Gondola Twins

Gondola Twins, Venice

Gondola Twins

Seventeen months after my daughter was born I had to bring her to Italy. It was to be a whirl-wind tour to share her with my Italian family. My Uncles home in Venice is not the place for a young child. So taking walks to the gardens and parks was a twice-daily event. This one particular day we went to Piazza S. Marco and walked to the quay of the Grand Canal. On a previous visit I discovered a small garden just off the Piazza. It’s called Giardini ex Reali and allowed my daughter to run free and get some fresh air.

Along the opposite side from the entry to these gardens were the walls of Venice’s administrative buildings bordered by a canal. In this canal there were these two gondolas. Nothing out of the ordinary but just lit in a way that caught my eye – a simple graphic of these Venetian icons.

These are the bows of the gondolas called Il Ferro. The seven points represent the seven sestieri of Venice. The basic curved shape represents the curve of the grand canal through the city, the arch formed by the top piece represents the Rialto Bridge and the three smaller filigreed inter-points represent the outer islands in the lagoon – Torcello, Murano and Burano.