I spent a full week in Venice, far more than the typical visitor. Many come for less than a day. My hotel room, though hardly sumptuous, came in at Euro 70 per night, little more than a stay at many roadside motels in the States. There was plenty to do, with a half-dozen museums and a dozen churches to see, most amply stocked with masterpieces by Tiepolo, Veronese, Tintoretto, and Titian.

In the off-season, the tourist crowd is thin enough to allow peace and quiet to visitors who want it. The vaporetto, though in reality little more than an overworked city bus on water, is a charming mode of transportation for most of us non-Venetians. Needless to say, the views and history of Venice are rich and wonderful to luxuriate in, in person, even though we all know what to expect of Venice from the movies set here. Of these, my favorite is "From Russia With Love," in which James Bond stays in the Londra Palace overlooking the lagoon and the pretty island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

The pictures here that need explanation are:

* The mori, or moors, that stand guard outside the modest home of the artist Tintoretto.

* The red palace on the grand canal was home of Pietro Bembo, historian of Venice, later a cardinal, and a Renaissance author of numerous works printed in Venice by the illustrious Aldus Manutius. A typeface used in one of his early works (De Aetna), now known as Bembo, is one of my favorites.

* The arsenale, where Venice could build a galley per day during a military crisis. The Lion of St. Mark above the door holds his book provocatively closed, since the usual Latin inscription "Peace Unto You, Mark," was deemed inappropriate for such an installation. Incidentally, the U.S. Army's headquarters in Vicenza features a Lion of St. Mark in its emblem, with the book open.

* The looted lion outside the arsanale, famous for the now nearly-invisible Runic inscriptions left by the Byzantine emperor's Viking guard. The lion came from Piraeus in Greece, once occupied by Venice. Though the photo is poorly lit, I had to linger in the neighborhood for several hours to await the brief moment when sun shined on the inscription.

* Anti-war posters and flags were everywhere in February 2003, a month before the seemingly likely war in the Gulf. Many signs were in English, I suppose directed at foreign media and tourists. More ubiquitous still were the rainbow colored flags urging "PACE!" These flags hung from bridges, government buildings, and hundreds of windows around town.

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