Italy shivered beneath a blanket of unaccustomed snow as the Art department set foot in Venice but fortunately this small corner of that country remained untroubled by a single snowflake and clear blue skies prevailed throughout our visit. This is what we have become accustomed to in recent visits to Florence and Paris and our luck continued to hold. Our first morning's excursion brought us on a vaporetto along the Grand Canal, accompanied by flotillas of gondolas with gondoliers well muffled against the cold - not a straw hat to be seen.
Our destination was to be St Mark's Square but here we were thwarted in our aim of exploring St Mark's basilica; the tide was high and the square had become a lake, traversed by a few hardy explorers in plastic waders. It was Carnival week of course and we found much to entertain us in the many extravagantly costumed revellers whose chief purpose seemed to be to pose for photographers. A swift change of plan found us heading for the Doge's Palace where fantastic contrasts were to be found between the opulence of the state apartments and the grim austerity of the adjoining prison. We saw many wonderful paintings here and in the nearby church of San Zaccaria too but one of the highlights of our day was a completely unexpected one: in front of the church of San Zaccaria we found two buskers playing music by running their moistened fingers around the rims of a range of glasses of different sizes. The sound they made was quite magical and we all marvelled at their skill.

The next few days found us visiting the chief Dominican and Franciscan churches in Venice as well as the world famous Accaddemia gallery where we were able to see many of the great renaissance paintings girls had seen in reproduction during a series of lectures preceding the visit. By way of contrast our visit to the Peggy Guggenheim museum allowed us to admire a wide range of twentieth century works by some of modern art's most celebrated artists and sculptors.

Our hotel was conveniently poised on the Western edge of the city so that everywhere was within walking distance or by a short voyage by vaporetto. We did a great deal of walking during our three days in the city, often through streets enormously crowded at this time of year. We were largely successful in keeping the party together during our journeys through the maze-like streets and alleys, although the jostling confusion of the Rialto bridge once caused a brief parting of ways! Meals were taken at a local self-service restaurant but the quality of food, service and accommodation left much to be desired so on the final evening of the visit the party took a unilateral decision to take our custom elsewhere and found a very amenable restaurant for our ultimate evening meal.

In all the visit was a very successful one and I am sure that all the girls learned a great deal from it. Titians , Bellinis and Tintorettos will perhaps have found a permanent place in their minds although I suspect the exhilarating speedboat ride across the lagoon to and from the airport will also have an abiding place in their memories!

Mr Dukes
Head of Art