Venetian Treasure Hunt - Spoiler Alert!
Dec 15th, 2010, 07:44 AM
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Venetian Treasure Hunt - Spoiler Alert!
There’s Venetian Treasure hunt on Fodors – it is here.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...asure-hunt.cfm
I don’t want to spoil the fun for people, but here are the answers to the hunt (missing a couple of answers).
People often say that their plans for visiting Venice include “wandering the streets and getting lost”. Getting lost is almost a given – even with the best maps, it is easy to lose your sense of direction here, and a GPS won’t help much.
Wandering the streets is fun, but wandering with a sense of purpose is more fun. The quiz takes you from one end of Venice to the other, and gives a reason to go to quite under-populated places. If you think of doing it, it is easier if you do your navigation before you start, put highlights on your map, or you will do a lot of back-tracking. I’ve enjoyed doing it, and it has taken me to bits of Venice that I’d not have otherwise visited.
1. How many arches are there altogether on the Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove in St Mark's Square? [Stefano actually counted from the Zecca and round the Libreria Sansoviniana, but I will take the answer as the question is written. But there is still a catch! - at least I think so.] ………….. I’ve not done this one – keeping it for a sunny day, and combining it with a coffee at Quadri’s.
2. On one of the columns of the Doges' Palace there is a very old piece of graffiti. What does it depict? [Obviously you'll have to go there to find out. Some help - it's on one of the columns along the Molo.] …………..There are three or four columns scaffolded out at the east end of the colonnade, so could not find it.
3. There is only one street called a 'Via' in Venice. On it there is a church. What time does the church's clock show? [There are actually two churches, but one is no longer in use as a church, and it does not have a clock.] The Via Garibaldi in Castello, and the clock face shows 9:30. The clock face is painted onto the church, as are the clock hands, so that clock will show 9:30 forever.
4. There are two lamp standards (lampposts) in front of the Fenice Theatre. What peculiarity do they have? [I.e. what is special or different about them?] …………..They are gas fired lamps with mantles, with an igniter in the lamp, I think.
5. Ponte della Verona, near to the Fenice. From the bridge can be seen an unusual sign that catches the eye. What does it say? [Again, you'll have to go there to find out. I don't expect that it is remarked upon in any guide-book.] The sign says “divieto do nuoto”, or “it is forbidden to swim”, which seems like good advice. Byron swam from the Lido up the Grand Canal, his gondolier following with his clothes. Petrol and diesel powered craft have rendered this practice inadvisable now.
6. Sotoportego e Corte Venier dei Leoni near San Vio. On a wall within the sottoportico there is embedded a statue. What of? [There are actually two 'statues'. Stefano means the first one, which I would not call a statue. But don't let this stop you from looking for the second!]………There is a face of a baby, a putti. It is a bit grotesque – about twice life size.
7. In the middle of Salizada San Stae there is something that arouses our curiosity. It is on the first floor [in American, the second floor] of a house. What is it? ……..The whole balcony is covered in brightly coloured fabric windmills.
8. Campiello Albrizzi a San Polo. On a wall there is something strange for Venice. What is it? [Not unique, only unusual. Make a note of the inscription.]……………There is a steel dunces cap mounted on the wall, and it has internal “teeth”, which would be painful, and probably draw blood, a simple torture implement of sorts. The Google translation is pretty rough, but I think it is to do with Barbieri (Google refers to a barber) who made pies. A finger bone was found in a pie, and you can guess the rest, a Venetian Sweeney Todd. The inscription refers to demolition of a shop, maybe the pie shop was demolished, as a mark of shame.
9. Calle dei Sansoni a Rialto. At Number 963 there is something that is not square. What is it? [The answer to this can be found on the first itinerary on the venessia.com website.] ………There is a door that is WAY out of square, the most out of square door that I’ve sighted in Venice.
10. At the nearby number 456 there is something strange. The door is like a ... what? [This, too, is on the first itinerary.] ……………….The bottom of the door is shaped like a barrel. Maybe the building used to be a wine store.
11. In Campo Santa Margherita there is the ex-Scuola dei Varoteri (School of the Tanners). There is something nearby that shows that here there was a rio that has been filled in. What is it? [There are lines of white marble inlaid into the stones showing the outline of the rio, but there is something more than that.] ………There is a stone mooring post standing in the pavement, at the corner closest to San Barnaba. I’ve read that local women used the post for bashing dried fish into a pulp – the top of the post looks well-beaten.
12. Under the Ponte Duodo between Calle Larga XXII Marzo and Campo Santo Stefano there is something unusual ... what? [There are two bridges very close together. Only Ponte Duodo is named on the wall nearby. But it is the other bridge, Ponte Feltrina, north of Ponte Duodo, that you need to look beneath.] ………..There is a bricked up doorway under the bridge, and I can’t figure out what the door would have led to. Maybe a walled garden preceded the steps.
13. San Nicolò dei Mendicoli. A column near the church. What is on top? And what is unusual about that statue? …………There is your standard Venetian winged lion with book on the column. The unusual thing (bearing in mind that I sighted this one at about 4:45 PM, by which time it was almost dark and fog was rolling in from the Canale della Guidecca) is that the lion is left handed, it has its left paw on the book. I think that every other lion has been right handed.
14. Campo Ruga near San Pietro di Castello. There is a sottoportico. Go in. What have you just hit?………………. Well, Lou did not hit her head, but she stands about 5’3”. I’m 5’9”, and would hit mine. The lowest sottoportico in Venice, probably.
15. Calle Varisco near Fondamente Nove [not all that near]. What mistake was made in this street? [Stefano is referring to the western end of the street.] ……….There are narrower calle in Venice – but this one has to be the narrowest that has doors opening into it. So narrow that the doors look as though they are never used, as the calle would be less than three feet wide. There’s a marble column at the entry to the narrow part, and it seems the builders took the column as the desired alignment for the wall of the calle – thereby creating a pretty useless calle.
16 Ponte di San Giovanni Grisostomo is still known to locals as Ponte dei Giocat(t)oli [two ts in Italian, probably one in Venetian], because there used to be a toy shop next to it. The shop now sells shoes, but what did the toy shop leave behind?………….Ah, the remnant toy. A Donald Duck, made of Lego bricks, gazes out in somewhat forlorn fashion from an upper window.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...asure-hunt.cfm
I don’t want to spoil the fun for people, but here are the answers to the hunt (missing a couple of answers).
People often say that their plans for visiting Venice include “wandering the streets and getting lost”. Getting lost is almost a given – even with the best maps, it is easy to lose your sense of direction here, and a GPS won’t help much.
Wandering the streets is fun, but wandering with a sense of purpose is more fun. The quiz takes you from one end of Venice to the other, and gives a reason to go to quite under-populated places. If you think of doing it, it is easier if you do your navigation before you start, put highlights on your map, or you will do a lot of back-tracking. I’ve enjoyed doing it, and it has taken me to bits of Venice that I’d not have otherwise visited.
1. How many arches are there altogether on the Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove in St Mark's Square? [Stefano actually counted from the Zecca and round the Libreria Sansoviniana, but I will take the answer as the question is written. But there is still a catch! - at least I think so.] ………….. I’ve not done this one – keeping it for a sunny day, and combining it with a coffee at Quadri’s.
2. On one of the columns of the Doges' Palace there is a very old piece of graffiti. What does it depict? [Obviously you'll have to go there to find out. Some help - it's on one of the columns along the Molo.] …………..There are three or four columns scaffolded out at the east end of the colonnade, so could not find it.
3. There is only one street called a 'Via' in Venice. On it there is a church. What time does the church's clock show? [There are actually two churches, but one is no longer in use as a church, and it does not have a clock.] The Via Garibaldi in Castello, and the clock face shows 9:30. The clock face is painted onto the church, as are the clock hands, so that clock will show 9:30 forever.
4. There are two lamp standards (lampposts) in front of the Fenice Theatre. What peculiarity do they have? [I.e. what is special or different about them?] …………..They are gas fired lamps with mantles, with an igniter in the lamp, I think.
5. Ponte della Verona, near to the Fenice. From the bridge can be seen an unusual sign that catches the eye. What does it say? [Again, you'll have to go there to find out. I don't expect that it is remarked upon in any guide-book.] The sign says “divieto do nuoto”, or “it is forbidden to swim”, which seems like good advice. Byron swam from the Lido up the Grand Canal, his gondolier following with his clothes. Petrol and diesel powered craft have rendered this practice inadvisable now.
6. Sotoportego e Corte Venier dei Leoni near San Vio. On a wall within the sottoportico there is embedded a statue. What of? [There are actually two 'statues'. Stefano means the first one, which I would not call a statue. But don't let this stop you from looking for the second!]………There is a face of a baby, a putti. It is a bit grotesque – about twice life size.
7. In the middle of Salizada San Stae there is something that arouses our curiosity. It is on the first floor [in American, the second floor] of a house. What is it? ……..The whole balcony is covered in brightly coloured fabric windmills.
8. Campiello Albrizzi a San Polo. On a wall there is something strange for Venice. What is it? [Not unique, only unusual. Make a note of the inscription.]……………There is a steel dunces cap mounted on the wall, and it has internal “teeth”, which would be painful, and probably draw blood, a simple torture implement of sorts. The Google translation is pretty rough, but I think it is to do with Barbieri (Google refers to a barber) who made pies. A finger bone was found in a pie, and you can guess the rest, a Venetian Sweeney Todd. The inscription refers to demolition of a shop, maybe the pie shop was demolished, as a mark of shame.
9. Calle dei Sansoni a Rialto. At Number 963 there is something that is not square. What is it? [The answer to this can be found on the first itinerary on the venessia.com website.] ………There is a door that is WAY out of square, the most out of square door that I’ve sighted in Venice.
10. At the nearby number 456 there is something strange. The door is like a ... what? [This, too, is on the first itinerary.] ……………….The bottom of the door is shaped like a barrel. Maybe the building used to be a wine store.
11. In Campo Santa Margherita there is the ex-Scuola dei Varoteri (School of the Tanners). There is something nearby that shows that here there was a rio that has been filled in. What is it? [There are lines of white marble inlaid into the stones showing the outline of the rio, but there is something more than that.] ………There is a stone mooring post standing in the pavement, at the corner closest to San Barnaba. I’ve read that local women used the post for bashing dried fish into a pulp – the top of the post looks well-beaten.
12. Under the Ponte Duodo between Calle Larga XXII Marzo and Campo Santo Stefano there is something unusual ... what? [There are two bridges very close together. Only Ponte Duodo is named on the wall nearby. But it is the other bridge, Ponte Feltrina, north of Ponte Duodo, that you need to look beneath.] ………..There is a bricked up doorway under the bridge, and I can’t figure out what the door would have led to. Maybe a walled garden preceded the steps.
13. San Nicolò dei Mendicoli. A column near the church. What is on top? And what is unusual about that statue? …………There is your standard Venetian winged lion with book on the column. The unusual thing (bearing in mind that I sighted this one at about 4:45 PM, by which time it was almost dark and fog was rolling in from the Canale della Guidecca) is that the lion is left handed, it has its left paw on the book. I think that every other lion has been right handed.
14. Campo Ruga near San Pietro di Castello. There is a sottoportico. Go in. What have you just hit?………………. Well, Lou did not hit her head, but she stands about 5’3”. I’m 5’9”, and would hit mine. The lowest sottoportico in Venice, probably.
15. Calle Varisco near Fondamente Nove [not all that near]. What mistake was made in this street? [Stefano is referring to the western end of the street.] ……….There are narrower calle in Venice – but this one has to be the narrowest that has doors opening into it. So narrow that the doors look as though they are never used, as the calle would be less than three feet wide. There’s a marble column at the entry to the narrow part, and it seems the builders took the column as the desired alignment for the wall of the calle – thereby creating a pretty useless calle.
16 Ponte di San Giovanni Grisostomo is still known to locals as Ponte dei Giocat(t)oli [two ts in Italian, probably one in Venetian], because there used to be a toy shop next to it. The shop now sells shoes, but what did the toy shop leave behind?………….Ah, the remnant toy. A Donald Duck, made of Lego bricks, gazes out in somewhat forlorn fashion from an upper window.
Dec 15th, 2010, 08:24 AM
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Well done, Peter!
2. It's not on one of the pillars with scaffolding. If I remember rightly, I asked Stefano, and he told me where to look, but I had to go back to him and he had to come with me to the pillar to show me where it was. Once you've been shown where it is, of course, you'll wonder how you missed it. I think it is on the fourth pillar from the corner, counting the corner pillar as 1, but look at 3 and 5, as I'm not sure. What makes it a bit more interesting than most graffiti is that it is very old (allegedly) and shows something to do with the means by which Venice became rich, rather than something anatomical.
5. What I think is interesting about this is that it is the only such sign in Venice (that I've seen). And who is going to enforce it?
8. No, Peter, you have that all wrong - unless you are being witty. You are confusing this with the head on the side of San Zan Degolà and the legend of Biasio (Biagio).
13. OK, it was dark. But the unusual thing is that the lion has no wings, and shows no sign of ever having had wings. there is another wingless lion on a building in Via Garibaldi, but that one has no book either.
14. Yes, it is credited as the lowest, but I found one lower near Ponte Riello.
15. I don't think there is a narrower calle, doors or not.
2. It's not on one of the pillars with scaffolding. If I remember rightly, I asked Stefano, and he told me where to look, but I had to go back to him and he had to come with me to the pillar to show me where it was. Once you've been shown where it is, of course, you'll wonder how you missed it. I think it is on the fourth pillar from the corner, counting the corner pillar as 1, but look at 3 and 5, as I'm not sure. What makes it a bit more interesting than most graffiti is that it is very old (allegedly) and shows something to do with the means by which Venice became rich, rather than something anatomical.
5. What I think is interesting about this is that it is the only such sign in Venice (that I've seen). And who is going to enforce it?
8. No, Peter, you have that all wrong - unless you are being witty. You are confusing this with the head on the side of San Zan Degolà and the legend of Biasio (Biagio).
13. OK, it was dark. But the unusual thing is that the lion has no wings, and shows no sign of ever having had wings. there is another wingless lion on a building in Via Garibaldi, but that one has no book either.
14. Yes, it is credited as the lowest, but I found one lower near Ponte Riello.
15. I don't think there is a narrower calle, doors or not.
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