Mr Blue Sky

Sun is shinin' in the sky,
There ain't a cloud in sight

San Pietro di Castello. Until 1807 this was the cathedral of Venice. The leaning campanile is the only one in Venice that is faced in Istrian stone. It (the campanile) was built 1482-88 (or '90) by Mauro Codussi. The drum was added in 1670, replacing the original dome which was blown off (!) in 1659. This photo was taken in September 2010.

I had a little pony ...

This is not 'normal service'. I've uploaded this from my desktop, rather than Imageshack. The image is smaller, but better than nothing. This equestrian construction is in the Paradiso Perduto restaurant in Cannaregio. You may have noticed that it is on castors. I asked what the horse was used for, and a lady told me it was wheeled around the area. That's about as much as I understood. Somebody with better Italian than I have should go and get more information (please). I thought you could not wheel it very far before you came to a bridge. I would guess that it does not weigh a lot, but people would soon get fed up of carrying it over bridges.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

I am doing everything exactly as I did before, but the photo will not upload to Blogger. I've emailed Pierre to ask if he has any ideas.

Exercise in perspective

Another early morning image. There are a couple of people in the distance. For most of the day you cannot see the pattern in the stones under the arcade. There are two other inscriptions you might want to look out for in the Piazza, but I don't have photos of them. One is about five steps in front of the door of Sant' Alipio (the left door of the Basilica), recording the fall of an Austrian bomb. Another by the entrance to the Museo Correr, not actually in the Piazza, tells us that the church of San Geminiano was demolished in 1807 to make way for the Ala Napoleonica. A third item is a marker under the fifth arch of the Procuratie Vecchie, marking a spot from which your view of the Basilica is exactly perpendicular to the middle. You can read more about the geometry of the Piazza here: http://aloverofvenice.com//Didyouknow/didyouknow.html#three

The shoes will be here by half-past four at the latest.

I read about this inscription years ago - many years ago. I've forgotten where I read it, probably in a book I borrowed from the library, since I have never seen it referred to in one of my own books about Venice. Anyway, the book said that the inscription was in front of Quadri's caffè. I spent several fruitless hours - well, not hours, perhaps, but 'several minutes' does not convey the right amount of time - looking for the inscription. I asked at Quadri's, but, of course, they had no idea what I was talking about (my Italian is not good, either). I eventually concluded that it must be underneath the daïs that the orchestra plays on. And then I stumbled upon this: http://www.veneziamuseo.it/TERRA/San_Marco/Marco/marco_cur_sensa.htm - I was looking for information about the Festa della Sensa at the time - and so it was that I was able to find the inscription. Of course, once I'd found it, I couldn't understand how I'd missed it before. There is another inscription, currently behind the fence around the Campanile. It is interesting to learn that the zavateri had to use old leather to repair shoes or to make clogs and slippers, since new leather was reserved for the calegheri - shoe-makers. [That's how I understand it.]
Almost as interesting is the fact that the trachyte and Istrian stone pavement of the Piazza was laid in 1722 [almost an hour after the shoes were ready ] by Andrea Tirali, which means that the '1625' is an anachronism. I bet Andrea was tired when he finished! I wonder how long it took him.

Cross that line and you're a dead pigeon!

There used to be a well here, but it was filled in in the 17th century, according to the inscription. It's on the south side of the Piazza, more or less in front of Florian's. I wonder how many of the millions who walk across the Piazza have noticed it. This is one of the very few things in Venice that I have seen without reading about it first and going to look for it. I was probably looking for tomorrow's photo at the time.
From some of the comments on yesterday's photo, I can see that some readers think that my photos are being taken, like Pierre's, on a more or less daily basis more or less now. But this is not the case. I live in England, and I was last in Venice in October 2010. So none of my photos was taken recently, and, so far, none of those that I have posted was taken anywhere near the appropriate date. I did explain all this when I took over. Yesterday's photo was taken on 30th September 2010, and today's was taken on 30 April 2008.

How much longer?

I was never going to get Piazza San Marco with no people in it, unless I went there in the middle of the night, so I just did the best I could at about 7:15 a.m. I hate the scaffolding on the right, and I could have cropped it out, but what's the point when there is that huge Moët advertisement, and the banners for the Correr Museum? I'll post some photos of things you may not have noticed in the Piazza over the next couple of days.
[The title refers to the advertisement, mainly.]

Third time lucky

This is the same street as the previous post, but looking in the opposite direction, and the first two were taken from a different position. The nizioletto on the right in the first photo should make it easy to find, though there are at least two sotoporteghi with the same name.

The first photo was taken about one o'clock, the second about three minutes later - these were my 'banker' shots, just in case I found I couldn't get a shot with no people in view. The third shot was taken about an hour later, from the same spot as the previous post. I was a bit peeved to find that there were people on the bridge in the distance when I looked at the photo later in detail.

I probably need therapy, but I just think that strangers in my photos, especially oddly attired ones, as in the first photo, make the picture untidy, and people in red, also as in the first photo, are too much of a distraction. I make an exception when it is necessary to show a sense of scale, however.

Patience is a Virtue

Here's a photo taken at about four o'clock in July 2009. I was hanging around for three hours to get this. And this one did need me to ask a couple to get out of the way! The funny thing was, they had spoken to me minutes earlier, and sympathised when I explained that I was waiting to take a photo with nobody in view. They then walked down the street and stopped, looking in a shop window for what seemed ages. So I yelled down the street, "Now there's only you!" and they kindly hopped into a doorway for long enough for me to take the shot.
I think it's a bit like the ripples thing - anyone can take a reflection shot in Venice with ripples, or a street with people, but a shot with no ripples or no people is a rarity.
If you can enlarge this enough to read the nizioletto at the end of the street, you should be able to find this popular thoroughfare, or you may recognise the trattoria.
Here's the answer (in white) for those who have not made patience their virtue: Frezzaria.

And now for something completely different

I hope that you all have Annie's blog "Churches in Venice" bookmarked, or on your favorites list. Annie has posted many photos of the capitelli of Venice and she may well have posted this one, in which case I would apologise for the repetition. It may be found in Castello, in the Corte Delfina. I doubt that there is an agreed figure for the number of capitelli, any more than there is an agreed figure for the number of bridges in Venice. Let's say in the region of 500 and leave it at that.

Calle delle Bande

Same bridge, the day before, about 9 p.m. midsummer.
I don't like to have people in my photos. It often means a long wait, and I sometimes have to resort to asking people to move. That wasn't necessary in this case.
You might not have noticed the graffiti if I hadn't mentioned it. It's a blight in many cities, but especially in Venice.

A bridge too far?

Here's the bridge which is at the end of the street near to the previous post. Isn't it gorgeous? There was a clue to the name of the street in the previous post, but you could find this bridge and be disoriented!

No tasteless puns, please!

Continuing my theme, here is a pretty lady. I hope that nobody is offended by such 'armless beauty. It can be found in Castello, near to a bridge at the end of a street of the same name. If nobody can find it, I'll post a photo of the bridge tomorrow. In the meantime, it will help you to find the street labelled, cleaned, refreshed.

Brideshead Revisited

This looks a bit like the previous door-knocker, but this chap is Hercules - I'm guessing, because of the club. There are two lions, for symmetry I presume, whereas Hercules is famous for killing one lion - the Nemean lion. This door is not open to the public, but it was opened for Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews in the TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited.

Who bent my trident?

A theme seems to be developing - is that what they call a meme? - namely doors and the means of gaining admittance. This knocker shows Poseidon (or Neptune) with a pair of winged hippocampi, or sea-horses. You can find it on the Zattere.

How much longer?

This photo may serve as a reminder of what the campanile of the cathedral of Torcello used to look like before it was covered in scaffolding.

This face rings a bell

One of several similar bell-pulls (or bell-pushes - I didn't try it) in Calle Larga San Lorenzo. Happy Valentine's Day, if it's not too late.

Just go back and make sure the front door is locked ...

If you've studied the method (Saturday 22 January), you should have no trouble finding this door. I just thought it looked interesting. There are a couple of locking devices missing.

Sleeping Beauty

This is the grave of Sonia Kaliensky, born 20 February 1885 in Zabomgewka, Russia, died 6^th February 1907 in Venice. The panel is signed E. Butti. It is said that she committed suicide by taking laudanum at the Danieli Hotel. Notice the sheen on her hand where hundreds of people have touched her.

When I first looked on the internet for further details, a few years ago, I found only one reference, and that to a poster library. Now you can google her name and get over 500 hits. So I'll leave those of you who want to know more to do that, rather than retyping it all. One hit says she committed suicide on her birthday, which is clearly incorrect. I tried to find out where Zambomgewka is, but I did not succeed. Perhaps someone out there can help me with that.

I think she is beautiful.

I hope this is a photo to brighten up your day. This is a church on an island that has been visited by Aerosmith, Keira Knightley, Oasis, Paul Simon, Sofia Loren and me.

I don't BELIEVE it!

Two people wearing red! Those are sandoli, not gondole, as I'm sure most of you would know. This photo was taken from the same spot as the first "Where am I?" photograph, but this photograph demonstrates the property you're looking for. The bridge ahead of us is the Ponte de l'Ogio (or Ponte de l'Olio, or Ponte dell'Olio), which is the third place that has that property.

[If you've never seen the BBC TV programme "One Foot in the Grave", the title of this post will not mean anything to you.]

Now where am I?

There's always somebody wearing red! But, leaving that to one side, this photo was taken from one of the three places that share a unique property, as mentioned in an earlier post. The earlier photo did not demonstrate that property, but this one does.

Andrew's Question

I just had a look at a map of Venice and found, fortunately quickly, that there are at least three islands with an odd number of bridges connecting them to other islands - all in Cannaregio. So it is not possible to walk over every bridge in Venice once and once only. I bet you've all been dying to know that!
Still, it would be quite an achievement to walk over every bridge in Venice, even if you had to cross a couple or more twice. Not on a par with climbing the highest peaks on each continent, or all the Monros in Scotland, perhaps.

Where am I?

This should be a simple mystery photo. Once you have found the spot where I took the photo from, tell me what is unusual about it. There are only two other places in Venice like it.

A pause for reflection

Here's that refection shot of the Ponte Agnella I was telling you about. I waited and waited, but every time that the water was nearly ripple-free, another boat would come along to ruin it. Maybe you'll be more fortunate. Early to mid-afternoon is the best time to get the sun on it.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie ...

See what I've done here? As if by magic, I've reversed the view. Yesterday we were looking from the Rialto Bridge, today we're looking at the Rialto Bridge. There is a lot to say about the bridge, but it's all out there on the interweb, every 'fact' contradicted by another. The legend about the figures to be seen on the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi is a little bit doubtful when you find that the palazzo was built 1525-28, whereas the bridge was built 1588-91. One fact everyone seems to agree on is that it was built on 12,000 piles. But who was counting? It seems to me a suspiciously 'round' number. That the Salute was built on 1,156,627 piles seems much more believable. I wonder if they used wooden piles as the foundations for the new bridge.

I wonder where this can be.

This view shouldn't be too taxing! :-)
This may look like a panorama, but it's not. It's just an ordinary photo that I've cropped. There's a short time when there's still some light in the sky, but it's dark enough for the electric lights to provide most of the illumination.
Answers to the five bridges:
#1 Ponte Priuli. There are two bridges with the same name within about 100 m of each other. Rather careless of the Venetians, I think, with hundreds of names to choose from. This is the eastern one, which connects Campiello Priuli to Calle degli Albanesi. Both Ponti Priuli cross Rio Priuli, which is also called Rio di Santa Sofia. There are also two Calli Priuli leading from Strada Nuova to Rio Priuli (the western one actually starts from Calle San Felice off Corte dei Pali già Testori). The western one is distinguished from the eastern one on maps by being called Calle Larga Priuli, or Calle Larga del Dose Priuli or Calle del Dose Priuli ('dose' is Venetian for 'doge'), but the nizioletti just say Calle Priuli on both of them. Confused? I don't blame you.
#2 Ponte della Latte. Nothing to do with 'milk', which is masculine, so it would be Ponte del Latte. The bridge is allegedly named after a Giovanni a Lacte. An Albanian bit off his wife's nose on this bridge in 1505 - it's a long story - you had to be there. And it wasn't this bridge, as this bridge dates from the 19th century, but you know what I mean. Yet again, to be more pedantic, this bridge does not date from the 19th century, as it is a copy and is either late 20th century or early 21st. But you knew what I meant, didn't you? The bridge crosses Rio di San Giovanni Evangelista (San Zuane), which is the boundary between Santa Croce and San Polo.
#3 Ponte del Megio, as Alexa said. There is a plaque near the bridge, just visible in the photo, which says (I think) that the diarist Marin Sanudo died here in 1536. It's through his diary that we know about the Albanian.
#4 Ponte de l'Agnella, which crosses Rio delle Due Torri in Santa Croce. I have nothing interesting to say about this bridge, except that it is very pretty when viewed from the south. It makes a lovely reflection-shot.
#5 Ponte San Canzian, as mentioned on 24 January.

Sulk!

Some of you said you'd like a mystery photo. I gave you five and nobody's having a go! The last one is the bridge I posted on 24 January. The middle one should be familiar to anyone who has eaten at La Zucca trattoria/osteria. The first one is in Cannaregio, over a rio known by two names. The second one is on the boundary between two sestieri. If I gave you the names, that would make it too easy. The fourth one is in Santa Croce (that's obvious as you can see the sign for Parrocchia San Cassan), and shouldn't be too hard to find.

Five bridges - sweet. Nice

Too much? One of these you've already seen. [Here, I mean. You may have seen all of them in Venice.]
Did someone pass a law that said that every iron bridge in Venice had to be different? Actually, there are a couple or three that I think may be the same, but I could be wrong. It's quite hard to compare them side-by-side. I have more of these photos, as I'm sure you do too, but five is enough to be going on with.
For a bonus point, explain the title.

Ponte della Costituzione

This photo was taken in September 2008, shortly before the new bridge was opened. It has been called the "Ponte de le Zonte" (Bridge of Additions) by one Venetian, and I came up with "Bridge of Bodges" when I translated his article. You can find it on ombra.net. Once it was finished, it was realised that disabled access would need to be provided. In the words of Homer Simpson, "D'oh!"

Com'era, dov'era

I'm sure you all know the story of the Campanile of San Marco. Some of you said you liked photos taken at night when I posted my first photo. So here is another. Doesn't it make you wish you were there, even if it is cold right now? How right Goethe was when he wrote, "Venedig nur mit sich selbst vergleichen kann." (Venice can only be compared with itself.)

Arcobaleno

Is it odd that 'baleno' means flash of lightning in Italian? When a rainbow has nothing to do with lightning? And when 'balena' means whale? A photo never seems to do justice to a rainbow, but you don't get many opportunities like this, so I just did the best I could - with a point-and-shoot camera set on 'auto'. No prizes for saying where the photo was taken from.