Walking on water!

If you are out strolling in Venice, and happen to notice that the “street” you are walking on is called Rio Tera Something, then what you are promenading upon used to be a water filled canal. Quite a number of canals suffered this fate, as pedestrian traffic increased, and bridges were built to connect the many islands that make up Venice. It takes only a little imagination to remove all but the Rialto Bridge, and rip out all the materials that fill these canals, to think what it would have been like a few centuries ago.

Anyhow, someone, probably Fausto of the Alloggi Barbaria blog, pointed out that as you walk along a Rio Tera, you may see remains of what were cross canals, before the urban developers got to work. They are arches which mark an ancient canal pathway. They look quite low, so now you have to imagine how much deeper you’d have to look, to find the water level of the old canal/cross-canal.

Enough of the tough stuff, here are some pictures that show old cross canals on a particular Rio Tera in Venice. I leave it to the location experts, to tell you where I was.

 

The other half of the previous arch

Really low, isn't it?

I hope the ugly red pipe is only temporary