges, tall enough to allow for motor boats and other water vehicles, police cars, fire trucks and ambulances, to pass beneath them, were sometimes three flights high. Others were simply foot paths connecting side streets. Since we weren't visiting neighbors, those little foot path bridges, did us no good.

It was a bit of a problem. We had to carry the kids and the baby buggy up one side of the bridges and down the other. Over and over and over again. Tourists seeing our predicament, shook their heads, raised their eyebrows and sighed, sympathetically.

Before little Mentor and I had flown to Paris, France, to meet up with big Mentor, my Grandma made me promise that when we finally got to Italy, I would look for the plaza in the center of Venice, that carried her maiden name and was dedicated to her ancestor Marco Polo, (so she said). I said I would.

On the day of this painting, I found the Plaza. It did indeed carry Grandma's family's name. It was dedicated to Marco Polo, (relative or not)

I purchased a Venetian vase in honor of everybody.

The 'ride' back on the Gondola/Ferry was a bit difficult with a wet painting. But Europeans are respectful of art and they left a little circle of space around us. The kids slept all the way home. And that was great.

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