Venice archivos - Page 5 of 8 - VOLARE MAGAZINE

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.

Sink into a moment of romance in the romantic city par excellence.

Venice has always been known as one of the most romantic cities in the world, a honeymoon destination, a place to be explored, experienced and enjoyed alongside your soulmate, where you can lose yourselves in the intricacy of its most secluded alleys and squares.

Sunset may be the most romantic time of day wherever you are, but in Venice it is a truly unique experience!

However, seeing a stunning sunset in Venice is not easy; the city is surrounded by water, meaning that at certain times the humidity in the air can prevent you from enjoying the spectacle.

A good view is least likely in the summer months, while from September onwards, especially during the cold, clear winter days when the wind sweeps in from the north or north-east, the phenomenon can be admired in all its beauty.

A breathtaking sunset may also be on the horizon after a rainy day in the late summer, when the heavy rain and wind seem to cleanse the sky and air.

But if, after one of these days, you are waiting for the sunset with your camera at the ready, bear in mind that you also need to choose the right place to enjoy the spectacle.

You can choose to watch the sunset with the sun disappearing behind the city skyline or admire the colours and reflections over the lagoon.

If you prefer the former, the best spot is on the bank overlooking the San Marco basin, towards the Arsenal or the Gardens, maybe sitting at one of the bars sipping an aperitif, or from S. Maria Elisabetta on the Lido, where there is a hotel with a bar/restaurant and a beautiful terrace on the lagoon, from which you can enjoy a view of the sun disappearing behind the city.

For more romantic souls, the area between Malamocco and Alberoni on the Lido, which can be reached by bus or by hiring a bicycle, is the ideal location for watching the sun slowly sinking into the horizon while the lagoon reverberates with a spectrum of stunning colours, guaranteed to leave you speechless.

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

The boats typical of the Venetian lagoon and the Adriatic Sea have shaped the history, economy and life of the city.

Caorline, mascarete, sandoli, s’cioponi, topi, peate, burci, bragozzi, pieleghi and trabaccoli and of course the well-known gondola; a host of strange names that symbolise some of the typical lagoon boats that have long been used for fishing and transporting goods to the city.

They used to be a much more common sight in the lagoon and the canals, but are nowadays almost entirely replaced by anonymous and standardized motor boats that contribute to the much-maligned “wave motion” damaging shorelines and buildings along the small and winding canals within Venice.

Traditional boats are now usually only seen during regattas, in the Vogalonga race or skippered by a small number of enthusiasts who are members of various rowing clubs, they can be admired rowing along with difficulty, navigating a path between the motor boats that so frequently speed down the waterways with no regard for these boats that are part of the history of the Serenissima.

Of course, the power of Venice was born from the sea and the trade that took place there, and ships and boats were a crucial part of this, while the large rowing and sailing ships, the famous galleys and war galleys, sailed the Adriatic and the Mediterranean trading with the East, the less sizeable boats were used for sea fishing or for trade along the Adriatic, and the smallest vessels, almost all with flat bottoms suitable for sailing in shallow waters, were used in the lagoon to transport goods to the city, in particular agricultural products produced on the many islands in the lagoon.

Today, visitors to the city can still take a gondola ride or possibly even catch sight of some of the other traditional boats, if they are lucky enough to be visiting when one of the races is being held; for a few years now there has also been the option of taking part in lagoon excursions on some of these boats, obviously motor driven and not rowed.

Up until the first half of the 1900s some boats, luggers, sail boats and then mixed sailing and motor propelled boats were still used for fishing or as cargo boats arriving in Venice from the Istrian shore of the Adriatic, often loaded with inert construction materials, some examples are stored at the Cesenatico Maritime Museum .

A few years ago, a well-known Venetian Association, the Club degli Amici del Nuovo Trionfo (Friends of the New Triumph), acquired the last lugger in the lagoon and is now undertaking careful and painstaking restoration work in order to preserve this link to a past which is unfortunately disappearing a little more each day, engulfed by “modernity”.

The “Nuovo Trionfo” (New Triumph) lugger was built 90 years ago and is now being restored with long and essential maintenance work on the hull to ensure its preservation and navigability.

A genuine piece of lesser known Venetian history, to be handed down for future generations and soon to return to its berth at the Punta della Dogana, at the mouth of the Grand Canal, where it can be admired by everyone in Venice, visitors and residents alike.

If you are looking for what Venice was like half a century ago and you want to find a bit of peace and tranquillity, the island of Pellestrina is an ideal destination for immersing yourself in serenity.

Today, after two days of intense rain and dark clouds, it was beautiful and sunny out with a splendid blue sky. So, I climbed on bus number 11 heading to the island of Pellestrina, a place which remains a small corner of genuine paradise little or not at all disturbed by mass tourism. This is because it’s a bit out of the way and reachable only after a couple of hours’ travel.

After a pleasant crossing of the lagoon from San Marco, you get to the Lido. There you climb on bus number 11 that runs all the way to Alberoni a Sud where you enter the ferry boat. In a couple of minutes, the ferry crosses the mouth of the port, one of the entrances seaward from San Marco, finally arriving in Maria del Mare.

After coming off the ferry-boat, the bus runs along the coast of Pellestrina until it gets to the opposite end. From there, a vaporetto or water taxi service regularly connects with Chioggia.

Although the island has been discovered in recent years by ecotourists, you can still get to the southern end by bike from Chiogga where the Ca’ Roman nature oasis is.

You pass small, successive clusters of houses, Portosecco, and San Pietro in Volta until coming to the village of Pellestrina, which gives its name to the entire island. In recent times, new construction has sprung up in this location whose principle source of income is fishing. You gather this by the almost endless succession of boats and vessels moored along the banks of the lagoon.

What strikes you after walking for awhile along the lagoon is the silence. It’s only intermittently interrupted by the screeching of seagulls or water lapping on the hull of sporadic and slowly departing boats.

There’s also the chatter of little groups of women with their traditional, peculiar, musically-cadenced way of speaking that is enjoyable to hear and different from the dialect spoken in the city. Or you can hear the rare tourist on a bike. These are the only noises that punctuate the air in this place where silence reigns sovereign. It seems almost unnatural for those coming from the chaos of car traffic in the city. Meanwhile, on the other side, along the beach, the noise of the waves washing up is broken only by the engines of the few cars passing along the long road winding around the island.

The long “Murazzi” or walls, built to defend the town in distant times, hide a beach which was reformed and protected by works done after the Great Flood of 1966. It’s a wild and natural place which is visited almost exclusively by residents during the summer. It has no bathing facilities, cabins, kiosks or beach clubs. There’s only a long line of tamarix shrubs concealing the view of the town.

Beyond the usual typical tours in Venice, visitors staying for a few days, or already familiar with the city who come back to know it better, have some other options which offer a different perspective whether staying with the crowd or almost alone.

You can get to know Venice more deeply by exploring the city on foot and wandering around its narrow streets and small squares in search of its hidden corners, which are off the well-beaten tourist path.

A unique and pleasant experience can be had by taking part in an event known as “Su e zo per i ponti” (up and down the bridges). This is an annually held non-competitive walk that takes place the first Sunday in April. This year will be the 39^th such event.

Two routes can be tackled, a full or shortened one depending on level of ability, and the event attracts all age groups. Entire families from grandparents to grandchildren follow one of these routes that start and end in Piazza San Marco and pass through lesser known parts of the city. There are no winners and everyone gets a medal to mark the occasion.

Another more characteristic and typically Venetian way of exploring the city is by boat. Every year, on the last Sunday in May or the first Sunday in June, the “Vogalonga” (a paddling/rowing race) is held, which traverses the entire lagoon. It is a demanding race, involving 33 kilometres of rowing and is a challenge only to be taken up by the well-trained.

Besides the quintessential gondola tour through the city’s canals, Venice can also be explored by boat through one of its kayak tours. These have been going on for several years now and start from the Isola della Certosa. These guided group excursions by kayak offer a chance to discover the city “from the water’s edge”.

At one time, you could rent row boats, but this is something which has now disappeared. Nowadays, you can rent only motorised boats, which are perhaps more suitable for transporting goods than people. You can tour the city’s canals on these boats, but you need to have a basic knowledge of how to manoeuvre them. You must also pay attention to traffic and the many limits and restrictions which exist on water in Venice as they do for automobile traffic in other cities.

Finally, another option for being on the water is to rent a “haus-boat” or house boat. You can then tour the city further by exploring the lagoon and islands as well as the remote, but no less enchanting corners of Venice. Obviously, due to the size of these boats, or “trailers on water,” you cannot enter the city’s canals with them.

The city can also be explored from the air, not only by climbing up its bell towers, but from even much higher up.

Lido’s Nicelli Airport is the oldest in Italy after the Roman ones. From its well-preserved original 1930s terminal, you can take helicopter tours of varying lengths and prices over Venice and the lagoon.

This offers a view of the city, its canals, the lagoon and its numerous islands, big and small, which captivates and dazzles even those who know the city well.

Aeroporto Nicelli

http://www.aeroportonicelli.it/

https://www.facebook.com/AeroportoNicelli/?fref=ts

Isola della Certosa

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isola_della_Certosa

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Isola-della-Certosa/582007705221728?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

Like all cities with a long history, there are a multitude of things to see, many of which are before our very eyes. But, we don’t stop and take them in because we’re distracted by other more famous or obvious sites.

Venice has places like this which are less known or visited than the traditional and renowned spots such as Piazza San Marco with its basilica, the Doge’s Palace, the Rialto Bridge or the Gallerie dell’Accademia, just to mention some of the most famous tourist destinations.

One somewhat less known and tucked away place is St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church and the adjacent Museum of the Hellenic Institute for Byzantine Studies, which are just a short walk from San Marco,

I must confess I’ve only recently discovered these places, even though I knew they existed and have passed them a multitude of times. They were along I street I took often as my maternal grandmother and some relatives lived in their area. It was also the route I sometimes took back home from school.

Not long ago, I found myself walking by the front while taking a stroll without any particular destination in mind. I wondered to myself why I had never visited this church and museum as I had many other of the city’s sites.

I must confess that one of the countries that I love most, other than my own, is Greece, I know it quite well having visited there a number of times on various trips.

Having come across this Greek orthodox church by pure accident during opening hours, I found myself visiting the museum, which is rich in examples of iconic and church-related objects.

This place has an ancient history. For commercial reasons, Venice has, in fact, always been well-connected to Greece and others places. The city has had numerous Greek communities. In the second half of the 1400s, permission was given to set up a “School’ to support them and follow the orthodox rites. Here, the orthodox rites, which up until then were held in the Church of Saint Biagio, were allowed to be celebrated.

This, my first visit, provided a pleasant discovery of the building interiors and of an interesting exhibition on Byzantine icons and paintings of the Venetian Greek school from the period 1500 to 1800.

Visiting a city is about seeing the sights, the monuments, the museums, knowing a bit about its history and breathing in the air – feeling like a local for those few days.

However, besides these well-known techniques, there are also others which can help you to get to know the character of a city even better. And, in combination, all of these techniques can help you feel a bit more like a local.

You could describe some of these techniques as being ‘recreational’ and perhaps a bit less cultural in nature: the first of these techniques is to go shopping at various places – not just the souvenir shops, but also the places the locals use, such as markets and the ordinary shops.

Another way of getting to know the place you are visiting is to sample the typical local cuisine – something very often more difficult to find, being increasingly superseded by an international pseudo-cuisine which aims to satisfy the primary need to feed customers, with something to suit everyone, whilst at times sacrificing tradition for questionable reinterpretations along the lines of ‘Master Chef.’

The classic Venetian cuisine offers a vast range of dishes which have their roots in ancient local traditions and also reflect contributions from other countries of the Mediterranean with which, in the past, Venice enjoyed important ties and contacts thanks to maritime trade.

At the present time there are many trattorie and restaurants which offer a choice of menus featuring typical Venetian recipes, often, as has been said, with milder flavours, accommodating somewhat to cater for the palates, tastes and habits of all the many tourists coming from every part of the world.

However, there are also trattorie which, at the right times of year, offer typical dishes prepared according to the old recipes, with names which take you back in time: ‘castradina’ is a soup made with mutton; ‘sarde in saor’ is an ancient technique for preserving sardines; ‘bigoi in salsa’ is spaghetti grazed with a condiment made from anchovies; ‘sepe col nero’ is a typical recipe for serving cuttlefish; and various risottos such as ‘co i bisi,’ with peas, or ‘de go,’ featuring typical small fish harvested in the sandy sea-beds of the Venetian Laguna.

Recipes range from fruits of the sea to the produce of the land, and, in particular, the first-fruits of the various islands of the Venetian Laguna – not to forget the various meats.

Some recipes can be prepared quickly and with a small number of ingredients, while others are more elaborate and take longer to prepare.

There are typical, traditional dishes which I think more or less everyone ate when they were little. To this day they have the same effect as Proust’s ‘madeleine;’ they take us back to our childhood when we returned home from school to find generous portions of these dishes waiting for us on the table – served steaming hot.

One of these recipes, which was often prepared at home, is the famous ‘fegato alla veneziana’ (Liver Venetian style). Its ingredients are white onions and cow’s or calf’s liver. In the past even pig’s liver was used – which has a stronger flavour.

Having the sliced the white onion into thin strips, toss it for a while in a large frying pan with a little butter, add half a glass of white wine and leave it to evaporate, making sure the onions don’t turn golden brown.

Meanwhile, slice the liver into little pieces or strips and add them to the frying pan with the onions, leaving it to cook for a few minutes, but not for too long, otherwise the liver will become too hard.

The sweet flavour of the onions tempers the strong taste of the liver and the dish is served with yellow maize polenta (semolina).

Getting lost in Venice’s small lanes is perhaps the best ways to discover it and enjoy some of its spirit. It let’s you discover unusual places which are a bit odd and off the typical tourist itineraries, but still much frequented by the few Venetians left in the city.

While heading along the traditional route toward St. Mark’s Square, you only have to detour a bit, turning on to one of the many small streets. After a few steps, you’ll find yourself lost in a maze of narrow lanes.

Sometimes, you find some truly narrow places where a single person barely passes. There, you have to hope not to meet anyone coming in the opposite direction. Otherwise, you have to turn around or perform some acrobatic stunts to be able to get by.

Don’t even mention if you run into someone coming along with a cart carrying things. If that happens, you need to climb up on a doorstep, squeezing yourself up against the door itself.

Some of these narrow streets eventually open up a bit wider, sometimes ending at a canal where you can take in a different sort of view of the city. These are great points for taking unusual photos.

Often at the end of these narrow alleys, you find yourself in a small square, all calm and quiet, and centrally adorned by one of the many “vere da pozzo” or public wells that rise up majestically around the city.

They come in different sizes, small and large. They can be simple or decorated with diverse stone-carved engravings, including the coat-of-arms of the noble Venice house they belonged to as well as flowers and other types of decoration.

Until the early 1900s, these wells were used to draw the water which enriched the city’s subsoil. They were also specifically constructed in the courtyards of palaces or monastery cloisters, above large underground cisterns which collected rainwater.

Since the post-war era, all these artesian wells have been decommissioned and are no longer used. This was particularly the case after it was found that pumping water up from underlying groundwater contributed to soil subsidence and its related problems.

And so, all the wells were made unusable and closed up with metal covers.

Some of these “vere da pozzo” reflect very fine workmanship. Over the years, they’ve been restored to preserve the marble and Istrian stone they are made. This has kept them intact and able to be admired around the city.