This is part 2 of 5 of the Grand Canal series where we share photos taken on our vaporetto rides on the canal. For Part 1, click here.
Music …
One end of the canal starts near Piazza San Marco and the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (one with the domes, see photo below).
The photo below shows one of the exits of the Grand Canal at the other end (top of the inverted “S”).
The name “Salviati” on this building may not be legible in this photo. It is a family of very successful glass makers and mosaicists who started in Murano – we will have a post about this island later. Apparently, the Salviati family constructed the building at 235 Regent Street in London which houses the Apple Store now.
Historically, Venetia, the region around Venice was under the control of the Republic of Venice from the 14th and 15th centuries. After a series of political changes, in 1866, it was incorporated into the recently formed Kingdom of Italy.
More mosaics on a building facing the canal.
These buildings, near Piazza San Marco, have been converted into fancy hotels, each having a private canal-side entrance.
Guests can be picked up from Marco Polo airport by a speed boat and dropped off directly in front of the hotel.
Or one can walk onto a gondola from the hotel lobby.
Many people go to a restaurant by boat as many restaurants have a small landing stage in front of it.
Church of San Simeone Piccolo, its front facing the canal.
Venice’s palaces, churches, and buildings are supported by thousands of wooden pilings that date back hundreds of years. As long as they’re submerged, the pilings do not rot – but when they come in contact with the air when the canal is being cleaned, deterioration could begin.
Apparently, the Grand Canal does not need much dredging because of the tides that sweep silt and sewage out to the Adriatic sea. But the narrower ones need the cleaning once every few decades otherwise the canal becomes too shallow even for gondola and a foul odor develops.
Wandering back and forth on the Grand Canal is one way to experience the “Invisible Cities” described in Italo Calvino’s fiction (1972). It would have been sublime if we read it leisurely and try map the literal to the physical. Alas, we did not have the time as we were too busy with La Biennale, click here to see what we saw at the exhibition.
The Grand Canal is indeed magical.
The Grand Canal series continues here with photos of an interesting variety of vessels on the canals of Venice.
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