‖ sottoportico, n. Arch.
(ˌsottoˈpɔrtiko)
Also as two words, and as It. dial. sottoportego.
[It., f. sotto under + portico portico n.]
The covered passage running behind an arcade or colonnade and freq. beneath the projecting first floor of a building.
| 1909 Webster, Sotto portico,..an arcade; a street passageway under the overhanging story of a building. 1927 C. Mackenzie Vestal Fire i. vi. 95 It was a large villa... One reached it by a sotto portici [sic]. 1981 B. Healey Last Ferry ii. 30 The sottoportico at the bottom end of St. Mark's Square. 1983 E. Webster Venetian Spy-Glass viii. 75, I followed Renzo..through the maze of calliselle and sottoporteghi. 1984 ‘J. Gash’ Gondola Scam xiii. 105 A sottoportego, a little alley going under a building. |