Earth, Fire and Water: VENICE

Some more jewels of GIALLO before we move on to BLU...

This is the view from the studio window of a terrace lived in by Domenico, chef extraoridinaire, of a restaurant where the artists frequently gather for lunch.

A stately reflection.

Although beautiful, this marble is turning to marshmallow, due, they say, to the pollution blowing in from the industrial north.

Richard Wagner lived his last winter (1882-1883) just around the corner from our studio in a palazzo called Vendramin Calergi.  Now, most of the palazzo is a casino, but a few rooms remain for the Museo Richard Wagner.

These are my favorite street musicians, playing in front of Billa, one of our grocery stores of choice.  The second day I arrived in Venice, they were playing a sublime, romantic piece, and drawing quite a crowd.  Swept up by the moment,  an older couple began to dance on the street, riveted to one another, as if there was nothing in the world but the music and each other. 

While waiting for La Traviata to begin at La Fenice opera house, I snapped a photo of the box seats.

San Marcuola is the campo where the Studio Internazionale di Grafica is located.  This sign points to a traghetto crossing.  Along the Canal Grande, there are many places you'd like to cross, but no bridge is nearby.  Traghettos are stripped-down gondolas that ferry you across the canal at crucial points for a mere 70 cents.

For those willing to spend much more than the cost of a traghetto or vaporetto, there are water taxi stops everywhere.  The taxi boats are very luxurious, and you hail them just as you would on the streets of Manhattan.

Venice has made well-traveled sections of town accessible to wheelchairs.  Here is an example, near San Marco, where a ramp has been added to a canal bridge.  Not a soul uses the stairs.

Believe it or not, this is the main entry to the Ospedale Civile, Venice's main hospital.

Here are the hospital ambulance bays with the ER just to the right.

A lovely canal in the Dorsoduro section of the city.

I love the variations of ochres on this building.

This is Campo San Maurizio and the view from my bedroom window.  The bell in the leaning campanile clangs on the 1/2 hour, starting at 7:30am and ending around 10:00pm.  It is the best alarm clock I have ever had the pleasure of using.

An elegant brass door handle.

Venice has bricks of many colors.  The yellow bricks seem particularly susceptible to erosion, and leave a powdery residue on the street below.

This view of a royal family of chimney pots is from the window of the Fortuny Museum. 

A group of us went to the Seguso glass-blowing furnaces for a night tour on the island of Murano.  Hanging among the furnaces were exquisite glass chandeliers.  Apparently they make copies of high-end commissions in case of loss or breakage over time.

The last post showed multi-colored "bulls eye" windows.  Here is a lovely example in yellow.

Yesterday, I came across an eccentric bookstore called Acqua Alta.  It overflowed with books old and new, post cards, maps and ephemera.  A complete gondola sat in the center of the store, full of books.  The owner told me to go to the back garden and here is what I found.  On the other side of the tiny walled terrace was a canal, so he built a stairway of books so that visitors could get a "beautiful view", which it was.  (You could also rest in the armchair built of books.)

BLU skies,  blu water and... blu pigeons?  Coming up next!