René’s old blog

This site is some twenty-five years old, and it contains lots of ancient stuff, much of it utterly dated and useless.

Sorry about that.

If anything, I post very unevenly, and about whatever occupies me.

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Most recent posts

  • Save Poveglia

    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…

  • Early May in Venice

    Early May in Venice

    A few photos from a recent paddle through Venice.

  • Mare Nostrum Project

    A couple of French kayakers are on a journey along the northern side of the Mediterranean, a 10.000km trip from Gibraltar to Istanbul. We hope to host them when they arrive here in Venice in a few weeks time. They’re currently half way up the Italian east coast. Mare Nostrum Project.

  • The Burano Colour Game

    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.

  • Bits of Rusty History

    Bits of Rusty History

    The Certosa island was home to an armaments factory, the Pirotecnica della Certosa, for the first half of the 20th century. It was shut down definitively in 1958. I found this on the ground a few days ago.

  • Gondoliere practise

    Gondoliere practise

    Waiting for the Carnival procession on the Canal Grande at the traghetto San Samuele we enjoyed the view of two gondolieri practising the manoeuvres they need to do the operate the traghetto. They needed to turn the boat repeatedly and fast, to navigate the current and waves the other traffic caused and to enter the…

  • La Festa dei Veneziani

    La Festa dei Veneziani

    The Venetian carnival has just started, and one of the first events is the Festa dei Veneziani, which more or less implies that the rest of the carnival is not for or of the Venetians, which is also entirely true. The first part of this feast is a procession of Venetian rowing boats through most…

  • Venetian rowing in the 18th century

    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…

  • Videos on Facebook

    Post a video on Facebook with some music in it, and they’ll remove it due to “Intellectual Property” concerns. I’ve found some classical music that’s free to use in videos, actively put in the Public Domain by the artists, and Facebook will complain anyway. There’s even a not so subtle threat in there: Hello,We have…