Ponte delle Tette
in Venezia, ItalyCategory: Attraction
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Calle Agnello, 2511, 30125 Venezia, Italy Print route »
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Ponte delle Tette is a small bridge in Venice, Italy. It takes its name ("Bridge of the Tits") from the use of the bridge by prostitutes, who were encouraged to stand topless there to entice and convert suspected homosexuals.
The Carampane di Rialto was one of the red-light districts of Venice in the fifteenth century, by official decree. Sex workers there would open their legs wide or display their breasts from nearby balconies to attract business. The Serenissima supported this heterosexual sex in order to help stem the tide of a growing wave of homosexuality, which had grown into a social problem. By 1509, one writer estimated that there were some 11,565 courtesans working in Venice. Nearby was the Traghetto Del Buso, where courtesans crossed the Grand Canal to another legal red light district, again per orders of the Serenissima. Taxes on prostitution in 1519 helped finance excavation at the Arsenale.
