What we saw
In Venice, every walk involves a few bridges. Between exhibitions, we stopped to look at the houses, the canals and the people.
There are no cars in the old city. You notice it straight away: footsteps, water lapping against a boat, a conversation at an open window. Between buildings that stand so close together, you find yourself wanting to whisper. Then an Italian voice rises above the quiet, or the bells begin to strike the hour.
We spent a lot of time looking at the houses. The exposed brick, the fallen plaster, the doors opening straight onto a canal. The worn thresholds and the walls down at water level make you wonder how long those houses have stood there.
On foot, at our own pace.
We left time for the squares, for watching people and for sitting down to a meal. Some of Venice is easier to see when you have nowhere else you need to be. Boats pass, someone delivers goods, someone else stops for a chat.
On the Grand Canal, the palaces are best seen from the water. Later, from the Accademia Bridge, we could see Santa Maria della Salute in the blue light of evening.
A sentence we came across on our walk.
On Riva dei Sette Martiri, a sign announced: “This exhibition is not for you!” It marked the entrance to D is for Duchamp the Deep Dyed Deceiver at the Arsenale Institute. It stopped us in our tracks, so we took a photograph.
