The Lido in Venice is famous for its beaches. But when we were watching that monster ship make its way over to the Venice lagoon, we were standing on the other side of the Lido from where the famous beaches are. You’re still near the water when you’re standing there, of course, but there’s no sandy beach, just a residential area.

Along one part of that residential area there is an intriguing wall.

Well, that’s the shadow of the wall I’m talking about.  Even though it looks like the shadow is being cast onto another wall, it’s an illusion; the photo has been turned 90°. The sidewalk pavement, where the shadow really is, looks like the wall. I really like that shadow, actually. It looks like there’s a shadow of some creature with its wings outstretched that’s coming across the wall.

But that’s just an illusion created by some fancy decoration on the top of the crumbling wall:

This wall is a fascinating hodgepodge of architectural styles and ornaments. There’s no information about the wall, so we don’t know how old it is, and how many times it’s been remodeled over the years, as it’s not in a touristy part of the Lido. It was too hot to stand there that day to taking more photos of all the decoration types.  Gotta save something for our next trip to the (other side) of the Lido.