Vinyl banners celebrating art are routinely hung from Venice's Academia bridge. Like its historic masked balls, Venice, Italy is often not as it appears.
Artificial appearances are part of the city's fabric.
While Venice's dignified facades include the austere Palladian churches whose exteriors offer little clue to the interior excess of Renaissance church architecture, the city's fading facades are characterized by the many palaces lining its canals. Don't be deceived by a structure's withered appearance, however, because typically, a sumptuous interior lies behind a peeling stonework. Venice is inseparable from its unreality. A small, local population and the absence of cars and roads indicate that, other than a few functional and directional signs, most Venice signage serves to guide and manage the city's tourists. From the well-known Rialto bridge that spans not only the Grand Canal but centuries of mercantilism, banners celebrating art are hung.