Architecture

 Trust me, I'll be moving on to GIALLO soon, but there are so many beautiful examples of ROSSO architecture...

These lovely rose-colored streetlamps are found throughout Venice.  The church is Santa Maria della Salute (salvation), and was promised as a dedication to Mary if the Venetians could be saved from the plague of 1630 when 1/3 of the population died of the plague.  It sits on a platform of 100,000 wooden piles and took fifty years to construct. 

The tower of a palazzo.

This is my apartment building in Campo San Maurizio.  My room has the two windows with closed shutters on the third floor left.  A lovely, tiny antique store sits on the first floor.  The building is full of artists who spend a month or two at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica.   

Architecture and transport - the combination kept Venice alive as a shipping empire for centuries.  The ground floors of the buildings were typically warehouses that had cargo doors directly accessible from the canals.  Above the ground floor were the grand living spaces, as can be seen reflected in the window detailing above.

As I walked through this quiet neighborhood on a Sunday, the patriotism was clear - first from the flag, and then from the cheers and blaring voices of the TV sportscasters.

More patriotism.

The beautiful flag of Venice. 

An exquisite chimney pot.

Venetian shutters are not just decorative.  They are constantly opened and closed, depending on the residents's wishes for sun, cross-ventilation, shade, and privacy.  Yesterday, the sky turned a deep purple and there was a sudden deluge of sleet, rain and wind.  The crashes of shutters that hadn't been secured echoed around the campo and rain poured over the window sills, into the rooms.  In spite of this, the drenched pedestrians ran laughing through the streets, happy, at last, to be cool.

One of the biggest surprises I've encountered in Venice is the extent of grafitti throughout the city.  It spares no building, including the famous Rialto bridge and other ancient landmarks. 

Just a hint of what may lie on the other side of the garden wall.

The scarlet numbers, above a doorway.  All addresses in Venice use this color and style of numbering.

This is a hand-wrought gate commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim, with colorful embedded chunks of Murano glass.

The hellishly hot, humid summers make shade a valuable commodity.

Shuttered tightly against the heat, the interiors of Venetian homes give nothing away to curious pedestrians, making the city mysterious and suggesting how important privacy is where the housing is packed so tightly.

A rare, red bench.  Although there are many outdoor cafes (where, if you must rest, you must purchase food or drink), public seating areas are hard to find, and sitting on bridges or window sills is discouraged.  Sore feet: a good excuse for a spritz or cappucino!

This is Strada Nova, a main artery that I walk each morning to the Scuola.  It is about 10:00am, and already so hot that, as you can see, the crowd hugs the shade, save for a brave soul in a red shirt.

Is this sign saying what I think it is?

I'll end this post with a detail from a mosaic, simply inset in a stone wall. 

I have many more ROSSO pictures, but I think the next post must be GIALLO (pronounced "jallo")!