Around Venice (cont. cont.)

In a true walkabout manner, let’s start this set with assorted canal views, the majority of which represent sestiero of Dorsoduro.









And a few façade close-ups.





That last one above is the standout neo-Gothic house known as La Casa dei Tre Oci, the Three-Eyed House, located on Giudecca. The three large windows as well as the ornamented smaller window above them are meant to represent the loved ones of Mario de Maria, the artist who designed the house for himself and his family in 1912.

Another eye-catching building on Giudecca, built at the end of the 19th century, is Molino Stucky, originally a mill and a pasta factory, and nowadays a five-star hotel.

Very un-Venetian in appearance, obviously.

The name Fortuny on the left of the perspective marks the textile factory and showroom of the famed Venetian brand.

Walking around Dorsoduro, you can find an occasional piece of art by the local sculptor, Gianmaria Potenza…

… or something completely unexpected and likely unidentifiable such as this.

In the background is Il Redentore on Giudecca.

Dorsoduro has its own “Museum Mile”, incorporating four different museums that are situated reasonably close to each other along the Grand Canal. Of those, Galleria dell’Accademia and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection are certainly the most accomplished, the former in classical and ceremonial art, and the latter in post-modernist and surrealist genres.



Guggenheim’s open terrace on the Grand Canal is by itself worth the price of entry even if contemporary art is not your thing.

From here, you have the best perspective of the Accademia Bridge, the southernmost Grand Canal crossing.

Seagulls continuously pose on the parapet, sometimes contemplatively, at other times alertly.


Quite possibly my most favorite perspective in all of Venice comes from the top of the Accademia span.


If you are friends with me on Facebook, you have certainly seen this perspective before – it is the background of my profile photo, taken all the way back in 2009.

Squero di San Trovaso is one of just three remaining boatyards that make and repair gondolas.

A gondola is made of nearly 300 pieces from eight different kinds of wood – a rather painstaking and long process, further complicated by customizations to account for the gondolier’s weight and height. I do not know to any degree of certainty whether a passing tourist can observe any serious part of the work from roughly the spot where I am standing to take the picture, but there was no visible activity in the yard when I came by (except for a family who arranged for a guided tour – you can set foot in the yard with advance reservations and a local guide).

You can also see another work by Gianmaria Potenza gracing the view of the boatyard.

I will only mention one church in this installment. It very well supports the previously postulated notion that many Venetian churches deceive passersby with their outward appearances. San Sebastiano is quite a bit away from the major routes. Its façade can possibly impress a connoisseur but is likely to be graded as no more than ok.

Inside, though, the church is one of the most impressively decorated in the city. Here are a few details.




We are now on Giudecca, looking across the wide expanse of water at the church of Santa Maria del Rosario.


This next perspective illustrates well the tilt of the bell tower of Santo Stefano.

One of the tallest towers in Venice, it appears in quite a number of different perspectives in my posts. In its current form, it dates to the 15th century. It points to the little-known truth that any sufficient-size town in Italy has at least one leaning tower, not just Pisa.

It should be noted that the magic of lens compression makes it seem as if the tower is pretty close to us. In fact, we are standing on Fondamenta Ponte Lungo, with the Giudecca Canal, all of Dorsoduro, the Grand Canal, and a part of sestiere San Marco between us and Santo Stefano, about a kilometer away in a direct line.

The wide perspective towards Santa Maria della Salute on the left and San Giorgio Maggiore on the right from the deck of the vaporetto crossing the Giudecca canal.

If you walk along the embankments of Giudecca eastward, the angle of Santa Maria della Salute changes, first hiding the campanile of San Marco…

… and then magically standing as if next to it (again, lens compression at work).

Yet another angle, this time with the aforementioned campanile of Santo Stefano in the background.

This perspective of Piazzetta San Marco has been seen before roughly at the same angle from a vaporetto deck. This time, we are standing on Fondamenta San Giovanni in Giudecca. Always worth taking another look in this direction.

Not stopping there: another look at the San Marco campanile, from Fondamenta Salute by the grand church of the same name.

You will have to believe me that this next picture is not artificially created. These were really the skies one afternoon.

The rain came down a couple of times too. Luckily, the heaviest such occasion caught me exiting Santa Lucia train station. I was content to remain under the front canopy for twenty minutes or so, looking at San Simeone Piccolo across the Grand Canal.

Lagoon islands are next up.