René's old blog
Whatever I feel like posting, whenever
This site goes back some twenty-five years, so it is bound to be full of stale links and irrelevant information. It is, at best, updated irregularly.
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I never really liked spiders, but I met this fellow in the lagoon today, and a couple of his mates, and while I knew some small animals can walk on water, I’ve never seen anything like it before.
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Long time, no racks
Venice Kayak has now operated for eight seasons, and to celebrate that we have finally made some racks for the kayaks. For the first time ever we haven’t got any kayaks lying around on the ground. The three boats below…
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Moto ondoso
One of the main environmental problems in Venice is the moto ondoso – wave movement. It is mostly caused by taxis and tourist boats, to a lesser extent by vaporetti (water buses) and private boats. The constant churning of the…
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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…
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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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Nativa by Arzanà navi
The Nativa is a super yacht built by Arzanà navi. It is quite often moored at the Certosa island from where we do our kayaking tours.
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Kayak ban in Venice – new rules in force from tomorrow
The recent kayaking ban on the Grand Canal and other canals has been partially overturned. The new rules are explained here. They will be in effect from tomorrow morning, April 23rd. The formal publication of the new rules are on…
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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…
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Kayaking ban in Venice – new rules
The rules for paddling in Venice city will be moderated from April 20th. The new rules were decided by the city executive on April 3rd, published officially on April 9th and they’ll be executive ten days after publication. The kayak/canoe/dragon/sup…
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Kayaking ban in Venice – the city’s proposal
The City of Venice has issues a wide ban on kayaks, canoes, SUPs, dragon boats and more. Yesterday I had a meeting with a representative of the municipal government, sufficiently high up in the hierarchy to be able to influence…