Venetians have been moving about their watery city in gondolas since the eleventh century. These beautiful boats have flat bottoms which make them ideal for use in the shallow lagoon and canals. “A gondola is always black, is 10.85 metres long, has a beam of 1.40 metres and weighs about 700 kilograms. In the 1500s an estimated 10,000 gondolas of all types were in Venice; … Continue reading The Most Famous Boat in the World
Venice isn’t just a stage set, It’s also a city with a resident population, which has productive activities, transportation and services. But how does the “Venice system” work? How do the tides in the lagoon behave? How are the canals formed? And the embankments? What’s under the buildings? This rather hilarious but very informative video explains Venice’s fascinating workings very clearly. Directed by Nicolò Scibilia … Continue reading Venice Backstage
The harsh reality of owning property in Venice didn’t really hit me until we had signed all the documents with the Notary in Padua, he read the entire sale and purchase agreement in Italian and then in English, we initialed and signed in all the relevant places. We then caught the train back over the causeway and a vaporetto slowly down the Grand Canal taking … Continue reading OMG! What Have We Done?
The thought of renovating a 300 year old apartment in Venice had even me, who had renovated three houses in New Zealand, feeling slightly overwhelmed. Mind you, 100 year old wooden, single story villas are rather more manageable than a handmade brick apartment in a five story building, on a canal, built on top of timber posts from the Balkans at the time when Antonio … Continue reading A Venetian Renovation
TRAVELS PAST & PRESENT 