Category: Living in Venice
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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.
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A day a-rowing
Last year we bought a small Venetian rowing boat, a s-ciopon, which is one of the smallest traditional Venetian boats. Usually I just fool around in the lagoon near the Certosa island, but yesterday I took it to Venice. I rowed over to the bus terminal at Piazzale Roma to pick up Martina at 19.30…
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Ancient graffiti
The current entrance to the hospital in Venice originally housed the Scuola Grande di San Marco, an important confraternity and one of the six Scuole Grandi of Venice. In the early 19th century it was turned into a military hospital by the then Austrian rulers of Venice, and later it became a civilian hospital. The…
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Google Canal view
Google has launched Street View for Venice, and also Canal View. In the limited space available in Venice, both on land and on water, it was hard not to notice the cameras, which were taken around the city on special back packs and on boats. We spotted this boat on the Grand Canal in August.…
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Winter project: rowing a gondola
My winter project this year is to learn how to row a gondola well enough to move around the canals of Venice. For now, however, we’re rowing in the area of the Certosa, Vignole and Sant’Erasmo Islands in the lagoon.
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Venetian mystery solved
Who took the lion’s share … Of feline dental care? He did! (the lions are on the side of the Punto della Dogana in Venice)
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The death of an island
The island Madonna del Monte, aka Madonna del Rosario, is a small island in the Venetian lagoon, located on the canal which connects Murano and Burano. It is dying a slow death. It housed a monastery for a period in the middle ages, but then lay abandoned for centuries, until another monastery was founded in…
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Two months ago a German died in a gondola
Two month ago today a German tourist died in a gondola besides the Rialto bridge. The city administration announced a plan of 26 points which should bring some order to traffic on the Canal Grande. These included separation of traffic, so cargo boats could only work until around 10.30am, while the gondolas could only work…
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The Gondola Zoo
As I was walking the dog this morning down in our campo, watching the gondolas being readied for the day, I hear one of the gondoliers moan “oh, here comes another group” and speedily retreat away from the boats. Shortly after they arrive, a group of 30-40 tourists, Russian sounding, probably from a cruise ship,…
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Why Venice Residents Say “No” to Big Ships in The Lagoon | Italy Magazine
This article covers most of what I tried to write in my previous post. http://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/why-venice-residents-say-no-big-ships-lagoon
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Cruise invasion of Venice
This weekend some 28 cruise ships and ferries will arrive in Venice. On Sunday alone, 12 cruise ships will arrive, of which 8 are huge, all in all carrying over 40.000 passengers. This might all be good. After all, 40.000 passengers have money in their pockets, which means business for Venice. Its not all that…