Bridge Sixty-Three - Ponte dei Tre Ponti

And here's a spaghetti of bridges: The Ponte dei Tre Ponti, or Bridge of Three Bridges. In fact, it used to be three bridges before a new canal, the Rio Novo, was dug during the nineteen-thirties which pushed the number of bridges in this 'bridge highway interchange' up to five. It's all a little confusing, all these bridges over what is essentially two canals, crossing each other at right angles.



We walked around the five bridges for more than a few minutes, crossing this one then that, scratching our heads as to exactly how many bridges this mish-mash should count for. Strictly speaking there are five bridges, but then they lead onto one another without a proper landing. I tried all sorts of angles but nowhere can one get a clear view of all of them, although I did manage a shot that shows at least a little bit of all of them, if you look carefully. In the end we decided that it'll count as one bridge, because none of the five bridges has its own name - Ponte dei Tre Ponte is the name shared by all of them. Adeline dutifully counted the steps of all the bridges, and reported that collectively they have 93 steps shared between them.

Bridge Sixty-Two - Ponte de Santa Maria Maggior

The Ponte de Santa Maria Maggior was one of the more picturesque bridges we'd seen so far, complete with vegetation growing from cracks in its sides, stone uprights with an iron railing and lower parts coloured green by algae flourishing in the pea-green canal water. It was late afternoon now and the over-bright sunshine of midday had softened just enough to highlight the colours and curves of the bridge and project a perfect reflection in the canal. It was the quintessential, visually delightful Venice.

Bridge Sixty and Sixty-One - Ponte Rosso and Ponte Storto

On to Ponte Rosso - the red bridge. Apart from the reddish building at the one edge of the bridge we didn't see anything of that colour on the bridge itself, although most descriptions of it say otherwise. Perhaps that's how it looked in a previous incarnation.

Ponte Rosso

After crossing the Ponte Rosso - there didn't seemed to be much of particular interest in the area - we turned left and walked along the Fondamenta dei Cereri, skipping three bridges before stopping at the next one on our route; another one of those slanted ones and therefore, another Ponte Storto.

Brand new - Ponte Storto.

Only this one was closed for repairs, the first one we've encountered on the route so far! The working area was enclosed with orange mesh and a sign saying it was shut until December 2012. Well, it was April 2013 now and it was still closed, so I guess renovation work was going a little slower than expected. Nevertheless the new bridge, a cute wooden one that was being built onto the existing foundation looked quite pretty and close to being completed. Perhaps next time we visit, we'd be able to use it. Hopefully.

Because the Ponte Storto was closed we couldn't walk across the Ponte de la Madonna but just pass it by on the way to the next bridge, the Ponte de Santa Maria Maggior. The former is a solid-looking wooden bridge which leads to a neighbourhood adjoining the harbour and the goods rail station, and therefore it was quite busy compared to the other bridges in the vicinity.

Ponte de la Madonna, which we skipped.