ITALY - Best of Europe 2014 - page 1065

Just 100 yards ahead on the left, Venice's Casinò is housed in the palace where German
composer Richard (The Ring) Wagner died in 1883. See his distinct, strong-jawed profile in
the white plaque on the brick wall. In the 1700s, Venice was Europe's Vegas, with casinos
and prostitutes everywhere. Casinò s (“little houses” in Venetian dialect) have long provided
Italians with a handy escape from daily life. Today they're run by the state to keep Mafia
influence at bay. Notice the fancy front porch, rolling out the red carpet for high rollers ar-
riving by taxi or hotel boat.
San Stae: The San Stae Church sports a delightful Baroque facade. Opposite the San
Stae stop is a little canal opening—on the second building to the right of that opening, look
for the peeling plaster that once made up frescoes (you can barely distinguish the scant re-
mains of little angels on the lower floors). Imagine the facades of the Grand Canal at their
finest. Most of them would have been covered in frescoes by the best artists of the day. As
colorful as the city is today, it's still only a faded, sepia-toned remnant of a long-gone era, a
time of lavishly decorated, brilliantly colored palaces.
Just ahead, jutting out a bit on the right, is the ornate white facade of Ca' Pesaro (which
houses the International Gallery of Modern Art—see here ) . “Ca'” is short for casa (house).
Because only the house of the doge (Venetian ruler) could be called a palace (palazzo), all
other Venetian palaces are technically “Ca'.”
In this city of masks, notice how the rich marble facades along the Grand Canal mask
what are generally just simple, no-nonsense brick buildings. Most merchants enjoyed show-
ingoff.However,beingsmartbusinessmen,theyonlydecoratedthesideofthebuildingsthat
would be seen and appreciated. But look back as you pass Ca' Pesaro. It's the only building
you'llseewithafinesidefacade.Ahead,ontheleft,withitsglorioustriple-deckermedieval
arcade (just before the next stop) is Ca' d'Oro.
Ca'd'Oro: Thelacy Ca'd'Oro (HouseofGold)isthebestexampleofVenetianGothic
architectureonthecanal.Itsthreestoriesofferdifferentvariationsonbalconydesign,topped
with a spiny white roofline. Venetian Gothic mixes traditional Gothic (pointed arches and
round medallions stamped with a four-leaf clover) with Byzantine styles (tall, narrow arches
atop thin columns), filled in with Islamic frills. Like all the palaces, this was originally
painted and gilded to make it even more glorious than it is now. Today the Ca' d'Oro is an
art gallery (described on here ) .
LookattheVenetian choruslineofpalaces infrontoftheboat.Ontherightisthearcade
of the covered fish market, with the open-air produce market just beyond. It bustles in
the morning but is quiet the rest of the day. This is a great scene to wander through—even
thoughEuropeanUnionhygienestandardshavemadeitcleanerbutlesscolorfulthanitonce
was.
Find the traghetto gondola ferrying shoppers—standing like Washington crossing the
Delaware—back and forth. There are seven traghetto crossings along the Grand Canal, each