The Redentore, the popular Venetian midsummer feast dedicated to Christ the Redeemer, is all-encompassing. There’s no way around it, every heart and mind in Venice are looking forward to the great event. So much has been written on, and dedicated to, the Redentore, and every time the challenge gets harder. What words can convey the sense of the greatest collective joy? It’s something you must experience in first person. Even the rest of the Venetia, who oftentimes think about their metropolis in terms of hindrance, rather than honour, can’t wait to join the crowd by the quays on the night of the foghi, the fireworks that are twice the show: one up in the sky, the second their amazing reflection on the water.

Venice has a long history of popularizing what began as solemn religious fetes. Their original meaning had long been pushed back, and the fireworks night is now a celebration of the beauty and craziness of a unique city, whose destiny resides in the strength of its own fragility. A temporary bridge will be installed between the Zattere, the southern embankment on the main landmass of the city, and the Redentore Church in the Giudecca Island, due south of it. The exhilarating feeling of walking on waters is a popular miracle that happens in Venice every year, when beauty joins us together under the same rainbow-tinted sky.