DATE August 1st 1928
PLACE Milan, Venice
Today we left Lugano & passed thru the Italian border into Itay. We ate Lunch at Milan & then went to see the marvelous Cathedral then to the small chapel where the ‘Last Supper’ is [1]. It is gorgeous. Then catching the train again we went to Venice. After a hectic hot ride we arrived in Venice at 8.30. We had a miserable hotel far from the heart of town & had Supper there. Went for a gondola ride after & heard the music boats. Sleeping almost impossible on account of heat.
ON THIS DAY
US baseball star Babe Ruth hits his 42nd home run and is four weeks ahead of his 1927 pace. He ended the season with 54 home runs, which would be the fourth (and last) time he hit 50 home runs in a season. In October, Ruth and the New York Yankees had a World Series rematch with Vincent’s home team, the St Louis Cardinals, who had upset them in the 1926 series. The Yankees demolished the Cards in four games.
DATE August 2nd
PLACE Venice
Today was unbearably hot and they picked a walking tour around the city. Hardly anybody went. Helen, Lucy, Elizabeth & I went downtown alone. Some-body invited us to the glass factory, it was very interesting & then they took us to see how they made lace. Then we went in St Marks which is very ornate, but beautiful & saw the stone on which the transfiguration took place & another on which St John was beheaded. Saw Madonna of the Golden Foot. This afternoon we went in Gondolas to the Cathedral where Titian is buried & there Canova is also. Titan’s Assumption is there & Donelli’s Madonna two of the most beautiful in the world [2]. Another moonlit evening in gondalas.
ON THIS DAY
Italy’s fascist prime minister Benito Mussolini signs peace treaty with Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
Santa Maria dei Frari as it is today
Vincent Price Travel Journal 1928 (reproduced courtesy of Peter Fuller)
EDITOR’S NOTES
[1] The 15-century church and Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Holy Mary of Grace) is a UNESCO World Heritage sites. The church contains the mural of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the refectory of the convent.
[2] Vincent is talking about St Mary of the Friars (Santa Maria dei Frari). This 13th-century church is one of the finest in venice, housing many masterpieces of Venetian Renaissance art, notably Giovanni Bellini’s triptych Madonna and Child with Saints, and the Pesaro Madonna by Titian, who is buried in the church.
[sic] Although Vincent misspells words in his journal, we have kept them as he wrote them.
My First Trip Abroad | Vincent Price (July-August 1928) 