The Clock Tower of 1493

This is why Tom is the best husband for me: he shows his love by planning based on what we all love. I think this day was for me.






















In San Marcos Square, in Venice, there is a clock tower with a celestial dial on it. For the last ten years (spanning our last two trips), it has been covered by a facade while they fixed it up.

It is open now, and Tom scheduled a tour for us.
This is a painting I did before our tour. I put Domo and Mr. Nilson as the bell-ringers.

It rained that day.

We were like a flock of ducklings making our way through the narrow streets.

Aidan found a Ferrari store.

















The clock tower used to be inhabited by a clock-keeper, who would reset the pulleys regularly all day and night, every day. The clock was built in 1493. It was the most sophisticated piece of machinery the world had ever seen. It was a sign of the intelligence, craftmanship, wealth and technological superiority of the Venicians. It had five layers and had something going on on each layer in the way of moving parts. It was the worlds first digital clock. It also showed the phases of the moon, the position of the sun as it related to the constellations of the zodiac, and it could give you your horoscope (just kidding!).









The numbers on the digital clock change every five minutes. The hours side is shown in roman numerals.














These guys ring the bell on the hour, five minutes before and five minutes after.













We are happy at the top of the tower!!













We had the best view in Venice.







Aidan got a feather quill pen too.