Redentore

One of the most spectacular Venetian festivals is the Festa del Redentore because of the fireworks display and the hundreds of illuminated boats, decorated with boughs and coloured balloons, that congregate in Saint Mark’s Basin. This festival is held on the third Saturday and Sunday in July and marks the July 1576 eradication of a plague that had gripped the city. It is organized at the Chiesa del Redentore (Church of the Redeemer) on the island of Giudecca. The church is linked with the banks of Le Zattere in Dorsoduro by a bridge of hundreds of boats afloat across the Giudecca Canal. As soon as night falls a magnificent half-hour spettacolo of fireworks light up the sky.