Recent Articles
Fill up and download at free Wi-Fi cafe
Jun 22, 2010 Instructions for Use 4 Comments
Just a note for travelers to Venice (with apologies for not getting this posted sooner):
There is free Wi-Fi to be had at the cafe Tappa Obbligatoria on the Strada Nova between Campo San Sofia and the calle Ca d’Oro. Free. Just show up and connect.
They also have outdoor seating, great panini and tramezzini sandwiches, a few hot primi, and even a small room in the back for hiding out. So, you can fill up while you catch up.
If anyone discovers any more of these gems, please share.
(By the way, it’s just as “obligatory” to grab a refreshing gelato just down the Strada toward Campo Santi Apostoli on the same side…)
Cruise passengers (and there’re lots of you), rejoice and be moved.
Jun 9, 2010 ACTV, vaporetto, & city transit, Instructions for Use 2 Comments
The Peoplemover tram, inaugurated in late April to great fanfare, transfers passengers comfortably and sustainably in three minutes between Piazzale Roma and the Tronchetto parking facility. It is a welcome transit option for the masses of travelers and workers alike who come and go by car daily from the mainland. At its opening though, the Peoplemover was missing only one thing: the intermediate stop that services the Marittima cruise terminal. (Actually, the stop itself had been completed…but the tram just cruised on by.)
Never fear. As of now all tram stops are fully functional, meaning Marittima cruise passengers too can now reach Piazzale Roma quickly, comfortably, and economically.
Passengers just follow the sidewalk from the terminal parking lot to the tram stop; about a two-minute walk. Tickets are vended (€1 each, machines take euro coins or cash) from the machine on ground level. There’s an escalator or elevator provided to reach the tram platform, where every eight minutes (time to arrival is displayed on an overhead LED) a quiet, climate-controlled tram will arrive to ease passengers either to Tronchetto or (more likely) Piazzale Roma. There they can pick up VeniceConnected passes, purchase vaporetto tickets, hire a taxi, or walk to the city center.
The buck now stops here….and it’s a very convenient buck, too.
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The Peoplemover is operational during the following hours:
Mon – Sat:
7a – 11p
Sun and holidays
8a – 10p (summer)
8:30a – 9p (winter)
Vogalonga 2010: one for the record books
May 25, 2010 Events & Offerings 5 Comments
Spettacolare. Ideale. Glorioso. Whether you were participating in 36th annual Vogalonga or cheering your pals from the nearest riva or fondamenta, nothing less than superlatives will do when describing the day, the row, the joy, the experience. The thousands of oar-powered boats and thousands more rowers propelling them along the 32 kilometer / 20-mile course from the San Marco Bacino north to Burano, back to Murano and the Cannaregio Canal and down the Grand Canal enjoyed gentle winds, temperate temps, and golden rays…a marked contrast from the near hurricane conditions of the prior year.
As far as we know, we were the only two all-female crews of traditional caorlina type boats. We looked like a set of twins, with bright flowers adorning our grass-green boat, and coordinating kerchiefs; our sister craft had netting that streamed behind it into the water (that’s what we assumed got them into the next day’s journal La Nuova Venezia, and not US).
Little matter…just take in the looks on every rower’s face to see what a grand time was had by all.
Favorite kayaker quote of the day: “They need to make this canal bigger for next year!” Hm….wouldn’t hold my breath.
(We only mowed down four kayaks and two sculls. A much better record that last year. If only they would turn their heads on occasion… )
Safet Zec: Powerful Painting at the Correr
May 21, 2010 Events & Offerings 5 Comments
Doors and drapes, boats and baskets, paints and potatoes, Venetian façades: silent, radiant objects speak volumes to viewers at the Correr until July 18th.
Even though he’s acclaimed internationally, has had an atelier in Venice since 1998, and painted for decades in Sarajevo and Pocitelj (near Mostar), you still may not know the engaging, evocative works of Bosnian artist Safet Zec.
If you don’t, this adeptly curated exhibition would be the perfect occasion to make his acquaintance. These engrossing pieces vary widely in subject matter, medium, and presentation; some never before on exhibit. Visitors are routed past intimate watercolor studies and reflective pen and pencil sketches that are not only marvelous in their own right, but as precursors offer insight into the series of rich, almost life-sized watercolor, tempura, and oil depictions that follow.
The abundance of natural light filtering through the white mesh panels on the upper floor of the Correr is particularly complementary to a radiance that seems to emanate from almost every painting. Adding another dimension is the frequent and unexpected use of carta intelata: newsprint or other common paper stock treated to serve as canvas. It seeps and peers though images and brush strokes, incorporating itself seamlessly to become an integral part of the whole.
“I like that something discarded, dirty, and of little apparent value serves as the base for a work with grander intent,” says Zec. The result of his unique approach and intuitive, impressionable eye is a powerful, delicate, fascinating collection of paintings that seem to exude the very essence of their subject matter, making them a pleasure to behold.
Safet Zec: The Power of Painting
Through July 18
Museo Correr
10 – 6 p.m. (last entrance at 5 pm)
Extra, extra: Sior Rioba, to be whole once again.
May 4, 2010 About Venice, Vita venexiàn 2 Comments
The news arrived first the via a message from l’Associazione Olivolo (established to protect Venetian tradition), and seemed nothing short of a miracle: they found it. They found the head of our dear Sior Rioba.
The missing marble mass (along with its good-luck iron nose) was discovered this morning in the Sotoportego di Calle de la Racheta (the underpass that connects the calle with the Fondamenta San Felice) by some ecological workers in the area. They turned it over to the police.
On reading the news, I was ecstatic, beside myself, almost unbelieving. Reading others’ reactions on the Cercasi disparatamente Sior Rioba (Desperately Seeking Sior Rioba) facebook page, I saw they were similar. Relief, celebration, exultation.
The entire city had been so stunned and appalled by this senseless act; residents and social networks mobilized immediately, denouncing the defacement and calling for the Sior to be made whole again. But why the extreme reaction? There are certainly greater tragedies, on much larger scales and at human cost, occurring daily. Why all the fuss?
Perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps in these days of car bombs and national bankruptcies becoming as common as colds, senators comporting themselves as 10-year-olds, the term ‘financially successful’ now established as a synonym for screw-everyone-as-long-as-I-get-mine, a massive spigot belching black crude into an emerald gulf, series of natural disasters each more heartbreaking that the last, and an overall lack of respect for every one and every thing manifest in almost every type of institution from government to religious to business, the recovery of an ancient marble head so pointlessly removed from a statue held dear by locals and travelers alike was so welcome, you might have thought we’d all won the lottery.
Given that to win the lottery you have to enter, and that it’s easy to feel powerless in a world where uncertainty is the norm, I’ll celebrate this small, but precious bit of good news, and hold it very, very close. For in the end our Sior Riobas help us withstand the other muck: they are there, stalwart, impervious, unchanging; completely unperturbed by, say, Goldman Sachs’ uncanny ability to humbly endure a senatorial tongue lashing while simultaneously counting the billions they made off the misfortune they sold.
Hang in there, Sior Rioba. When we heard of your misfortune, a wave of indignation flooded the city as thoroughly as any acqua alta we have ever endured. We will now wait for the news of the grande festa once your head is back atop your rounded shoulders, helping you support your load of precious merchandise, keeping watch over the expansive campo named for you and your brothers.
I, for one, will touch that good-luck nose once it’s back where it belongs. We need all the help we can get.
