Tag: Venice
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The Angry Elagoonephant
The local above average size lagoon mammal can have a bad day. If the weather is foul, he is foul too.
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Rainy Day in Gondola
Some people won’t renounce their gondola ride, not even if its raining cats, dogs and medium sized lagoon elephants.
Photos from Rio di Santa Marina, on September 14th, 2009 – a fairly humid day in Venice. -
Doing the Lagoon Walk
The average depth of the Lagoon of Venice is not much, about 1.2m when the tide is at the historical zero mark, but much of the lagoon is a lot more shallow than that. The tidal difference can be up to 1.5m, from about 0.5m below the historical zero mark to 1m above, so it is not always easy to know if you can actually pass a certain spot in the lagoon at a given level of tide. Sometimes we make mistakes and we’ll have to do the lagoon walk:
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Pussy Boat
One wonders what they were thinking.
Spotted on Burano along the Fondamenta Pescheria on September 28th, 2009. -
Bello e tranquillo
There’s a lot of dogs in Venice, and many are seen in boats, often up at the bow where they can see and smell everything. This one particularly caught my attention: bello e tranquillo.
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Fire Brigade on the Canalazzo
There are strict speed limits on the Canal Grande, and its under constant surveillance, but the speed limits don’t apply to the fire brigade, as can be seen from these photos.
When you hear the siren you better move – or even better – keep to the sides always, as any rowed boat is expected to do in the Canalazzo.
The photos were taken on September 5 on the Canal Grande just in front of the City Hall, Ca’ Farsetti, very close to the Rialto Bridge.
This is not a regular occurrence. I have only seen it twice this year, and I do spend a good deal of time around the Canal Grande. -
The Elagoonephant
There has been a larger than usual mammal on the loose in the lagoon this summer.
The life size elephant stands on a shallow island near the Certosa island, just east of Venice, on the canal that leads to the airport. Most boats pass at a distance, but we can paddle right up under its trunk. It doesn’t seem to mind, though.
It appeared there in early June, just at the opening time of the Biennale, so it probably has something to do with that. If that’s the case, it will likely disappear in November when the Biennale closes.
Seen up close it looks like its made from old car tyres, heated and moulded into shape, and some pieces of drift wood.
Some have suggested that the little red ball is like a key stone on an arch. Remove that, and it’ll all come apart 🙂
The Elagoonephant 
The Elagoonephant 
The Elagoonephant 
The Elagoonephant 
Paddling with the elephant 
The Elagoonephant 
The Elagoonephant in all its tiresome glory 
The Elagoonephant -
Book: Barche del Golfo di Venezia
A dear friend of mine recently gave me a beautiful gift – the book Barche del Golfo di Venezia – an illustrated description of most of the traditional boats of the Venetian lagoon and the upper Adriatic Sea.
The various chapters describe not only the different types and classes of boats, both rowed and sailed, but also many of the now disappearing crafts associated with boats and sea faring in the lagoon area, and quite a bit of the practical, social and cultural context in which the boats were made and used. Many of the vessels are no longer used, and of some not even a single complete hull has survived.
The entire book is generously illustrated with beautiful water colours made by the author.
The text is in Italian with words, phrases and quotations in Venetian.
Luigi Divari, Barche del Golfo di Venezia, 2009, ISBN 9788883200878, Il Leggio Libreria Editrice, Sottomarina di Chioggia (VE), Italy. -
Lagoon turtle
There aren’t many reptile species in the lagoon of Venice. The lucertole are all over,there are snakes on some islands, and apparently one species of pond turtle, though I’ve never seen one of the those. Yesterday, however, I saw what looked like a different kind of turtle. We were paddling across the Canale delle Navi, between the Arsenale, Murano and le Vignole, which is a place with a lot of traffic, when I spotted something different in the water. It didn’t move but it had a too weird shape to ignore, so I returned back into the canal to find it again.
It looked barely alive when I picked it up, it hardly moved, but I took it to a more sheltered and shallower place and let it go, and it started swimming again.
I have no idea which species it is. The size matches the European pond turtle, but I have never seen one of those with spines on the back like the one has.
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Pied a terre – Venetian style
One day as I was paddling through some of the smaller canals in the sestiere S.Marco, close to the Fenice, I spotted this little sign in a window directly on the canal:
The sign reads: “Pied a terre of 50 mq, completely restored with high quality details”.
Even though I was looking for a place to live at the time, it probably wasn’t just that pied a terre I was looking for 🙂
Pied a terre or pied dans l’eau ?
The spot is on the Rio de Verona on a little used stretch between the Fenice and the Rio Malatin / Rio Sant’Angelo. -
Jump
At high tide the water in the canals at Murano is clean enough for the local children to swin and play in the water. The kids were jumping from the bridge in front of the medieval church SS. Marie e Donato.
