Only in Venice. The organization “Fuori Grandi Navi dalla Laguna” (Big Ships Out of the Lagoon) invites costumed demonstrators to gather on Friday, February 17 from 2:30 p.m. on to raise their voices against the number and route of oversized cruise ships that traverse the Venetian canals.
If you’re here for Carnevale, feel free to join in: there’ll be music, vin brule, and a few surprises, as always. Un’esperienza unica.
Venite numerosi—come one, come all! And don’t forget your mask.
The winter of 2012 has brought meters of snow and arctic temps throughout Italy and the rest of Europe; weeks of sub-freezing temps here in Venice have turned the lagoon into a concoction resembling a frozen margherita without the tequila.
Water taxis banned from airport access due to motor-damaging ice (the larger Alilaguna are running, however); ice-breaking motoscafi working to keep channels open for the rest of the fleet; the opening Carnevale sfilata rowing parade was posponed a week due to icy temps and 20 to 30 mile-an-hour winds. This is the winter I experienced when I first moved here over seven years ago, the one I braced for in subsequent winters, but the one which has only just returned this year.
It’s a challenge, but Venice and Venetians take it as it comes, recounting prior winters just as cold and colder, decades and centuries past, engineering appropriate outerwear (furs, furs) to survive errands and market shopping, using the cold as an excuse for a hot chocolate (literally, mind you: hot, melted, chocolate), or an extra Carnevale fritelle or galani pastry (merita), one more ombra in compania as we make plans for when the cold snap ends.
On a more intimate scale, I spotted a pair of devoted mallards who make their home in a neighborhood canal. They’d apparently been out for a “stroll,” but were having difficulty avoiding the ice on their return to the rio dell’Orto. I hope they made it. Forza, coraggio…
I’ll be back to blogging regularly soon, but in the meantime, here’s wishing all of us a 2012 that’s as bright, promising, and peaceful as a sunrise on the Dolomites.
The holiday concert features Laurentius Dinca, the first violinist of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Accademia Musicale di San Giorgio, Fondazione Cini Orchestra.
The Teatro Malibran is La Fenice’s smaller, more intimate sister theatre named for the Spanish opera singer Maria Malibran. It’s located just behind the Chiesa S. Giovanni Crisostomo along the calle of the same name, not far from Fiaschetteria Toscana. The program includes:
two Mendelssohn works, the Symphony for Strings no. 10 and the Concert for Violin and Orchestra in D minor. The soloist is Laurentius Dinca, who plays an Andrea Guarneri violin.
Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 “Linz,” is directed by Maestro Alessandro Tortato of the Accademia Musicale di San Giorgio.
The (about 700) free tickets may be obtained while supplies last at the Teatro La Fenice ticket office on Saturday, Dec 17 and Sunday, November 18 between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Remaining tickets will be available at the Teatro Malibran on Sunday from 6 p.m. until the concert begins.
From the original post in Italian at 100x100venezia.com:
The owner exhibits a explicit sign in the window of the shop just a stone’s throw from the Frari church. It’s the umpteenth store closing in Venice. This one’s a bit unconventional though: the words also appear in Chinese, or at something that resembles it. Everyone knows Chinese regularly buy out businesses and turn them into trinket bazaars [they’re rarely so actively targeted, though].
