Venice's famous La Fenice theatre, inaugurated in 1792, is on the way to the next bridge, the Ponte delle Veste. I tried to secure tickets for us months ago but no luck - it was all booked out. And that's not even for a show featuring any well-known artists. While the music would have been a good bonus, I wanted to experience what it felt like to sit in one of those fancy boxes on the side, act like royalty, and look down on the theatre-goers downstairs watching us while trying to figure out what aristocracy we're from. So now all we could do was admire the legendary theatre's classy facade that I thought was surprisingly understated; not too opulent and sumptuous, but just the right mix of straight lines and decoration.
The Ponte delle Veste is a stone bridge with smoothly worn iron railings that have familiar cast iron cones as decoration mounted on it. It's named after a men's clothing shop that existed in the area in the olden days. Above it is one of many similar memorials throughout the city, this one commemorating war heroes. It's dedicated to Amerigo Perini, who (loosely translating the wording) 'fell at this spot on 26 November 1944 in the fight against Fascism during the Second World War'. Since it was close to the day of remembrance in Italy, the plaque was decorated with a laurel wreath and a ribbon with the colours of the Italian flag. Venice's time as a Nazi-occupied city is an oft-neglected section in most tourist guides, I believe.
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