While giant cruise ships have been banned from Venice’s canals, giant violins apparently have not.
‘Noah’s Violin,’ a 39-foot boat shaped like a violin took a spin down the Grand Canal last week, accompanied by a host of more traditional watercraft. Aboard the violin, a string quartet played Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”
The violin boat was the brainchild of a Venetian artist, Livio De Marchi, who came up with it during the lockdown year as a way to support and give visibility to the city’s artists. Its voyage ended at the La Salute church, built in the 17th century as an offering to the Virgin Mary for deliverance from a plague that swept the city then.
It’s not De Marchi’s first unusual boat, by the way: he’s also built a giant shoe and an origami hat.
