Maurizio

Zanetti

Venice is always a wonder and always has something new to show us. For example Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, reopened to the public in 2019 thanks to the Golden Tree Foundation. And from his living room on the ground floor a window on the Grand Canal.

Venice is all a wonder. Its palaces, its churches, the masterpieces of painting and sculpture they contain. But Venice is also a marvel when it offers small jewels not related to Doges and artists. The "Blue Door" is one of them. Not far from Campo Santa Maria Formosa and the busiest tourist itineraries, it is a corner that is worth looking for and finding.

The Giudecca Island is the best place from which to frame the most famous and well-known Venice. On the Giudecca there is a splendid palace, the "Casa dei Tre Oci", a magical container for photographic exhibitions. From the windows of the "Casa dei Tre Oci" the Punta della Dogana, the bell tower of San Marco and Palazzo Ducale are just waiting to be photographed with a new frame.

Verona. When the Adige river is full, the classic photo of Ponte Pietra takes on a discreet drama. Especially in the sunset light...

A typical photo that would be very difficult to have taken without a smartphone: open countryside, a mountain bike ride, a flock of sheep grazing, a family of curious goats that come to meet you. All this just a few kilometers from the center of Verona. Difficult if not impossible to find yourself in such a situation having reflex cameras and lenses with you ...

With a lot of curiosity and patience and a little luck, the splendid and well-known Venice can still surprise you with small priceless glimpses. Like the "Fondamenta de le Grue".

In the heart of the Po Delta, in the Ca Mello area, small marvelous cultivation of lavender. The photo can return the color, not the wonder of discovery and least of all the perfume.

Chioggia, known and admired as "the little Venice", reserves continuous surprises among its streets and canals. Even the parapet between the tables of a "bacaro" and the canal gives joy with its rainbow of colors.

In the background, the walls of the ancient Lazzaretto of Verona, designed and built starting from 1549 by the great architect Michele Sanmicheli. In the foreground a splendid field of poppies.

The butterfly is a Zygaena, the flower is an IRIS. No stylist will ever be able to reach with his compositions the wonderful color combinations that nature offers us every day. Just look around. And maybe have a smartphone in your hands...

They are the most photographed pair (of ducks) in the city. They live peacefully under the ancient Ponte Pietra. They allow themselves to tourists who hastily pass by, take a picture, leave. They are in no hurry: that bridge is always their home. The photo was taken with iPhone 12 Pro.

There are corners of nature, just a few minutes' walk from the heart of Verona, which when spring bursts become even more beautiful than they already are. Between iris and olive trees, the photo was taken with iPhone 12 Pro.

In August 2020 in Verona, a monstrous storm knocked down hundreds of secular trees as if they were ebon threads. On what remains of one of these someone has engraved a heart. For once it is not the action of the usual hooligan but an act of love. And the hope is that what remains of the tree won't be cut down. The photo was taken with iPhone 12 Pro.

The splendid Piazza delle Erbe, in the heart of Verona, at sunset. Desolately empty due to restrictions to fight Covid-19. Better times will come ...

With the restrictions dictated by Covid-19 it is impossible for now to travel. I console myself with walks around the house. And always having the iPhone at hand, I enjoy taking portraits of my neighbors' cats. Great models ...

The ancient walls of the Roman Theater wet from the rain. In the background "the beautiful Verona" with its Adige river and the church of Sant'Anastasia

The Crests of Monte Grolla, the Lessinia plateau, just over half an hour's drive from Verona. What is the summer is a prairie populated by grazing cows these days is beautifully covered by almost a meter of snow ...

Sacred and profane in Venice, Castello district, a few hundred meters from the Arsenale. An ancient capital and the old communist section coexist to the delight of the few tourists who pass through these streets of the Venice of the Venetians.

The ancient defense walls surround Verona. Stratifications that start from the Roman era, cross that off the Scaligera lordship, arrive at the Austrian occupation. A few hundred meters from the crowded streets of the center, a splendid path crosses the Parco delle Mura.

Christmas in Venice means being able to find a shared Christmas tree in a small square in the Castello district, far from the tourist flow. The photo dates back to the end of December 2018. A memory that the current pandemic makes even clearer. A wish that everything can be as before as soon as possible.