I was walking around Venice one day with my camera looking to photograph different colored walls to use as backgrounds for a website when I quickly discovered what I really should have already known: the owners of buildings in this city have a very limited number of colors to choose from when it comes to painting their property. Like other Italian "destinations", and like certain repressive American neighborhoods I know of that almost no one would go out of their way to visit, one's color choices are tightly controlled not merely by community sentiment but by local ordinance.
From my unofficial and far-from-systematic observation, it seems the number of color choices allowed in Venice can pretty much be counted on one hand.
Perhaps this is the main reason why my first sight of Campiello Querini Stampalia, approached as in the photo above, always strikes me as so pleasing: that worn green of the one building--set off by the red tiles and the dull yellow and white details--seems to be the least popular color choice among landlords. At this moment I can think of one other example of it: a large building on the Zattere beside L'Accademia di Belle Arti, adorned with (if I remember correctly) a relief of Saint George and the Dragon--and defaced by a lot of graffiti.
Too much of this color around town probably wouldn't be a good idea--and would probably leave me in an almost perpetual state of sugar craving, as it vaguely reminds me of the color of the cassate sweets in Sicily. But it seems to be just what's needed in Campiello Querini Stampalia.
Is anyone else finding Google maps poor for Venice? I wanted to check exactly where this was but wasn't able to. We're going to Venice in 4 weeks and I wanted to see the colours for myself. Thanks Signor for the post.
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Andrew, and I, too, find Google maps for Venice often less than helpful--or accurate. But I've marked the actual green building & (campiello) on a Google map which I hope the below link will lead you to (it's the 1st time I've tried this):
ReplyDeletehttps://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=210190536727061459461.0004cc46016c44f6dc39d&msa=0
It's basically just behind the church of Santa Maria Formosa, as I hope the link will show. If it works, and you zoom in enough on the satellite photo, you can even see the facade of the house itself & its equally picturesque neighbor.
Try this site http://maps.veniceconnected.it/en
ReplyDeleteIt is a walk in Venice.
Wow, Anna S, the places one can go with the link you provided are amazing and somehow even a little scary--in the way that you can "walk" from, say, Campo San Barnaba to Campo Sanata Margherita without even being in Venice. I remember when Marsilio published their big Atlas of Venice in the mid-90s with a complete aerial map of every inch of the city, it seemed so advanced....
DeleteI already had the veniceconnected site on my favourites list. Thanks for reminding me Anna - I found the Campiello and now know where it is. Couldn't get your link to work Signor.
ReplyDeleteMy ace-computer-expert daughter is coming today. She'll tell me what I did wrong!
She sorted me out!
DeleteI think Bert's link below may be even more helpful. I always forget about ombra.net, but obviously I shouldn't.
DeleteThe best maps/street index/civic number index/bridges and canals index is venicExplorer.net, also known as ombra.net. One slight problem is that it will only find one calle/campiello/sotoportego of a given name in each sestiere. Since there are often several streets or squares with the same name in each sestiere, you need to look at the civic numbers associated with the hit. If there are jumps in the numbers, it indicates that there is another place with the same name. There are two Campiello Remer in Cannaregio, for instance.
ReplyDeleteThe link worked for me, Siggie. The Google map is a joke, though: Salita San Lio, Borgolocco, Magazzen, I spotted without even trying.
ReplyDeleteIt is also useless with civic numbers.
Ombra.net is not perfect, but it is 100 times better than Google Maps.
Thanks for the reminder of Ombra.net, Bert, as to say Google Maps is hit-or-miss when it comes to Venice may be giving it a bit more credit that it deserves; it's more like hit-and-not-even-in-the-ballpark. I recently used it to look up an address of a friend and it showed it as being right near Libreria Aqua Alta when in fact it was right behind the Naval Museum. I'll turn to ombra.net in the future.
DeleteMe too. It's ombra.net for me. Thanks Bert - and you too Siggie for allowing this purloining of your blog.
DeleteDon't they say something like "theft is a form of flattery?" Well, "purloining" sounds even more flattering.
Delete