Venice: The Meeting of East and West - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 88

Figure 6.5. Rialto Bridge
Visitors wishing to compare architectural styles among the more than one hundred
palaces might wish to seek out the Byzantine Fondaco dei Turchi, the Gothic Palazzo Ari-
an, the Renaissance Palazzo, the Ca' d'Oro, and the Baroque Palazzo Treves. And to travel
the canals through the camera's eye , one should view Summertime (1955) with Catherine
Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi (nostalgic romance) and Don't Look Now (1973) with Julie
Christie and Donald Sutherland (an occult thriller). A more contemporary film is The Tour-
ist (2010), starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF PALACES
Although they seem to float on water, palaces were built on a foundation of pilings sunk
into the water. Round oak pillars soaked in brackish water were driven into the canal bed
at low tide level. Where necessary, a caisson surrounded one or more pilings, water was
hauled out in buckets, and when the pilings were leveled, they were sealed with a packing
of clay. Afterward, a foundation of planking was laid on top of the pilings to support a base