In 1722 Vivaldi moved to a house at the Fondamente del Doge, and in 1730 he relocated to the spacious building in Calle San Antonio on the Canal Grande. The Vivaldi family lived in the house next to the church. The material is exquisite, reminiscent of living things in nature: a calyx, a fruit pod, the glistening eyes of certain exotic animals, and most of all the source of our existence: blood. It is located in the side chapel on the left. The baptismal font dates back to the fifteenth century, it is an octagonal basin made of red marble from Verona, bearing the crest of the Gritti family. Don Giovanni Favaretto, the friendly priest, will be happy to show you the entry in the registry, a volume kept in the sacristy. This is the church where you are very close to Antonio Vivaldi, this is where you can see the baptismal font with the red shell shapes where the baby was christened. The monochromatic painting, dating back to the early Renaissance, is located above the high altar. The Baptism of Christ by Cima da Conegliano radiates the mild light of the early morning. San Giovanni Battista in Bragora is a three-aisled basilica with a ceiling construction of exposed beams. And Africans who sell bags – at dusk they sit down in a circle to get some rest in the square.

Its picturesque character is owed to many little things: the small shop which opens in the early morning, the osteria with its tables in the shade, the bench underneath the fragrant mulberry tree where locals chat in Venetian dialect, children playing on the Campo, within earshot of their mother at the kitchen window. Life in a network of micro-spaces has been preserved here, the area between the Arsenale and Riva degli Schiavoni has remained true to itself, close to the people, very much alive. A fluffy magenta-coloured cloud passes across the sky. Shopwindows display pieces of glass, red, green or sky-blue. It is almost a square in the geometrical sense, with many passageways, narrow lanes leading to it: Calle del Dose, Calle della Pietà, Calle Terrazzera, Calle della Morte, Salizida del Pigirater, Calle in Crossera. The Campo Bandiera e Moro, the marketplace of the quarter, is located off the lagoon, one block of buildings away. Noisy groups of sailors roamed the streets. Stonemasons, carpenters and oarmakers set up shop amidst the salt stores, the stone and coal depots.

Schiavoni, people from abroad, Dalmatian seafarers gave this Venetian quarter its looks and name. The area located around Riva degli Schiavoni took shape in the Middle Ages. And has anyone observed that the seat in such a boat, that armchair lacquered coffin-black with its dull black upholstery, is the softest, most soothing, most voluptuous seat in the world?” 1

“Who has not battled a fleeting shudder, a secret dread and anxiety upon boarding a Venetian gondola for the first time or after a prolonged absence? That strange conveyance, coming down to us unaltered from the days of the ballads and so distinctively black, black as only coffins can be – it conjures up hush-hush criminal adventures in the rippling night and, even more, death itself: the bier, the obscure obsequies, the final, silent journey. As if the moist genital of the sea held a belated emotional adventure in store for the travelling idler, the ship turned her bowsprit to Riva degli Schiavoni after cumbersome manoeuvres, and clear and deep young voices mixed with the sloshing sound of dirtily glistening water. Remember how Gustav Aschenbach dreamt of reaching by water a Venice that was different from the town on the lagoon which one approached by land. At sea, your eyes will take in the vast unstructured void - a sunny morning on earth and on the waves, the tingling, salty, lively waters. If you want to experience the incomparable, the magically different that comes to you over night, take a ship to Venice.

How did antonio vivaldi die