Destination: Venice

The area surrounding Venice, just a few kilometres from the city centre, is full of interesting places to visit whose urbanisation dates back to the dawn of time.

This vast area of Veneto has been inhabited since the Neolithic period, first by Venetic settled populations, before it was colonised by the Romans and became part of “Regio X Venetia et Histria”. Its capital city was Aquileia, and it is today one of the most important archaeological sites in northern Italy. Important towns sprang up here, such as Iulia Concordia, today known as Concordia Sagitteria and Altino, which was an important city along the Empire’s roads. It connected Via Annia and Via Postumia, linking Aquileia, a port on the Adriatic Sea, to Genoa, a port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and Via Claudia Augusta that led to the ancient Norico region, which today corresponds to Austria and Bavaria.

Altino was therefore an important intersection of large arteries, as well as an important port for commerce and trading, since it was erected along the edge of the lagoon. There are only a few visible remains from this important settlement, which include some parts of the Via Annia road. However, the new archaeological museum that has been open only a few years displays artefacts found in the area, which illustrate its history from the Neolithic period right up to Roman times in a comprehensive way.

A reconstruction of what the city was like, visible inside the museum, gives you an idea of the size of the inhabited centre, which, like all cities of the Roman era, had a forum and an amphitheatre for shows.

You can climb the tower in the museum and admire the surrounding countryside, and if you close your eyes, you can imagine what this thriving city and important commercial maritime centre on the Adriatic Sea was like.

According to recent research and theories, it was the inhabitants of Altino who began settling on the lagoon islands by moving to Torcello. It was probably after waterways began silting up, preventing access to the lagoon and therefore to the sea and to ships with their cargo and merchandise.

To reach the new Altino Museum in Venice, you can catch an ATVO 25a bus heading to Piazzale Roma, and in about 20 minutes, you’ll reach the museum.

That moment you are seized with doubt as to what to pack for a short break in another city.

Here you are, ready for a long-awaited getaway for a few days: tickets printed out or downloaded onto your smartphone, hotel booked online and suitcase open, ready to be packed with what you might need.

But what is going to be useful or what must absolutely not be left out of your case?

Your choices, obviously, depend on the season of the year; you don’t need the same things in winter that you need in the summer.

However sometimes you are going to ask yourself, “Is it cold there or is it hot? Will it rain?”

That’s when you go onto your computer and you try to work out what the weather is going to be like at your chosen location at the time of year you have opted to escape, getting away from the daily routine of work, home and everyday commitments – to do something different somewhere different, seeing new people and faces.

Speaking personally, my suitcase is never missing a camera with a couple of lenses for all my requirements, given my love of photography.

However, for non-photographers a compact camera or a smartphone may be sufficient.

So, in terms of specifics, what do you need to pack for a trip to Venice at the most romantic, cultural and relaxing times?

If you come in February, you are going to have a mask to wear, so you can blend into the carnival crowd and walk around the city without being recognised, just like Casanova, even if he – and he was not the only one – took the opportunity for the odd gentleman’s rendezvous.

If you don’t have a mask, that is not a problem; there are countless shops and stalls which can offer you an ample choice of models – from the simplest, such as the classic and simple ‘bauta’ mask, to more elaborate masks to cater for every taste and budget.

If, however, the time you have chosen for your visit is the summer, you mustn’t fail to pack a swimming costume in your little suitcase.

After a long walk along Venice’s streets and squares, admiring the treasures of the city, a visit to the Venice Lido, the free-access beach at the end of the Venetian Gran Viale canal, can provide the visitor, weary from the summer heat and humidity, with a refreshing dip.

The autumn is another time to discover Venice: caught in the mists, which are spectacular and almost surreal at this time of year, often in November, you may easily encounter a phenomenon known as the ‘high water’, or when the tide reaches higher levels than usual and floods a large part of the city.

You would do well to have a pair of rubber boots in your suitcase so that, regardless, you can get around without a problem, but beware: some tides are so high that the water can even get into your boots if they are not high enough.

In the past, both in the city and, above all, on the many islands dotted around the lagoon, there were vegetable gardens and orchards with fruit trees, as well as animals raised to provide eggs, milk and meat.

These would all be found in the large spaces within the numerous monasteries and convents that were scattered all over the islands, many now having disappeared and others abandoned.

The few that remain include a monastery on the island of Giudecca, with large vegetable gardens at the Chiesa del Redentore and others on the wonderful and popular island of San Francesco del Deserto, as well as the island of San Michele, but the decline in the call to monastic life has resulted in these places falling into disrepair.

The monastery of San Michele is a case in point, where the monks once produced wine, as well as fabrics for their habits on ancient looms.

The island that still farms much of its land is San Erasmo, where the wonderful purple artichoke of Sant’Erasmo is grown and where other produce from the land has led to the growth of agritourism activities, alongside these small farms.

In centuries past, the crops would be taken from the islands to the city, for sale at the market, on a special kind of boat, which can still be seen on the lagoon today, rowed with oars and also by women.

Nowadays, with the technology available, fruit, vegetables and other products can be ordered online from the grower, who on certain days of the week delivers to particular places on a large motor boat.

A few years ago, an association decided to restore the many abandoned vineyards in the lagoon, with volunteers working hard and painstakingly to return them to their original splendour and purpose.

The name of this association is “La laguna nel bicchiere – le vigne ritrovate“ (the lagoon in the glass – the vineyards rediscovered) and it was founded by a teacher from a local junior school who was running a school project aimed at restoring abandoned vineyards, involving the children.

This project has included the restoration of several vineyards in many parts of the city and on the islands, after careful research of the art of vine growing and winemaking and with the involvement of certain experts in the field and some small organic wine producers.

Also this year, following the various harvests around the city and the islands, the grapes have been transported to the old monastery of the Camaldolese monks on the island of San Michele, where the association leases the monks’ vines and equipment, including the old vats, for crushing and processing this ancient product.

The production is small but of the finest quality. The process is completely organic and performed by hand, using the lagoon’s classic grape varieties, such as Dorona and Malvasia. Some of the Venetian calli, or streets, are in fact named after the latter. Once bottled, the wine labels are also associated with the places from which the grapes have been harvested, ranging from the red “Rosso Gneca – Le Zitelle fertili” (Gneca is a Venetian nickname for the island of Giudecca, where the ‘Zitelle’ convent can be found), to the white “Turgide Vignole al vento”, made from the grapes of the island of Le Vignole, and finally the “Arcangeli scalzi”, made from the grapes harvested at the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites, which stands beside Venice railway station.

For anyone visiting Venice, a trip to the city’s largest islands is practically a must.

The closest of these is Murano, which, as you approach it on the vaporetto water bus, stands against the setting of the northern lagoon, with its white lighthouse silhouetted against the sky. This is the island renowned for the art of glass blowing.

Murano became a centre for this industry towards the end of the 1200s, as the vast number of furnaces in operation at that time in Venice were becoming a real fire hazard for the houses, many of which were still made of wood, and it is also said that it was to safeguard the secrecy of this production technique, which constituted a major economic resource.

Glass making has ancient origins that date back to the Phoenicians, continuing until Roman times, and some artefacts from those periods can be seen in the Museum of Altino, now a small rural town near Venice airport, but once a large, flourishing Roman city, or in the Murano glass museum, which is certainly worth a visit to gain a comprehensive insight into the products created with this material, from the past until the present day.

The large number of shops on the island offers an infinite choice of glass objects to suit all tastes and pockets.

But only by visiting one of the working furnaces can you fully appreciate the magic of this molten mass being transformed, by the innate artistry and craftsmanship of the master glassblower, into a fine decorative object, perhaps a colourful vase, a multi-coloured ornament or the countless pieces that make up a chandelier.

In addition to the more challenging pieces, created using the furnace, there are the small objects created using the “a lume”, or lampworking, technique.

Small objects of various kinds are created using coloured glass rods that are melted and shaped with a small gas blowtorch. Its flame makes the glass easy to manipulate and combines with the skill of the artisan to produce some wonderful objects in a magnificent array of colours, which can be purchased at more affordable prices.

But the island also has a wealth of cultural history to offer, with a visit to its churches, first and foremost the Church of Santa Maria e San Donato, with its beautiful mosaic floor and its apse facing the canal. The relics of Saint Donatus were brought here after the conquest of Cephalonia.

And once you have discovered all the secrets and beauty of the island, you can take a break at one of its many trattorias, restoring your energy with some delicious Venetian food.

A journey through history, accompanied by figures of greater or lesser renown, who were born, lived or spent time in Venice.

An anecdotal way of seeing Venice through the history and tales of figures of greater or lesser fame, who were born in the city or who lived or stayed there for varying lengths of time during their lives.

Not only today, but perhaps even more so in the past, Venice has attracted illustrious figures who in the city, then a major trade emporium and thus a financial hub and place of wealth, would aspire to encounter noblemen, merchants, religious groups, if not the city’s senate and government itself, who would appreciate their talents and skills.

So there would be painters in search of someone to purchase their works; men of letters wishing to find wealthy protectors and patrons; talented men, explorers, military commanders who would offer their skills to serve the republic.

Strolling through the streets (calli) and squares (campielli), the traveller’s attention is often attracted to memorial tablets and inscriptions on the walls of certain houses and palaces to commemorate the birth of a famous painter, the home of a well-known musician, or the place where an illustrious scholar had once stayed.

And here in fact is a memorial stone, above the arch of a sottoportico which from Calle S. Domenico leads into a small courtyard, commemorating the birthplace of Tiepolo; on the wall of the series of Mocenigo palaces, along the Grand Canal opposite S. Tomà, the inscription commemorates the stay of the English poet Lord Byron, who died fighting for Greek independence, and who was thought to have loved swimming in the lagoon.

In the narrow calletta Malipiero, at S. Samuele, stood the birthplace of one of Venice’s most famous figures and adventurers, Giacomo Casanova, perhaps the only one to succeed in escaping from the city’s prisons; whilst on the wall of Ca’ Vendramin a memorial stone reminds us that Wagner died here, and inside the palazzo, now home to the Casino, is the hall.

There are many others dotted around the city, remembering painters, writers, musicians, many figures from the Risorgimento period of Italian and Venetian history, and to conclude the list, which is impartial and certainly incomplete: at the start of Via Garibaldi, the first house on the right belonged to Giovanni and Sebastiano Caboto (John and Sebastian Cabot), father and son explorers, who discovered Newfoundland and the northern part of the American continent. A dual stone, one laid by the municipality of Venice and the other by the Canadian province of Newfoundland, commemorates these illustrious sons of Venice.

Lavish religious and political festivals still enliven the city and excite locals and visitors.

In centuries gone by, there were many celebrations that enlivened the city over the course of the year, ranging from religious anniversaries, to keep faith with vows made by the Doge and the Senate for deliverance from terrible plagues, to the feasts of the Redeemer and the Madonna of Good Health which are still living witness of the same, to those of a mainly political character to celebrate the greatness of the Serenissima, the feast of the Sensa, the Ascension, when the Doge on board the Bucintoro (the state galley of the Doges) celebrated Venice’s marriage with the sea, and to the popular festivals that took place in the various squares of the city with acrobatic performances or the bull hunt and other similar events.

Then there were the famous contests in which Castellani and Nicolotti, inhabitants of two of the city’s districts, challenged each other in feats of strength on the various ponti dei pugni, bridges without parapets where the loser of wrestling and boxing matches ended up in the water in the canal below.

Many of these anniversaries and festivals have been immortalised by various painters over the centuries and can be admired in many paintings. Then there are the drawings exhibited in the Correr Museum.

Some of these have survived through the centuries to the present day and Venetians still enjoy taking part in the anniversaries.

The best-known festival is the Historic Regatta which takes place annually on the first Sunday of September over a course that goes from the waters of the lagoon facing St Mark’s and continues along the Grand Canal.

This is an event that attracts many Venetians and tourists in the city, on the banks of the canals or on boats moored along the way to witness the regatta, or the lucky ones on the balconies of their houses overlooking the route that the boats follow.

The regatta is divided into two parts. It opens with the historic procession where the glory of the Serenissima shines once again in the parade of the bissone, the richly-decorated stately barges, propelled by oarsmen dressed in costumes of the past and carrying people dressed as the Doge and the Dogaressa, notables and the striking Queen of Cyprus, Caterina Cornaro who remained a widow, abdicating and granting her island to Venice.

Then comes the competitive part of the day, with a multitude of spectators, in a series of races for all categories of rowers and over courses of various lengths, boys rowing pupparini, women on mascarete, the caorline with six rowers and a crescendo of noisy fans encouraging their favourites and rivalling the intensity of a football game, and lastly the rowing champions on their gondolini ending the day.

A unique spectacle of colours and lights, September is one of the best months for the climate in Venice, granting us another unforgettable memory of this city.

Historic Regatta website