Bridge Twelve - Ponte del Piovan o del Volto

The name of the next bridge, Ponte del Piovan, refers to the 'piovani' - vicars, priests or church officials who once lived in the area. It's located on the same canal as the previous bridge, the Rio de la Panada.

Looking around the bridge I noticed an iron ladder running from the water up to the top of the bridge. However, there was no entrance to the ladder from the top, the iron railing closed it off. Strange. Must be a remnant from an older version of the bridge. Like most things in Venice, it's probably undergone a good number of renovations in the past few hundred years, with the latest renovation never quite succeeding in obliterating the past completely.

Notice the red blanket reflecting in the canal water. As you'll see in many of the bridge photographs taken during the Challenge, Venice is a city of canal reflections, which one can see as a metaphor for a watery Venetian mask - hinting at what lies beyond.