S. Worthen | Weblog

I know. It doesn't look like much. A grotty window, a couple of tarped boats, a low, low bridge over a canal. This is the canal which runs under the church of S. Stefano, in a series of low-slung buildings. Back before Venice infilled all those Rii Terà, there were more such low canals which ran under and into buildings. (Into, that is, for ease of the delivery of passengers and goods.)

Today, in a gap between conference sessions, printperson took me to see it. It's in a neglected ex-monastery, a series of leafy, slightly overgrown, neglected courtyards, a more rural Venice. The complex is vaguely occupied by assorted tax offices, but none of that gets in the way of seeing the remains of the courtyards and their connecting passages. One of those connecting passageways runs over the canal, with windows - the other as dirty as this one - on either side through which the water can be glimpsed.

At night, I returned in the sandolo with geesepalace rowing. The water was smooth, plasticly reflective in the darkness. The bridging corridors and chambers of the church and monastery come in four-or-so brick and stone interludes. Tonight, I passed underneath the shadows of a church and then looked up after to admire the crisply clear stars.