Maurizio

Zanetti

Flowering lasts only a few days. And the wisteria perched on the ancient well in the courtyard of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice needs to be photographed quickly.

Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa in Venice, in the Castello district, today the Polo Museale del Veneto and patrimony of the Italian State, was purchased and modernized by Doge Antonio Grimani around the middle of the 1500s. In the photo, the sculpture with the Rape of Ganymede, hanging from the center of the hall called La Tribuna, is a Roman replica of a late Hellenistic model and was placed back in its original position after the restoration of the palace.

Palazzo Grassi, now home to the Pinault collection museum, is one of the most famous Venetian palaces overlooking the Grand Canal. Built in the mid-1700s, it maintains, alongside elements of modernity due to the restorations, original visions such as the fresco on the splendid ceiling.

Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, at the foot of the Accademia bridge, is a splendid building built in the Gothic style in the second half of the 1400s. It has been restored and remodeled several times and has always maintained the original facade. And, inside, the splendid frescoed stairs that you see in the photo.

Verona, the ancient Scaliger Walls that surround the city. A stone's throw from the center, as the night approaches

Ponte Pietra, in the wonderful Roman bridge of Verona, at the foot of the Roman Theater. When the night comes...

Venice, at sunset from the Fondamenta Nove a look towards the island of San Michele, which is the splendid historic cemetery of Venice.

Verona, Palazzo Maffei House Museum, the internal staircase. A casket within a casket in the good living room of the city.

Here in Verona (but also in Venice) we call them "cocai". They are the small black-headed gulls, not to be confused with the large and intrusive herring gulls. In winter they invade the city and give it more beauty. Here in flight along the Adige river, in the background Castelvecchio with its bridge.

At the "Specchio di Venere", the small thermal lake of volcanic origin on the island of Pantelleria.

In the late afternoon, when the evening gradually approaches, along the Adige river with the abbey of San Zeno in the background. In beautiful Verona.

The splendid colors of autumn with Castelvecchio as a backdrop. In beautiful Verona.

From the 16th century, what used to be the production space for dyeing wool became the garden of the villa that the Giusti family had built in the Veronetta district of Verona. Always cared for, it has maintained its original charm. In the photo, the entrance door seen from the courtyard of the Palazzo.

The "Provianda di Santa Marta", Verona, Veronetta district, is an Austrian barracks built between 1863 and 1865. More than a real barracks, it was a gigantic oven that produced bread and biscuits for the numerous Austrian garrison which at the time occupied Verona with 100,000 soldiers. After a long and beautiful restoration, today it houses some departments of the University of Verona.

A stone's throw from the center of Verona, in the former convent of San Francesco al Corso, in addition to the splendid "Cavalcaselle" Fresco Museum, there is a crypt with an uncovered sarcophagus in red Verona marble which according to tradition housed the mortal remains of the young Juliet Capulet. In reality it is all a staging, the sarcophagus is an old trough and certainly not the tomb of the Shakespearean heroine. But it doesn't matter: the place is well organized and entering it is exciting.

The Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Misericordia was a school (brotherhood) of Battuti di Venezia active from 1308 to 1806. After having also been the seat of sports clubs and even a sports hall, it has rediscovered its wonderful function as a container, often for related exhibitions at the Venice Biennale.

The establishment of the provianda di Santa Marta or more simply provianda di Santa Marta is an Austrian barracks built between 1863 and 1865, when Verona was under Austrian rule. Originally it was intended for the production of bread and biscuits, for the storage and administration of other subsistence items, but starting from 2015, after the restorations, it houses the economics departments of the University of Verona.

Casa Museo Palazzo Maffei, Verona, Piazza delle Erbe, is a splendid art collection that is the result of over fifty years of collecting passion of the entrepreneur Luigi Carlon. For some time now the splendid terrace has also been visited, with its statues and a priceless view of Piazza delle Erbe.

Piazza San Marco, Venice. The Procuratie Vecchie, built for the first time in the 12th century and then rebuilt also apparently with the contribution of the architect Jacopo Sansovino in 1538, were for years the headquarters of the Assicurazioni Generali offices. In 2017 the restoration works began under the direction of the star architect David Chipperfield, works completed in April 2022. Since then, after 500 years, they are finally open to the public. On the third floor is the headquarters of the Generali The Human Safety Net ONLUS Foundation. And that's where I took the photo, an unprecedented point of view on Piazza San Marco and the Florian café.

The deconsecrated Church of Santa Chiara in Murano, restored and reopened to the public in 2016, is undoubtedly worth visiting. For the splendid restoration, for the furnishings, the glass and the demonstrations of glass art.