Sparkling Venice

Giallo!  

The word alone is cause for celebration.

This beautiful paper lamp was in a touristy street vendor's tent.

These are lamps hanging in a store called Venetia Studium that sells designs of the famous artist, inventor and fashion designer, Fortuny.  They are made in glass or silk.

Before finding itself in an antique store, this exquisite Murano glass chandelier would have graced the high, wood-beamed ceilings of a grand palazzo.  It is about 5 feet tall.

At twilight, lanterns such as this start glowing all over the city.

More Murano art glass.  The Venetians are not afraid of color.

This is the entrance to the famous Teatro La Fenice opera house.  La Fenice (the Phoenix) is the 3rd ranking opera house in Italy.  Verdi's La Traviata opened here in the 19th century, and I will be attending a performance of it tomorrow!

A typical clock, found throughout the city of Venice.

I showed you her hands in the last post.  Here is her sparkling halo.  Look at the variety of colors in her black headpiece.

This is the facade of a building on the Canal Grande. The graphics are all done with mosaic tiles.  Look closely.  They depict artists (cherubs and humans) in action.  Also, it is said that the multi-colored round window panes are the left-over bases to which the beautiful Murano glass vessels were attached while being blown.

More mosaics - this is a sign embedded into the street, advertising the entry to a hotel.

During my first day in Venice, I walked down a tiny, quiet alley, which dead-ended at the Canal Grande.  A pier jutted into the canal, upon which this courtesan hailed a water taxi.  Just behind her, across the canal, you can see the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. 

Interesting cylindrical earrings.

Streetstyle in a combination of soft yellows.

Interesting, but not much cushion for the hard, stone pavement that is everywhere.

Door handles on the Venetia Studium store. 

Yes, the music was as melancholy as the musician, but no less beautiful for its sad strings.

The annual Regata Storica (historic boat race) took place on September 2nd.  On that morning, before the race began, I spied this craft puttering along the Canal Grande.  His pedaling propelled the raft at a pretty good clip.

Here is the women's 2-man boat race.  The boats were categorized by colors, not numbers, and ROSA got the grand prize.

Here are the men racing.  Go GIALLO!

Before the many boat races was this spectacular parade of ancient ships.  Some were befit for the Doge, and others replicated cargo boats full of fruits and vegetables (with passengers dressed in 15th century garb).  To make this experience all the more surreal, I was able to watch it with my artist friends from the second floor window of a grand palazzo, built in the 1600's.