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Published: September 30th 2017
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We commenced our day by taking a walking tour of Venice. Our trusty guide was a young Venetian named Giacomo, who was studying Post Grad in Architecture at the University in Venice. He was very knowledgeable about the city, and cracked many jokes during our tour, making it an informative yet interesting morning. Giacomo wound us through narrow alleys and across bridges and squares that we would never have encountered, taking us into churches where master artists had painted significant yet little known works. He also gave us the inside tips on where to eat like a local, and how to navigate the six districts of Venice.
Venice is a very different city. You hear a siren and you look around for the Police Car, Ambulance or Fire Engine, and next minute a vessel with lights flashing flies past, with bow wave swamping the Gondolas. Police, Ambulance and the local Fire Department all operate out of boats within Venice. Movement of goods in and out of the city is by boat or barge, and even the Postal Service and Couriers operate by boat. One canal we saw even has traffic lights.
Venice was in effect,
built across a series of muddy islands, lying barely above the waterline. The population initially came to Venice to escape attacks from the Moors, and built the city on top of timber poles sunk down into the mud of the many islands. This unfortunately decimated many of the forests around the local area, and as a consequence, they had to source timber from the Dolomite Mountains. Today, Venice is actually sinking into the mud, and with sea levels rising due to climate change, a huge engineering project is currently underway to try to prevent king tides from inundating the city. Around 750 Venetians are leaving the city each year, primarily due to the high rents that they have to endure as a consequence of the influx of the 25 million tourists that visit the city on an annual basis. I have only been here at short while and I get frustrated with the tourists.
One of the interesting places we visited on our Walking Tour was the Gondola Factory, where we viewed master craftsmen making Gondolas on order from highly trained Gondoliers. The Gondolas take seven months to build, and cost between thirty and fifty thousand Euro.
Crafting the Gondolas is a dying trade, with few if any, young people being trained in the factory. Each Gondola has a rowing arm attached to the Gondola, forged specifically to hold the single oar of a Gondolier, and are built to suit the height and weight of the Gondolier.
One of the old stone block carvings above a doorway was an image of a Blacksmith at his anvil, with a small boy assisting. Takes me back to when I had to hold the ends of red hot tipped crowbars on the anvil whilst my Dad brought the sledge hammer down to shape the hot iron.
After finishing the walking tour, we had a light lunch and then headed for San Marco (the main square of Venice), to take a Vaporetto out to two of the islands lying offshore from the city. First stop was the island of Murano, the traditional home of glass making. It was interesting walking around the shops and viewing the products from the Glass Furnaces. Unfortunately, cheap glass imports are making it very difficult for the traditional glass makers to survive, and it is really only the high end
artistic glass creations that are flourishing.
The next island we visited was the island of Burano, the traditional home of lace making. Once again, cheap lace imports are making it difficult for the lace makers to survive. Each of the small terraced houses on Burano are painted in different bright colours, which made for some interesting photos. The Campanile tower attached to the Church on Burano has a significant and noticeable lean, which can be seen from the blog photo. Reminded me of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
After taking the Vaporetto back to Venice, we sought out one of Giacomo’s top restaurant picks.
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