Living Venice

Floating Carnevale

Feb 14, 2010 About Venice, VIVA la voga

Judging by the crowds that lined bridges as well as the number of participating boats and rowers, the Corteo Carnevale isbecoming almost as popular as the Vogalonga.

This costumed procession is held on the first weekend of the two-week long Carnevale, open to anyone and everyone that knows how to row Venetian-style and can get their hands on an oar. Costumes range from simple to ornate, sensational to silly (keep your eyes peeled for the peanut), handmade to half-baked. The procession winds its way up the Grand Canal from the Salute, and is followed by a festa in the Canale Cannaregio, with a flying rat, awards for best costume and a party running the length of the fondamenta.

For more superb photos of this spectacular event, visit vogavenezia.com

Whack.

Feb 1, 2010 About Venice

“So what’s a battipali,” you ask? “A human pile-driver,” might be the translated response.

Ever wonder how the piles that define Venetian parking places were once driven into the soft canal bed? (When you didn’t have the mechanized version handy, I mean.)

Easy: you found a big strong he-man, gave him an attrezzatura (implement) created just for such a task, and…

….WHACK. Fatto.

I am so sorry I missed this (but at least we have the enduring image).

Photo courtesy Arzanà.org

Does the Venetian lagoon ever freeze?

Dec 20, 2009 About Venice

In 1929, it did. How cold was it?

This cold. Walk-from-Fondamente-Nove-to-Murano cold.

1929 was a harsh winter for all of Europe…Venice included. A voga friend uploaded this archival video of Frozen Venice; they’d not experienced anything like it for over 100 years. (Check his YouTube site for more historic footage.)

Can you spot the vaporetto di una volta, from once upon a time?

After running a few errands and making it back inside just before my nose fell off, I’m still refusing to believe we’re gearing up for a similar experience this winter.

Speriamo bene (Hoping for the best)…

Peek inside Palazzo Dario

Nov 21, 2009 About Venice

Everyone knows the exotic Palazzo Dario and the unhappy ends met by some of its owners, as endlessly recounted in guidebooks and Grand Canal tours. You may also have spotted the inscription on the garden wall in Campiello Barbaro behind it, installed there by one-time-owner and extensive renovator, the Contessa De La Baume-Pluvinel:

In questa casa antica dei Dario,
Henri de Régnier—
poeta di Francia—
venezianamente visse e scrisse—
anni 1899-1901.

“In this antique home of Dario,
Henri de Régnier — poet of France —
‘Venetianly’ lived and wrote —
from 1899-1901.”

You’ve probably only seen the inside, though, if you’ve inquired about purchasing it.

This Corbis gallery of photographs by Massimo Listri offers a rare look at the palazzo’s extraordinarily opulent interior. You can see how someone might be tempted to risk their fortune to live there.

Finally, for more background on this intriguing Palazzo, take a look at scholar Diana Wright’s notes.

For Donna Leon fans…

Aug 4, 2009 About Venice, Worth Noting

Most Venice afficianatos can’t decide who they like more, author Donna Leon or her famossimo Commissioner Guido Brunetti — whose popularity rivals that of the Piazza San Marco itself.

In any case, you’ll be able to hear a rebroadcast of Leon’s appearance last April on KQED’s City Arts and Lectures tonight, at 8 p.m. PST, and again at 2 a.m. the following morning. If the time difference makes it inconvenient to listen live, I hear there are ways to record streaming audio…

From the KQED site, just click on Listen Live.

Says Giorgia: “I’m a gondolier, first and foremost.”

Jul 2, 2009 About Venice, Vita venexiàn

Not surprisingly, Giorgia makes amends. First, the SMS was an error, and second, she knows far better than to bite the hand, eccettera.

I would have been surprised if, as the first female gondolier, Giorgia had “taken the movie deal;” that is, sold out a goal she’d held dear all her life for a bit of short-term fame. That said, there’s no doubt she has been inundated with requests from all over the world for interviews, photo ops, and who knows what else…it’s only natural she could use a hand managing the initial wave. So, she asked her “agent” — her sister — to help by answering the phone. And there was some resulting confusion. And it made headlines (including on this blog). Ah, Venice.

Giorgia shoulders all the blame herself, though: Se ho sbagliato chiedo scusa. “Forgive me if I caused any problems.” She never meant to ask money from a journalist, but expenses from Canale 5 who wanted her in Milan (the SMS was intended for them). The errors stand corrected, as of this morning’s article in the Gazzettino.

“I’ve worked too hard and made others suffer too much to get this far – I wouldn’t ever want this short-term fame to being harm either to me or to any of the gondoliers.”

“I hope to become a gondolier in every way,” she adds. “but it’s overwhelming me a little all this brouhaha going on around me.”

Ci credo…I believe it. It would surprise me that a woman and a mother of young children with the temerity to even attempt becoming a gondolier would so easily cave to the temptations of her “15-seconds.” I’m delighted to hear the backstory clarified.

Vai Giorgia, sei fortissima!

Tags: female gondolier, gondola, gondolier, venice