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Superlatives for Venice abound. You’ll choose your own when you’ve been there. For me, in its literal sense, that much overused word “awesome” is just about right. Venice inspires awe. Just the building of the present city between say the 11th century and the 18th century was an amazing accomplishment. Built, as all the huge palaces and churches are, on dozens of islands joined together by hundreds of bridges, it would probably give even modern architects and engineers some headaches. And it is not all standing on solid islands. For example, the church of the Salute (by our standards cathedral size) constructed between 1630 and 1687, stands entirely on wooden piles driven into the bottom of the lagoon: no less than 1,156,627 of them (although who counted so precisely in the 17th century I’m not sure). Crowds: People tend to say Venice is crowded. If you stay on the main street (Strada Nuova) or around St. Mark’s Square then, yes, it can be crowded. But then you can often find quite a few souls on Oxford Street or in Piccadilly Circus in London. If you visit some of the residential areas of the city ( not more than 10 minutes’ walk from the centre) you will find deserted canals and quiet leafy squares to relax in. |
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Venice is built on wood poles. Under Santa Maria della Salute church there are about 100.000 poles.
The wood had been taken from Cadore forests, in the Alps. The island of Murano is famous for glass. This tradition started in 1291, when the Venetian Republic ordered glassmakers to move here, to avoid fire and destruction of the Venice buildings, mostly made of wood. The palaces in Venice were built with the facade in front of the canal. The entrance used today was actually the secondary one. |
The inhospitable nature of the lagoon, from which Venice grew as if by magic, has demanded of the Venetians an extraordinary capacity to adapt to a particular lifestyle implemented by means of an uncommon spirit of initiative. To combat the waters, now too high, now too low, and to make their way around the myriads of islands, the Venetians built the gondola and hundreds of bridges as well as planting thousands of poles.
Gondola
No-one knows exactly when the gondola was invented: the word gundula appears as early as 1094 in a decree of the Doge Vitale Falier although the reference relates to a massive boat equipped with a large crew of rowers — a far cry from the gondola we know today.
In the 14C, small boats covered with a central canopy, bore metal decorations on the prow and stern. At the end of the century the vessel began to be made longer and lighter, the prow and stern were raised and the felze or cabin was added which gave shelter in bad weather. Some had decorated prows. Others were painted in bright colours and decked with satin, silk and gleaming brass. On the prow and stern stood painted cherubs bearing the coat of arms of the family to which the gondola belonged. From the 16C, boats were gradually toned down by being painted black: a colour we might judge to be rather funereal, but in Venice red, not black, is the colour of mourning. Today the gondola is about 1 1 m (36 feet) long, 1.42m (4 feet) wide and comprises some 280 pieces of wood.
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The Venetian lagoon, together with those of Marano and Grado, form part of a much larger shallow basin that extends down to Ravenna and Aquileia. This expanse was flooded at the end of the Ice Age by the convergence of rivers, swollen by melted snow from the Alps and Apennines.
Today it provides a natural and complex habitat to wetland flora and fauna spread over 58,660 hectares (234,640 acres) between the Cavallino coast to the northeast and the Lido and Chioggia to the southwest. Water levels are maintained by the sea: its tides constitute both an ever-present threat to the delicate make-up of the Venet¬ian lagoon while also providing its regular safeguard from stagnation. The sea merges with the canals' fresh water through three channels by the Lido, at Chioggia and Malamocco, where dikes were installed at the beginning of the century.
The mainland reaches out a finger towards Venice, and the gap is spanned by the Ponte della Liberta (Bridge of Liberty). Otherwise, the coast's ominous profile cast in reflection across the lagoon is that of industrial developments at Mestre and Porto Marghera. These have grown around the ageless waters of the Brenta Naviglio which, having run amongst Palladian villas, flows peacefully into the lagoon at Malcontenta. Other buildings betray the affluence of tourism: the modern Tessera airport and the prettified Jesolo, beach huts along the sandy beach stretch as far as Punta Sabbioni. In summer, crowds drawn through a tree-lined avenue to this natural "barrier" punctuated by the Lido di Jesolo, Cavallino, Ca' Savio, Treporti and Punta Sabbioni, are swollen by large numbers of campsites or the proliferation of other accommodation and, naturally, day-trippers from Venice which can be reached by vaporetto from Punto Sabbioni and Treporti.
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Venetians are especially proud of their seafood. A traditional plate of antipasto, offers a chance to savor a wonderful selection of local shellfish including “peoci, bovoli and canoce, and crab, granseole and gransipori.As a primo or starter, bigoli in salsa, (thick coarse spaghetti served with lightly fried onions and anchovies) is one of the most popular courses but there are also many kind of risotto made with meat and/or with vegetables, or more especiallywith fish or “in tecia” with cuttlefish.Fish from the Adriatic is often served grilled with, in spring, “castraure” (young fried artichokes): eels (“bisato” in dialect), on the other hand hand are either broiled or poached. One common ingredient is vinegard used in all kind of ways but notably for pickling and preparing “saor”, a kind of carp.For a truly typical dish, try a bite of “baccalà mantecato”, salt cot beaten to a smooth cream with oil, garlic and parsley and served with polenta. |
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