17 black-and-white prints from Agfa APX 100 135 black and white film, printed on Agfa MCP 310 RC semi-matte paper, 20.3 × 30.5 cm (8 × 12 in), edition of 3 + 1 AP.

This is not one of Venice’s many “secrets.” The alleyways are narrow and their flanking houses so tall that the paving remains in shadow for most of the day, most of the year. Yet in summer, the midday sun manages to penetrate them, pressing deep into the calli, stroking the walls on either side, from above and then from below, until they tremble in silent pleasure. Only Calle Varisco, as far as I know, remains untouched.

When business and trade quieten for lunch and the heat grows too heavy even for the most tireless tourists, I hear my own footsteps trailing behind me, merging with languid, unhurried conversations, the scrape of chairs, the clatter of plates, the low murmur of television news spilling from open windows. In that hush, there is a little more space between things, a little more quiet in which to linger over them. This is the hour of Venice I love to photograph most.