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
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?
How will we get new sofas, dining table, beds, television, microwave and everything else we will need for a comfortable apartment from the shops along very narrow calli (streets) and up narrow stairs to our front door? On top of all that, how will they find us? Our address is 5961 Cannaregio, Venezia. That’s like saying 5961 London, England. The first day we arrived in … Continue reading Venetian Shoppers Only
TRAVELS PAST & PRESENT 