These photos are from a walkabout in Venice during March, 2016. We were with the Antonelli family from Udine and were guided by Erika Antonelli who lives and works in Venice. This local guidance from a dear friend is one reason that many photos are from small side streets in Venice, from the water canal and its commuter taxi, and from the train/auto terminal as you exit the city. We saw the major sights in the central plazas of the city, but it was a chilly day with construction going on and platforms everywhere to be erected if the water was high. Even the gondolas were more available and interesting because they were short of passengers and busied themselves with small chores, maintenance of the boats, or were simply happy to have us around. It was exactly the way I would like to see such a place — with a friend to guide us, a shortage of tourists due to the season, and plenty of time for lunch and a stroll.
On our way to a restaurant where Erika Antonelli works, we found this produce store, floating in the canal.
In the smaller streets we spent time in the shops — well, some did, and except for the jewelry artisan (see photo below) stayed on the street to photograph.
The artisanal mask shops were especially fascinating (though some in our party liked the jewelry crafts better).
The familiar masks below have many apocryphal origins — my favorite is that they were worn in during the plague by people who had to handle the sick, dying and the dead.
Some who saw the British production of “Sleep No More” would have put on masks like these to wander among the artists during the play.
Erika seemed to know this jewelry artisan who allowed me to photograph her at work inside her shop. The only time I entered a jewelry store.
The gondoleer was less busy than during the tourist season and was here cleaning up his boat and the steps of his dock. It was curiously familiar to see the boatsmen as working people doing normal tasks, rather than just bearing up under an onslaught of tourist with little cameras, cell phones, and selfie sticks.
Another street/canal with boats at rest. I have been in Venice before, but never during such beautiful, lonely, and reflective time.
This is Erika’s Antonelli’s finger pointing out the court on the left and the jail on the right. The walkway in the background shortens the time between sentencing and being herded off to the wet dungeons in the basement or the sun-baked cells above.
The photo below is taken from a water taxi. Unlike the gondolas, which are picturesque and inefficient, the commuter taxis are power boats that dock periodically at quayside stops that are like subway stops in a landlocked city. The taxi takes you to the outer edge of the city where you can catch a train or pick up your car for the trip by land.
As our water taxi slowed to wend its way under the Rialto Bridge, this gondoleer passed us and the brightly-it dockside. Photographers will notice that he was kind enough to come by in HDR (the high-definition photographic technique used to bring out dark areas of a photo or film and sometimes produce surrealistic images).
Below is one view of the terminal complex as you leave the city for land connections. The terminal and parking structure is in the background, the commuter trains in the lower section of the photo.
We arrived by car and train and left by water taxi and car. The commute takes some patience, as life on the water normally does.
Venice has its own Calatrava-designed bridge leading out of the city. It is a pedestrian bridge, elegant but still impassible for those with mobility limitations. It is slippery in the wet weather and altogether impractical, though elegant. Milwaukeeans may remember that Calatrava’s bridge from downtown to the Milwaukee Art Museum also had to be redesigned for safety and access.
