Category: Featured
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Kingfishers
Every once in a while we spot a kingfisher when we’re paddling around in Venice and surroundings. This year it has happened surprisingly often, and as a first I have managed to get some photos with the waterproof compact cameras we carry on our tours. Kingfisher seen in Venice, Canale San Pietro: Kingfisher seen at […]
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Burano at high tide
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Fiera di Primiero
Its not that often that I get to go on a summer holiday, but I stole a week off work in August to escape the heat in Venice and head for the mountains. We went to a small town called Fiera di Primiero in the Alps and spend most of the time walking around in […]
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Regata Storica
This year’s Regata Storica was held on September 6th, and we went down to look in our gondola, which we moored just opposite the Erberia close to Rialto.
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Tour of the lagoon
We went for a tour around the lagoon of Venice on Sunday, up north past Burano and Torcello to the abandoned islands of Sant’Ariano, La Cura and further up to some of the fish farms in the lagoon.
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No Grandi Navi
On May 9th there was a fairly large demonstration in Venice against the passage of the cruise ships in the lagoon. We went and took some photos.
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Simone Costantini
In Venice there’s a lot of boat traffic, and of course accidents happen. Especially after dark. Ten years ago, on April 15th 2005, Simone Costantini, a young gondoliere from the Lido, was on his way back from work in his motorboat, when hit a briccola in the lagoon near San Giorgio Maggiore. He was alone, […]
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“Detourism” in Venice
The City of Venice has a project they call “Detourism” supposedly promoting sustainable tourism in Venice. They describe it this way: Travel Venice like a local DETOURISM is a new project of the City of Venice for curious travellers who enjoy wander off the beaten path looking for the Venice most unusual and secret places […]
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Lonely Planet video
Lonely Planet visited Venice Kayak a while ago, and produced this little video.
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A Roman boy in 1912
I’m currently listening to a podcast on the Byzantine Empire, which is very interesting. An episode discussing the identity of the people of the Byzantine Empire mentioned a story of a little boy on an island that had been part of the Ottoman empire but was passing to Greece. A Greek soldier met a small […]
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Contorted Venice
In the 1960s a deep canal was dug across the Venetian lagoon to give access to bigger ships to the commercial harbour at Marghera, and since then Venice has been flooded by ever more frequent and ever higher tides. To counter this threat to Venice’s existence a system of mobile flood gates was devised at […]
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Repairing the s-ciopon
Our s-ciopon (a traditional Venetian wooden boat) is currently under repair. It started to take in a bit of water back in February, and as I was leaving for a short holiday, I had to take it out of the water. It’s been on land now for three months which is not good for a […]
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Poor Poveglia
The challenge of the association Poveglia per tutti of collecting enough money to beat the other bid for the island, failed. The association arrived at €420,000 but that was not enough, as the unknown other bidder had offered €513,000 for the island. Second battle lost, then. The war is not necessarily lost, though. The next […]
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Save Poveglia
Help the Venetianskeep the island Poveglia! Venice is slowly being taken over by tourism. Ever more property is being bought and converted to offers for tourists, leaving less and less space for the residents of the city, who often feel that they’re being expelled from they own city. Now the lagoon island of Poveglia is […]
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The Burano Colour Game
Burano is famous for its many coloured houses. One of the fun things to do there is to find houses that matches people’s clothes.
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Venetian rowing in the 18th century
Antonio Vivaldi, the composer from the 18th century who wrote The Four Seasons, also wrote operas to be performed in Venetian theatres. They were rather modern for their time, and one of Vivaldi’s critics published a pamphlet against him, called “Il teatro alla moda“, which has an interesting incision on the cover. It shows a […]
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Martina rowing Venetian style
which is fair enough, as she’s Venetian. Video by René Seindal, music by Beethoven, Sonata no.8 performed by Daniel Veesey.
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Voga alla Valesana
There’s another type of Venetian rowing using two oars. It is probably less well know than the one oar type used in the gondolas of Venice. Voga alla valesana involves using two oars simultaneously, crossed. It can be quite tricky.
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Rowing in the Arsenale
We went rowing inside the area of the ancient navy docks of the Venetian Republic and took some videos. Here’s one of me rowing Venetian style, voga alla veneta, in our small sandolo.
