Venice archivos - Page 6 of 8 - VOLARE MAGAZINE

St Mark’s Square, known as “the drawing room” of Venice, is undoubtedly the main attraction for any tourist coming to the city.

Even for a native like me, who has spent over half a century living in Venice, the square still has the power to enchant each time that you walk across it, offering an ever-changing spectacle of light, colour and human life, depending on the season and the time of day.

Early in the morning, when it is almost deserted, Venetians walk briskly across on their way to work while fitness fans, often from other countries, pass quickly through, determined to fit in an hour of jogging through the narrow streets and bridges.

Later, the tourists arrive, taking photographs and being photographed in every last corner; hordes of waving arms, clutching the essential smartphone as they move around the square. And immediately, hundreds of photos and video clips are uploaded onto the net and social media, showing where they are to friends, acquaintances and… followers.

A photo with the pigeons is a must, and it’s fun to watch parents trying to persuade their scared and reluctant offspring to hold a pigeon for the classic photo shot.

Poses and behaviour go from funny to stiffly reserved, with everything in between: from essential “selfies” to fun group photos of students on trips or of Japanese youngsters in creative poses, immortalised in front of the basilica or the Doge’s Palace.

But for the tourists, most fun is to be had in those rare moments during the summer when the piazza is suddenly flooded by an unexpected “acqua alta” (high water). Faced with this unusual phenomenon, outsiders can witness the most bizarre scenes, such as people paddling across St Mark’s Square with their shoes in their hands as though they were on the beach, while others recline in the sun.

Amidst the colourful crowd filling the square, you can often pick out a pair of newly-weds who have chosen the most romantic city in the world for their wedding and honeymoon. They struggle to find a less crowded spot for their wedding photos while hordes of tourists follow them round, desperate to get their own shots of the happy couple.

Meanwhile, in the quietest and most solitary corner of the square, a painter patiently puts onto canvas the image of floating gondolas set against the backdrop of the Basin of San Marco and Santa Maria della Salute church.

The Grand Canal winds through Venice like a long snake, dividing the city into two parts. This separation poses a problem for those who are on foot and need to get from one part to another.

The need to feel one might always be able to get across the Canal led to the building of three bridges.

The oldest and most well known is the Rialto Bridge. It sits in the middle of the city’s main waterway. At the two far reaches of the canal, there are two more bridges, the Scalzi Bridge and the wooden bridge of the Accademia.

With much debate, a new one, Il Ponte della Costituzione (the Constitution Bridge), was added a few years ago. For Venetians, this bridge is known as Il Ponte di Calatrava, after the architect who designed it.

Having only these few options of getting across the Canal means that travellers often have to go a bit out of their way to get from one bank to another. Today, just as in the past, one can use the “traghetti” (gondola ferries) to avoid that. It’s a no-frill gondola service, without seats or other refinements, which gets you from one part of the Canal to the other.

Today, only a pair of these traghetti still exist, the San Tomà and the Santa Sofia. The first one is widely used, especially by those coming from Piazzale Roma or those who want to go from the train station to the area of Piazza San Marco. The Santa Sofia connects the “Strada Nova” with the Rialto market. Until a few decades ago, there were others, but they’ve disappeared due to low use.

In the past, there must have been many of them, as the numerous streets in Venice with “traghetto” in their name suggest. Today, these names remind us of this old custom and a profession that’s almost disappeared.

For little more than a Euro, you can experience a traghetto. It’s a bit of a strange sensation for someone who’s not accustomed to balancing and standing on a gondola while it glides over the water.

You board it with the help of a gondolier. To feel the boat swaying under your feet is really something to experience. The natives and habitual users get on and off the gondola with no difficulty and remain calmly on their feet during the short crossing. They stand out in a flash.

Meanwhile, first-timers move about trying to steady themselves on their legs, feeling their feet below without solid ground. They grab the gondolier’s hand getting in and out or rush to take the only seat in the boat, a bare wooden plank in the front. Or, they get to the side of the boat where, towards the front, there’s a big chest with all types of coins for giving change to the passengers. As the people gradually get off the gondola, the changing weight makes it rock. This frightens the occasional traveller who may let out a little cry, half in wonder, half with fear. This happens with tourists of all ages the first time they try a traghetto.

Each season in Venice offers surprises. Some you can encounter whilst wandering through the “calli” (Venetian alleys) and discovering unusual places, others are, so to speak, under the surface of the city and, sometimes, rather peculiar.

When it comes to sounds, this city is definitely unusual. In the absence of road traffic, there remains just the sound of boat engines cutting through the canals and of the means of transport that make their own characteristic noises. It’s hard to understand that “something” is missing, until you realize that what’s absent is the noise of road traffic; of buses, cars, scooters whirring and the hooting of horns.

Traffic in Venice is less agitated; it has a more fluid and rhythmic sound, diluting into the canal waters and gradually fading in the evening, when the boats transporting goods and those for other activities are no longer operating.

Mixed with these sounds is the swishing of the oars of the gondolas, which appear from small canals into the main street of the city, the Grand Canal, accompanied by the chattering of the gondoliers as they row and the typical shout as they approach a crossroad of canals.

In winter the city has moments of incomparable charm, with the sun, but also with the fog, which envelopes everything with a muffled blanket and absorbs the sounds that seem to come from all directions, whilst the colors of day dissolve in a game of hide and seek, making houses, palazzi and churches spontaneously disappear and reappear.

But also on those rare sunny winter days, particularly clear after a storm, the city appears adorned with the colors of Tintoretto’s paintings, with skies of every tone of blue. And if you observe it from Piazzale S. Maria Elisabetta del Lido, you will see the city surrounded by a ribbon of snowy mountains, with the sun reflecting off their peaks.

Winter sunsets offer spectacular scenes, with the burning sun tinging the sky and the lagoon with every shade of red, as it disappears behind the Salute church. The sky turns from red to blue before giving way to the color of the approaching night.

And so the silhouette of the city stands out on this night sky, illuminated by the street lamps, and the lights of shop and house windows.

And in this enchanted setting, only a few faint and faraway sounds can be heard, almost as if to softly lull us to sleep.

I have walked along “Riva del Vin” (Wine Street) without getting drunk and on “Rio Terà degli Assassini” (the assassin’s street) without being afraid. I’ve also gone on “Ponte dei Pugni” (the Bridge of Fists) without having to be on guard or along the “Calle del Vento” (Windy Street) without being cold.

What do these incomprehensible statements mean? Is there a message in secret code within them? Nothing of the sort. They’re only the names of some of the streets and places you will find walking around Venice. They’re the odd names of real places in the city. Unusual place names are nothing exceptional in Venice.

Starting with Piazza San Marco. Piazza San Marco is the only real “piazza” in the city. All the other squares are called “campi” or “campielli” if they are small. You reach the Rialto from Piazza San Marco by going in the direction of the “Mercerie dell’Orologio” (the little watch shop). Then you turn towards the “Campo della Guerra” (the Square of War) and cross the bridge of the same name to get to the “Calle delle Bande” (the Street of the Gangs) and the “Salizada di San Lio” ( Saint Lio street). You then follow the “Ponte di San Antonio” (Saint Anthony’s Bridge) which meets up with the “Calle della Bissa.” This street ends up in “Campo San Bortolomi” (Saint Bartholomew Square) and at the foot of the Rialto Bridge.

In Venice, there are many ways to say ‘street.’ A stone paved street is called either a “calle,” “ruga” or “salizada.” “Rio terà” refers to a street over an old canal and a “sottoportego” is a street that goes under a house. The streets get their names not only from their characteristics but also from where they are. The names of many streets are tied to the history of a famous family that lived in the area or the saint a nearby church is named after. It often also happens that a street takes its name from the type of crafts that were practiced there in the past.

The names of Venetian streets are inscribed on limestone plaques above street level that look like small bed sheets. For this reason, these plaques are called ‘nizioleti’ which means ‘small sheets.’

The street names are curious, often funny and sometimes incomprehensible. It’s fun to read them as they follow one after another trying to understand them. Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes you give up because the name is the result of the old Venetian habit of changing the spelling, blending words together and adapting them to daily language.

In that way, Saint Ermagora’s Church is known rather as Saint “Marquola” Church and Saint Eustachio as Saint “Stae.” Similarly, Saint Maria “Formosa” derives from the Venetian version of the Spanish word for beautiful or “hermosa.”.

Many streets in Venice have the same name. For example, there is more than one “calle del Forno” or “del Forner” (the baker’s street), “del Maragon” or ” del Magazen” (the warehouse street), or “del Tragheto” (the ferry street). The only way to tell them apart is to refer to area of the city they are in or the nearest church.

Recently, a heated debate arose when the city administration corrected the “nizioleti” plaques by adding missing double letters –which don’t exist in the Venetian dialect. The changes divided the city between those who were in favour and against. Among the latter, some took it upon themselves to cross out the new double letters on the street plaques using a pen or black paint.

You can follow the strange street and place names of Venice to get to any of the famous or lesser known sights. Or you can just let yourself get lost in the city by following this trail of extravagant names. On a gorgeous day when Venetians hang out their laundry, let these odd names lead you to a scenic street where you will find yourself amidst a rainbow of coloured clothes waving as they dry in the breeze.

In Venice you walk a lot. But in order to cross the Grand Canal, you sometimes use the “vaporetto” (water bus) or the gondola ferry available at several points around the city.

Going on foot, one has the chance to run into people, friends and acquaintances. After saying hello, you go to a local spot for a drink together, continuing to discuss all the latest about yourself or mutual friends.

Stopping at the café in the morning, one usually has a coffee. But in the middle of the day or in the evening, you go and have an “ombra,” as Venetians call a glass of wine. You could also have a “spritz.” This is a classic Venetian aperitif made of white wine with Aperol or bitters and mineral water, garnished with an olive and a slice of lemon or orange. There’s variations on this as well that include other typical Italian liqueurs.

For Venetians, to go and drink an “ombra” or “spritz” is almost a daily routine. In the past, there were many local “osterie” or taverns in the city that sold wine along with some simple dishes. Even today, this tradition continues with many taverns still offering a wide assortment of “cicheti” which are quick snacks or small dishes you eat along with a good glass of wine.

There were many more places like this in the past. Some have now been turned into cafés which are a bit generic. They serve rolls and sandwiches to workers on their lunch break or tourists in a hurry.

Fortunately, some of the traditional “osterie” or taverns have survived and kept up tradition through time. New ones have also opened up in recent years where you can try classic “cicheti” which are a far cry from rolls and sandwiches.

The offerings of these taverns range from the classic half of a cooked egg topped with an anchovy fillet to boiled gristle or, depending on the season, potted artichoke. There’s also a variety of seasonal fried or roast fish (especially fried and breaded sardines), squid skewers, roast cuttlefish, and boiled octopus.

A few of the areas where you find locales serving this kind of food have become evening meeting places for Venetian teenagers. One of these areas is “Campo dell’Erbaria” which is just after you cross the Rialto Bridge near the market. Here you find many spots offering “cicheti.” In the morning and early afternoon, people working in the nearby market and area go to these places.

But if you enter the surrounding streets, you can find there many other taverns also offering a wide range of wines and “cicheti.”

Another well known area much frequented by younger people is that close to the University and Santa Margherita. This part of the city also has a multitude of taverns.

Wandering around Venice, you’ll find many of these “osterie.” For those who plan to visit the city by losing themselves in its streets, these taverns offer an alternative to a traditional lunch.

Venice, like all cities, has undergone many changes over the years. Old customs and crafts have disappeared. They are remembered only in old photographs or the stories of old people. Anyone over fifty can remember something that no longer exists.

Getting off the vaporetto at the “Giardini” or garden stop, you go down a long, tree-lined avenue, past the large basin with the statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the hero of national independence. There, you enter the street named after him.

This part of Venice was, until a few decades ago, a popular and lively area. Every morning, except Sunday, the local street market was held here. There was a long row of fruit and vegetable stalls. At the bend in the road, another semicircle of stalls sold all varieties of fish, especially local ones. On hot summer nights, if you slept with the windows open, you could be woken up every morning at dawn up by the noise of the boats coming from the general market. While unloading crates of seasonal fruits and vegetables for sale in the stalls, the men made small talk, exchanged one-liners, or told jokes.

A large boat often came in summer loaded with watermelons. It stayed moored in the canal until all of them were sold. The owner lived aboard, where he cooked and slept, until he had sold all his cargo. Then he left, sometimes only to come back with a new load to sell. Some fisherman in small boats even stopped to sell fish by candlelight, enlivening the canal at dusk.

With the arrival of autumn, a little man in a white jacket always appeared. He walked up and down the street with a big wicker basket under his arm, covered by a large blanket. The blanket hid and kept warm the boiled beans in the basket which the man sprinkled with salt and sold in paper cones for a few lire.

Via Garibaldi was a very popular area, characterized by droves of noisy, multicoloured kids of all ages that ran around and played on the paths inside and outside the gardens. Today there are not so many children as before and only a few selling stalls remain. But one of the few that is still there is very special. It’s a floating fruit and vegetable seller. There’s a boat that is always moored in the channel, from which Luca and Massimo, the two owners, sell many local products from the region and the islands of the lagoon. Items especially come from Sant’Erasmo or St. Erasmus island which is famous for its artichokes and fresh produce. In the past, these were shipped from the island to Venice where they were sold off boats run by women. It’s an ancient tradition echoed in the all-women boat races held in our times.

Even today, at the Ponte dei Pugni near the Campo Santa Margherita, there is another “floating shop” selling fruits and vegetables. These shops represent two memories of the city that have continued through time and live on as a tradition.

Today, as in the past, everything in Venice still travels by water. The only modern touch being the use of motorized boats. Motorized watercraft of all types ply through the canals in place of more tiring oar-powered ones, but a large number of devotees still go rowing in their free time.

Everything goes by water. It’s impossible to imagine the city without this aspect which has defended it in the past, surrounds it, and makes it unique, even while creating some problems.

The water buses of Venice or “vaporetti” run along the Grand Canal loaded down with passengers. Crafts of all types leave the mainland every morning loaded with goods of all kinds to resupply the city.

A vast array of multicolored boats of all shapes and sizes glide narrowly by each other, revealing their cargo that anywhere else would be shipped by lorry.

Enthroned on every boat, usually at the bow or sometimes on top of the cargo, is the obligatory trolley cart. This device is indispensable for the onward transport of cargo at its final destination once the boat is moored as close as possible to it.

A comic air surrounds these “water rats”, or motorized crafts of all sizes, that are adapted to transport goods and have an internal motor and long bar controlling the tiller. You can see the drivers with their backs leaning up against the bar. Sometimes, they actually straddle it and guide the boat with their body movements while their free hands are occupied browsing through the newspaper, talking on the telephone, or staying in pockets to keep warm.

Police craft, water ambulances, or fire brigade boats run along the canal with their sirens blaring. Also, water taxis and large boats disposing tons of waste daily create traffic on the Venetian canals which is nothing less than the automobile congestion found in any other city.

For Venetians, boats are an inseparable part of everyday life. In the past, it was a widely spread custom for newlyweds to leave the church after the ceremony by gondola.

Those who don’t come from Venice often have the idea that all Venetians own boats and do everything with them, just like people in other places use automobiles. But, it’s not the case.

Many Venetians do have a boat but they use it only in their free time to go fishing or to get to some out of the way spot in the lagoon where they can sunbathe or have a swim in good weather.

One even makes “the final journey” by boat in Venice, toward the island of San Michele, the city’s cemetery.

Art exhibitions occur in Venice throughout almost the entire year. These are dedicated to specific artists, particular periods or to diverse subjects and themes. They also reflect both contemporary or traditional forms of representation.

Among these exhibitions, the Venice Biennale merits mentioning. It is an important international exhibition occurring every two years which presents the current world of visual arts and architecture.

I have been interested and curious to attend this exhibition for decades. There, one can see and learn about new art trends from around the world by passing through the pavilions of different countries in the Biennial Gardens.

A new part, with pavilions for additional countries, has been added in the Venetian Arsenale. The Arsenale was once Venice’s shipbuilding area. This is where ships were built, powering the Republic’s expansion throughout the Adriatic and much of the Eastern Mediterranean. These ships constituted Venice’s military and economic power.

The large pavilions currently in the “Corderie” or rope factory are where hemp hawsers and ropes were made for mooring and manoeuvring the ship’s sails. The “Artiglierie” or Artillery is where the ship’s canons were moulded.

All these buildings are arrayed around a vast inside pool overlooking the “Gagiandre”, an area made up of covered piers for sheltering boats.

By visiting here, one comes in contact with the history of Venice. It is said that one boat was built every day in Venice. A boat would emerge from the Arsenal along the “Galeazze Canal” “armed” with everything needed and ready to set sail as it entered the mouth of the lagoon.

In addition to a journey into history and contemporary art and architecture, the Biennial, running from June to November, affords visitors other possibilities. They can also access various sites and private “palazzi” or mansions in the city which are normally closed to the public.

Beside the previously mentioned Gardens and Arsenal areas, there are many parallel exhibitions open to the public during the Biennale which take place in these private palazzi.

A visit to these other exhibition spaces and a glance through their windows often affords uncommon views and unusual or unexpected vistas over the city.

It’s hard to believe, walking along the beach of the Lido in winter and seeing it silent and deserted. The only sound is the tide with its successive roll of waves onto the shore.

It has a particular charm, with its long line of closed-up beach huts awaiting the next summer season and broad sand dunes that stand like a wall of defence against the tide’s attack.

Nothing about this sandy coast covered in shells and every kind of relic washed up by the sea, can make one imagine the scene in summer, with beach goers of every age stretched out under the sun or having a swim, and children playing without care in the sand.

The beach of Lido di Venezia has always been the one for the people of Venice. With the exception of a few rare tourists, it’s Venetian families in their entirety or groups of friends from the city who frequent the seaside establishments there, renting a “capanna” for the summer season.

These are little beach huts, once made of wood, but now almost entirely of plastic, with a veranda and canvas blind closing the front. It’s fitted out with a table, chairs, a cot, and beach chairs where Venetians come in the morning to pass away the hot summer days, returning home after sunset.

For someone not from Venice, it’s an unusual scene, which occurs on the first of June, the day the beach establishments open for summer. A vast number of inhabitants, board the “vaporetti”, the city’s water taxis, and head to the Lido. They drag with them carts brimming with everything you might need at the seaside: umbrellas, foldable chairs, games for the children, table cloths, swim fins and more.

You almost feel as if your seeing an entire population in migration. And in some way, you are.

It’s a migration that starts at the beginning of the beach season each year and reverses in the opposite direction in the middle of September, when the seaside establishments close their shutters for the winter.

Venetians pass their days here during the summer, in the same way their predecessors did in the early 1900s. This almost complete transfer of house to the seaside during the day is a rhythm that has been the same for decades.

Early in the morning, the mothers and grandparents bring the children to the beach before it becomes too hot.

Later, the other housewives arrive, after having done the shopping. They often come loaded down with all the food they made that morning at home, bringing everyone something to eat.

Toward midday, many husbands arrive if they can get a long lunch break, returning to work later. Meanwhile, the mothers and small children have already returned home.

Then the beach falls into a silence broken only by a few children’s tears or shouts. It’s the time to rest and think about taking a swim later.

Toward mid afternoon, an ever denser crowd of people begin the bathing ritual, interrupting the monotony of the long summer afternoon and searching for a way to cool-off during the most sweltering days.

When the sun starts to go down and become more bearable, many bring tables outside from their beach hut and start up interminable games of cards while the children play everything imaginable. This lingers on until it’s time to return home, where an aperitif waits that can’t be missed: a cold glass of prosecco or a Spritz.

This daily ritual, remains the same up to now. It’s the one that one that I remember doing as a child, and in more recent times, with my own children.

The Venetians have two religious events that they never miss: the Feast of the Redeemer and “Madonna della Salute” (Our Lady of Health).

Both have been celebrated for centuries and are linked to a vow made by Venice for the bringing to an end of a series of terrible plagues that once decimated the population. The city vowed to build churches in honour of the grace received.

Every year Venetians recognise this vow by making pilgrimages to the two Venetian churches that were built. This is made possible by the construction of temporary bridges on barges. One crosses the Grand Canal and the other the Giudecca Canal.

The feast of the Redeemer is held the evening of the third Saturday in July. This is also the festival of the “foghi”, featuring a firework show in the bay of San Marco while it is literally covered with boats.

It starts in the morning or early afternoon when boats are loaded up with traditional dishes cooked and prepared beforehand for the evening. These include stuffed duck, “sarde in saor” (a sardine dish), pasta and beans, the inevitable watermelon and a bevy of drinks. Everything is placed in a portable cooler to keep cold during the long, hot summer day.

In the afternoon, the boats start to moor in spots specifically set up to allow enjoying the cool of the evening while dining on board and waiting for the fireworks. When they are over, the boats return home or moor somewhere else in the lagoon to spend the night on board. Younger people head for the Lido to continue the festivities on the beach until dawn.

I have a childhood memory of the Madonna della Salute festival, celebrated on 21 November, which is still fresh. As a child, I went together with my mother, aunts and cousins on a pilgrimage to the “Chiesa della Salute” or ‘Church of Health’. There was no way of getting out of it even if, as often happens at that time of year, the weather was not good and the day was rainy and cold.

For us children, the walk to the church ended for us by purchasing some sweets at the fair stalls in the churchyard.

During this festival, Venetians eat a traditional soup dish of mutton called “castradina” to stay warm as they wait in the boat the first morning mass.

There are many holidays that also stem from ancient and recent secular traditions, for example, the Carnival of Venice, to mention a well-known one.

Another ritutal that Venetians maintain is one falling on 25 April, the saint’s day of the city’s patron, Saint Mark.

The tradition on this day is that boyfriends and husbands giive their girlfriends and wives a “bocolo” or a red rosebud in remembrance of their love. The custom comes from a legend that tells of a young man who died in battle in a far away land. His red blood coloured the white roses there and these were taken to his betrothed in Venice.

Whether just legend or a reality, Venetian women would not give up the “bocolo” they receive from their men for anything in the world.