Bareteri Bridge

The Bareteri Bridge may not be the most outstanding in size and design on Venice’s list of bridges, but there’s something special about it that attracts tourists.

If you walk through the old Venetian streets, do not be lazy to find this small stone bridge that connects Merceria San Zulian and Merceria del Capitello streets. The name of the bridge is not particularly poetic - in translation it means the Bridge of Hatters, since masters of the manufacture of hats have long worked in this area.

Just one span, ten stone balustrades in the balustrade on each side – it seems, nothing special. But if you linger in the middle of the bridge, look around and you will see the very textbook Venice that we imagine it. A narrow canal separates one row of houses from another. I think reach out and you'll reach the opposite balcony. On the windows - traditional shutters, on the window sills - bright geraniums. Everything here remains as it was in the Middle Ages. And the bridge itself looks like a fabulous, come their era of noisy Venetian carnivals.

By the way, from the bridge you can see a secret passage to the former house of the all-powerful prosecutor of Venice Marco Venier (now the French Cultural Center). It is said that the frivolous wife of the prosecutor took her young lovers to this house during carnivals. Under the bridge, Bareteri always stood at the ready gondola, ready to save another gentleman from the wrath of her deceived husband.