Secrets of la Serenissima (Day 22)

On my way home today I found this little heart above a low alleyway near the Salizada Dei Pignater. Apparently if you rub it and make a wish it will come true by the end of the year. Watch this space!

I also came across this tableau depicting an ice-cream accident. What a sorry little sight.

Venice is full of interesting facts and history, most of which can be read about in guide books. But there are lots of other intriguing curiosities that I’ve found that I have no explanation for. I keep seeing these metal railing structures in the corners of bridges.

I thought they could be to stop you climbing the bridge, but it actually makes it easier. They might be for putting a bale of hay behind so that hungry horses can have a feed on their way past (in the olden days I mean), or maybe they are for growing flowers behind, or putting naughty kids in? I’m a bit baffled but will try to find out what their use is.

I’ve also noticed small metal boxes with key holes sunk into house walls, like letter boxes but with no hole for letters. I can’t see what you would need to keep just outside your house that you couldn’t keep inside it? One Christmas my mum bought some Stinking Bishop cheese and it was so smelly we had to keep it in the shed and one of us went out to the garden every time we wanted cheese and biscuits. They like good cheese here so maybe these are little cheese safe’s, to keep the house smelling nice? I also thought they could be for keeping a spare set of keys in in case you lock yourself out, but you’d still need a key to get to it. Maybe they’re some way of sharing things or exchanging goods. Person A puts something in there, Person B also has a key and comes to collect it. This system would be useful for drug dealers or secret lovers, but the box being in the wall of your house might be a bit of a giveaway. I’m getting carried away, there is probably a perfectly simple explanation.

This evening I went for a walk. Venice is so much nicer and more peaceful at night. St Marks square was even calm, it's actually quite a nice atmosphere at night. I found out that 80% of tourists only come for the day so at night it's just 20% of us left, and about 60,000 residents. I spotted an interesting take on the Venetian mask and some small dead animals on strings dressed up ready for carnival.

The evening ended on a fig and walnut ice-cream from the Gelateria nearby (I'm developing an addiction). I walked home carefully to stop it coming to the same fate as the one I spotted earlier in the day.