Marco Polo's House

After traveling around Asia for 24 years, Marco Polo returned to Venice in 1295. He and his family lived in a relatively unassuming residence – for Venice – near what is now the Corte Seconda del Milion. The house is not open to the public and is only acknowledged by the small marble sign shown above. You could walk right by it. [NOTE: The book, "The Travels of Marco Polo", is called Il Milione (The Million) in Italian, hence the Corte Seconda del Milion]. 

Venetian Still Life

I took a lot of pictures of gondolas and canals and skinny back streets, but this was the image that struck me as the most representative still life of Venice. Beautiful old walls, elegant decay, and rising water levels. And fewer and fewer people actually live in Venice, anymore. I never saw a place to buy groceries, a hardware store, or a laundromat. I worry about the impact of climate change here.

Nothing Behind Your Masks

Graffiti noted on a wall along one of the backstreets in the historical center of Venice. Maybe referring to the practice of wearing masks during the Carnival of Venice to hide the identity of the person? Or maybe not. I thought it a wonderful desktop, and have uploaded a high-resoution copy of the image here.  

Veneziastampa

Took a while to find it (thx, Elysa), but had a wonderful visit with Michele (shown above) at Veneziastampa. He and his partner Luca have been operating a print shop in the historical center of Venice for over 25 years. He has a gorgeous and meticulously maintained 1950 Original Heidelberg Offset oder Letterset press. His shop is in an old building–Venice old–a few steps from Rialto, and he tells a great story of how they had to knock out the front wall to move the press in. I bought some exquisite book plates and a few cards and had a hard time leaving. Truly a magical place.