Stemme, Ponte Widman

23 June 2020

The above trio of stemme (coats of arms), which I think are the most appealing and intriguing of the many to be seen on the bridges of Venice, can only be seen as you pass beneath them in a small boat in the Rio di Ca' Widman, heading in the direction of the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli.

They are on the Ponte Widmann, if I remember correctly (not the Ponte Pasqualigo, just a stone's throw away along the rio), but are situated on the side of the bridge not visible from the much-traveled pedestrian routes leading from Campiello Widmann gìa Biri to either Campo Santa Maria Nova or, via Calle Giacinto Gallina, to the church of SS Giovanni e Paolo. 

On foot, one might be able to capture an image of them with a fully-extended selfie-stick held down in the direction of the water below--though doing so would risk the loss of your smart phone, if it slipped from its bracket and dropped into the rio. But I'm not sure it's worth that risk, as for every detail of Venice that's impossible to see there are at least 100 more hidden in plain sight, obscured by their sheer overwhelming abundance.