VENICE 2

Here is my second post on photos of Venice. I had difficulty whittling it down to 30+ photos. I normally don’t like to show more than 20 photos in one post. I’ve tried not to use too many similar looking images, but I’m not sure if I succeeded in that endeavour. There are still several more I may show in one more post, although I don’t have too much more to say about them I just mainly want to show the images.

The Grand Canal

–

–

–

Just some detail of the beautiful architecture

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Many of the buildings bear some little bit of surprising detail, like the image above. Religious images are common, but not all are religious

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Before my trip I had read that there are no seats in Venice. They like people to keep moving and not sitting down eating and probably feeding the pigeons etc. That must be very hard on some people I thought. Of course you can go into expensive restaurants and sit there. I was then pleasantly surprised to find that in these squares or Campos that aren’t in the most crowded areas there are seats and you can eat your sandwich and drink your flask of coffee without getting arrested!

–

–

I really must comment on the bridges. Most, if not all of Venice bridges have steps and I saw only one that had a ramp along one side.  I saw a lot of parents with buggies (push chairs, go-karts), having to drag them up the steps on these bridges. Tourists have heavy suitcases with wheels and there are people – tourists and locals alike, who may not be as mobile as they would like to be, with dodgy aging knees etc. It’s tough on elderly people who have been walking around sightseeing all day. Also local people would often be moving goods around with those stair climbing trolleys. How much easier it would be for everyone if all the bridges were fitted with ramps, like the one I did see.  Surely – with all that tourist money they could manage that?

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

I took a lot of these photos looking down these narrow streets. Sometimes they give an interesting composition.

–

–

–

–

–

So – until next time! Thanks so much for your visit. Please come back again. My Photos of Venice are available to view or purchase from my website: https://www.helene-brennan.com/c869-italy

VENICE

–

I feel I am probably one of the last people I know to visit Venice. I read many years ago that Venice was in a sad state of decay, and I knew I would have to get there before it disappeared. Thankfully, its demise is not as rapid as I thought from reading that item. I’m happy to say that I finally did go there for a few days recently.

My intention here was to capture this amazing place with my camera, trying to be just as sympathetic to the decay and damp, as to the splendour and elegance of the buildings and architecture – to capture it just as it is.

As everybody knows Venice is a really unique place and is built on compacted silt and wood, around a system of sea canals, with boats being the only transport around the city . I’m so impressed that these buildings have stood for hundreds of years.

The first people settled on this place around the 6th century AD. Their buildings were made of wood and reeds. Wooden poles were driven deep into the silt and sand to the hard clay deep below, and wooden platforms were created to take the weight of buildings on top. A few hundred years later they started to construct heavy stone buildings. More timber poles (piles) were driven deep down to take the heavy weight. The timber poles do not rot, but with immersion in salt water and no exposure to oxygen, they are preserved and even harden like stone. Stone was laid on top of the timber to create the foundation for the heavy buildings.

The Grand Canal

I have noticed that many buildings appear to be leaning. Indeed it is a fact that Venice is sinking slowly, and it appears that some buildings sink more on one side. The vertical lines of the buildings are not parallel, and this presents a bit of a challenge for the photographer.

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Gondola workshops.

I understand that a new gondola can cost at least €40,000 +

–

–

–

–

–

–

The Bridge of Sighs

–

I was totally impressed with this amazing building – such splendour, such opulence, such a creation and – such extravagance!.

I loved the beautiful marble tiles on the walls, each with a different colour and pattern. The detail over the whole building is mind boggling.

I must be the only visitor to St Mark’s Basilica who didn’t get an image of at least most of the building. I also didn’t go inside. I was intending to get a guided tour that passes the queue, but it just didn’t happen this time – a good reason to go back again….

However, at home I remembered I had some ancient photos, some of them are photos of Venice. A couple of them bear the name of the photographer P. Salviati. Here is a hand tinted old photo of St. Mark’s, I guess it was also taken by Salviati, but I don’t know for sure because this one had no name. My research tells me that Paolo Salviati lived from 1818 – 1894

Below is Doge’s Palace, the Palazzo Ducale. There was a lot of scaffolding on it so I’m just showing this little bit I captured without scaffolding.

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Rising damp usually affects the lower meter or so of a building, but many Venetian buildings appear to have damp walls rising to two or more meters. I would like to know about the type of damp courses they might have used – if any. But the problem here is that not only is there a rising sea level, but Venice floods about 100 times in winter, with rising and falling tides being affected by weather and climate change. The highest flood was, I think, a couple of years ago and that reached nearly 2 meters. Any damp course in a building would have been breached and the walls impregnated with salt. My lay-person’s head thinks that this salt in the fabric of a building would continue to attract moisture from the atmosphere and rainwater too. Most of the buildings are in a significant state of decay, with remedial work ongoing.

–

A floating market.

–

–

–

–

–

I enjoyed capturing the images looking down the very narrow streets, some of them less than a metre wide.

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

The Rialto Bridge

This is the most famous bridge in Venice, also the most crowded. It was difficult to get a shot near the bridge. Also, on the bridge it was almost impossible to get an unobstructed view down the Grand Canal, with so many people taking their selfies etc. This was April, I dread to think what it’s like mid-summer.

I have so many more photos I will have to show them in another one or two posts. Thank you for your visit, I hope you have enjoyed my photos and that you will come back for the next posts.

My Venice photos are available from my website: https://www.helene-brennan.com/c869-italy