It’s a whole different Redentore at water level, in the area designated for row boats only, just in front of the exclusive (and expensive) private party along the fondamenta at the Punta della Dogana.

The moon was full and the weather ideal — more like May than July. Music from decadent disco barges each completing to have its entertainment reign supreme wafted across the water, while we picnicked on a combination of traditional and contemporary dishes in boats decorated with frasche fresche (fresh branches) and multicolored lanterns that grew brighter as the sky darkened. About dessert time, kayakers began to appear like floating firecracking-seeking fireflies, their headlamps flashing as they bobbed about among the mass of anchored craft. Gondole threaded their way among boats of all sizes seeking the ideal spot from which to view the upcoming pyrotechnics (though it’s hard to find a bad one).

These photos are hardly tack-sharp, a difficult thing to attain from atop one floating vessel shooting more of the same — but you’ll get the idea. It was truly a spectacular display (with plenty of red, white and green this year, to commemorate Italy’s 150th anniversary) from sequences of more subtle pah-pah-pah-pah-pop cannon shots that seem to race along the canal’s edge, to a canopies of explosions that seemed to span the entire night sky, campanile to campanile, riva to riva. It went something like this…

Venice Redentore 2011 – Images by Nan McElroy

And for a truly spectacular video perspective, see

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