Venice, April 2014. Some thoughts ...
Apr 29th, 2014, 12:59 AM
#41
I have always wanted to see the marble curtains inside this church but it is always closed when walking by.>>
i think that it only opens week-day mornings, Thin.It's well worth the effort of getting up before noon to see them.
if the trattoria you mention is the same one we ate at one day, at lunchtime it is full of workmen and does an excellent "risi e bisi" [a simple risotto of rice and peas].
i think that it only opens week-day mornings, Thin.It's well worth the effort of getting up before noon to see them.
if the trattoria you mention is the same one we ate at one day, at lunchtime it is full of workmen and does an excellent "risi e bisi" [a simple risotto of rice and peas].
Apr 30th, 2014, 02:03 AM
#42
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We visited the Ducal Palace yesterday. Not too crowded at 8:45, but looking pretty busy come 11:30, by which time we had symptoms of sensory overload , mixing it with some big tour groups. There is so much to see, and after a while, all the monumental paintings rather blend into a single canvas. We had visited the Palace a couple of times previously, but I did see a couple of works that I'd neglected before.
There is a painting of Hell, Damnation, etc. that looks as if it a re-work of an Hieronymus Bosch work. It details explicitly the same sort of fires of Purgatory, dismembered bodies, folk generally having a tough time of it, one soul being involved in apparent tug of war between angel and demon, the outcome uncertain. You don't want to go there, I'm here to tell you. The work is much larger than a Bosch painting, and does not show the same microscopic brush work that characterises the Bosch paintings that I have seen. Date and artist uncertain, so I can't do the sort of comparison that I'd like to do.
Another work that I'd not noticed - maybe because I was unaware of the history at the time - shows the outcome of the 12th May 1797 meeting of the Council, Doge Ludovico Manin handing the Ducal hat to a servant, another person waving a white flag from a window, and the Councillors looking somewhat shocked that they had just voted the Most Serene Republic out of existence after one thousand years. There was not a quorum for that vote, 512 for, ten against and five abstained, but powder and shot can have the lsat word anyway, and the Napoleonic troops strolled into Venice, carried on Venetian ships. Morris recounts that when Manin was advised that he had been elected Doge, he burst into tears.
Maybe he knew what was in store for him and the Republic.
I was trying to understand the historical context of the end of the Republic. Australia saw her first European settlers (convicts, too) in 1788. The first steam powered ship was built in France in 1783, so the doge-ship of Manin ended in the steam age. It's easy to see the government and fall of the Republic as being ancient history, maybe because the system of administration seems so archaic. But it is really quite recent history.
The Palace is full of massive paintings, many of them allegorical. Works such as Venice in discussion with Neptune, signifying that Venice was master of the seas, or Venice and Venus, Venus having born on Cyprus, a comment on Venice's conquest / possession of Cyprus. Maybe Professor Robert Langdon, the well known symbologist from The Da Vinci Code, would understand immediately. It is an allegorical language that would have been immediately comprehended 300 years ago, in the same way that if one sees a gentleman with a halo and a key, then his name is St Peter.
I've never been educated in that language, so the works are not accessible to me, in the same way that I don't "get" non-representational art. I can figure it out once there is an explanation, but that allegorical symbolism is a blank to me, until I read what the work is about. Maybe the language of allegory is a dead language, spoken only by art historians.
There is an economic aspect to the Palace. Venice was clearly massively wealthy when the Palace was being decorated, and many other edifices, churches, palaces, were being built and being sumptuously decorated at the same time. A society has to be on the economic ascendancy to be able to afford such construction, in the same way that the pyramids could not have been built if Egypt were in perpetual famine. Such construction needs a leisured, or at least wealthy, class of patrons, and artisans, workshops, silversmiths, gold leaf experts, the lot, to make it happen. And farmers to feed them.
I've not been able to find much about how these sort of works were undertaken, how the contracts were managed, whether a fresco was completed as a single commercial undertaking, with the painter sub-contracting the supporting work, like plastering, mixing paint or supplying ladders. Was there a team of painters, apprentices doing the easy bits and Veronese just doing finishing touches and applying a bit of his magic? Who knows - the guide books don't enlighten me much on this.
There is a painting of Hell, Damnation, etc. that looks as if it a re-work of an Hieronymus Bosch work. It details explicitly the same sort of fires of Purgatory, dismembered bodies, folk generally having a tough time of it, one soul being involved in apparent tug of war between angel and demon, the outcome uncertain. You don't want to go there, I'm here to tell you. The work is much larger than a Bosch painting, and does not show the same microscopic brush work that characterises the Bosch paintings that I have seen. Date and artist uncertain, so I can't do the sort of comparison that I'd like to do.
Another work that I'd not noticed - maybe because I was unaware of the history at the time - shows the outcome of the 12th May 1797 meeting of the Council, Doge Ludovico Manin handing the Ducal hat to a servant, another person waving a white flag from a window, and the Councillors looking somewhat shocked that they had just voted the Most Serene Republic out of existence after one thousand years. There was not a quorum for that vote, 512 for, ten against and five abstained, but powder and shot can have the lsat word anyway, and the Napoleonic troops strolled into Venice, carried on Venetian ships. Morris recounts that when Manin was advised that he had been elected Doge, he burst into tears.
Maybe he knew what was in store for him and the Republic.
I was trying to understand the historical context of the end of the Republic. Australia saw her first European settlers (convicts, too) in 1788. The first steam powered ship was built in France in 1783, so the doge-ship of Manin ended in the steam age. It's easy to see the government and fall of the Republic as being ancient history, maybe because the system of administration seems so archaic. But it is really quite recent history.
The Palace is full of massive paintings, many of them allegorical. Works such as Venice in discussion with Neptune, signifying that Venice was master of the seas, or Venice and Venus, Venus having born on Cyprus, a comment on Venice's conquest / possession of Cyprus. Maybe Professor Robert Langdon, the well known symbologist from The Da Vinci Code, would understand immediately. It is an allegorical language that would have been immediately comprehended 300 years ago, in the same way that if one sees a gentleman with a halo and a key, then his name is St Peter.
I've never been educated in that language, so the works are not accessible to me, in the same way that I don't "get" non-representational art. I can figure it out once there is an explanation, but that allegorical symbolism is a blank to me, until I read what the work is about. Maybe the language of allegory is a dead language, spoken only by art historians.
There is an economic aspect to the Palace. Venice was clearly massively wealthy when the Palace was being decorated, and many other edifices, churches, palaces, were being built and being sumptuously decorated at the same time. A society has to be on the economic ascendancy to be able to afford such construction, in the same way that the pyramids could not have been built if Egypt were in perpetual famine. Such construction needs a leisured, or at least wealthy, class of patrons, and artisans, workshops, silversmiths, gold leaf experts, the lot, to make it happen. And farmers to feed them.
I've not been able to find much about how these sort of works were undertaken, how the contracts were managed, whether a fresco was completed as a single commercial undertaking, with the painter sub-contracting the supporting work, like plastering, mixing paint or supplying ladders. Was there a team of painters, apprentices doing the easy bits and Veronese just doing finishing touches and applying a bit of his magic? Who knows - the guide books don't enlighten me much on this.
Apr 30th, 2014, 07:27 AM
#43
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One of Venice's minor sights, unlikely to make to the DK Top Ten. In Campo San Toma, in San Polo, opposite the church of San Toma is the building of the Shoemakers Guild, their patron saint being Saint Mark. There is a bas relief of Saint Mark, and a cobbler, Anianus. Saint Mark, when he was Bishop of Alexandria, miraculously cured the cobbler, who had been injured while mending Saint Mark's shoes. This cure happened in AD 42.
The building dates from 1446, and is now used as a public library. You can go in, quietly, no photographs please, and see frescoes on the first floor. They are badly damaged, but on the wall facing San Toma, there is an annunciation. There is a mosaic floor with the date inset just at the top of the stairs - 1771. The ceiling beams still show the original painted decoration.
No big deal, but perhaps interesting.
The building dates from 1446, and is now used as a public library. You can go in, quietly, no photographs please, and see frescoes on the first floor. They are badly damaged, but on the wall facing San Toma, there is an annunciation. There is a mosaic floor with the date inset just at the top of the stairs - 1771. The ceiling beams still show the original painted decoration.
No big deal, but perhaps interesting.
May 1st, 2014, 11:56 AM
#44
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I think we got lucky today. 1st May, May Day, Workers of the World Unite! All that rhetoric, so we thought Burano might be an idea. Arrive at Fondamenta Nuove, about 10:00, crowds for the No. 12 vap stretching into infinity, having me in mind of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch - and that was just the vap driver and ropeman.
Too hard.
So, spritz at the little bar by the canal at Santa Maria Formosa, and followed by just the most perfect time at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia. We've visited there a couple of times before, and each time I seem to get further insight into Carlo Scarpa's architecture. There was a 20 minute DVD playing when we entered, and we watched the whole thing. It spoke a lot about how Scarpa was so connected to Venice, and how Venice is interpreted and understood in his design and architecture.
Scarpa was given the rare privilege of re-designing the ground floor of the Fondazione, and I find it the most pleasing and satisfying space in all of Venice. There's nothing that comes close to it, on an aesthetic and intellectual level. For me, I can compare Scarpa to the Corb, Mies van der Rohe, Wright and others, and find them lacking. Maybe there is a bit of Phillip Johnson in his eye. Strong horizontal expressions, proper for Venice, as water is always horizontal.
There is a sort of fractal aspect to Scarpa's work, details replicated at smaller and smaller scale. So a channel at the doorway, allowing acqua alta, is repeated in a channel around a floor, and then a tiny channel in a fountain. Some contradictions, a well head that is meant to sit solidly, and yet floats on small bronze pillars. Contradictions that are expressed also at the entry to the School of Architecture that Scarpa did, where a marble door surround and lintel is laid flat, rather than standing like a doorway. Yes, a delight to the senses.
Tiling, that at first looks a bit random, but when you study it a bit, looks like a pattern that Mondrian might have played with. Stepping stones in the lawn that are spaced a bit too close for a normal pace, so they force you to slow down as you walk along them, making you linger a little.
A Cyprian artist, Haris Epaminonda, has works displayed in the Scarpa spaces. It finishes on 18th May, and really worth getting there. Her works can be seen as a homage to Scarpa, a set of works designed to complement the space, very delicate, a quite feminine grouping. Hard to describe but so worth seeing. Works that are not titled, just quietly being there, somehow complementing the architecture, and in a way, having a dialogue with the space.
The entry to the Fondazione has been re-worked in the last year, new stonework to the bridge, creating a feel of procession, and it works really well in an aesthetic sense, particularly when taken along with the red marble stairs inside, also a new installation. Scarpa's bridge is intact, and just a delight, the sort of structure that you might find painted on a Shoji screen.
So that's just the ground floor. The library was closed, but it's worth a look if it is open. Murano chandeliers, parquetry floor, stuccoed ceiling, ancient book cases, and computer monitors. A nice conjunction.
The next floor is called a museum. But it's not. It's just the rooms that the Querini family occupied, and it is really special. Paintings by Longhi showing aspects of Venetian life, bull baiting, fist fights on bridges (now outlawed, unless AC Milan defeats Torino, in which case watch out), and the well known painting, showing a gentleman in a boat with four oarsmen, the gent drawing a bow. This was, apparently, a most esoteric form of hunting for water fowl. Arrows were not used, and rather the bow was used to shoot a slug of terracotta at the fowl. Many other works, large, also intimate, and one can gain an insight into how the Querini family lived. To say nothing of a 260 piece dinner service, not one piece of which has been lost.
The Bellini "Presentation of Jesus" alone makes it worth visiting.
Practicalities. It costs about 9 euro to enter. I think that when we were there, there might have been 40 or 50 people in the place, so it is quiet. If you want to take photos, they charge one euro, and give you a sticker to prove you have paid. No flash, otherwise just go for it.The bookshop is worth a look, with some great gifts if that is what you have in mind. The attendants are friendly, maybe because they are not dealing with the hordes. A good cafe, good service, reasonable prices (2.50 per spritz, which is our Venetian benchmark). The cafe has outside seating, giving a view of the garden. You can access the cafe, bookshop and"facilities", but not the garden, without paying admission, but once you glimpse the garden, you'll be seduced.
Give yourself at least two or three hours there. We spent about four plus. Yes, we got lucky. Thank you No.12 vap for being over-crowded.
Too hard.
So, spritz at the little bar by the canal at Santa Maria Formosa, and followed by just the most perfect time at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia. We've visited there a couple of times before, and each time I seem to get further insight into Carlo Scarpa's architecture. There was a 20 minute DVD playing when we entered, and we watched the whole thing. It spoke a lot about how Scarpa was so connected to Venice, and how Venice is interpreted and understood in his design and architecture.
Scarpa was given the rare privilege of re-designing the ground floor of the Fondazione, and I find it the most pleasing and satisfying space in all of Venice. There's nothing that comes close to it, on an aesthetic and intellectual level. For me, I can compare Scarpa to the Corb, Mies van der Rohe, Wright and others, and find them lacking. Maybe there is a bit of Phillip Johnson in his eye. Strong horizontal expressions, proper for Venice, as water is always horizontal.
There is a sort of fractal aspect to Scarpa's work, details replicated at smaller and smaller scale. So a channel at the doorway, allowing acqua alta, is repeated in a channel around a floor, and then a tiny channel in a fountain. Some contradictions, a well head that is meant to sit solidly, and yet floats on small bronze pillars. Contradictions that are expressed also at the entry to the School of Architecture that Scarpa did, where a marble door surround and lintel is laid flat, rather than standing like a doorway. Yes, a delight to the senses.
Tiling, that at first looks a bit random, but when you study it a bit, looks like a pattern that Mondrian might have played with. Stepping stones in the lawn that are spaced a bit too close for a normal pace, so they force you to slow down as you walk along them, making you linger a little.
A Cyprian artist, Haris Epaminonda, has works displayed in the Scarpa spaces. It finishes on 18th May, and really worth getting there. Her works can be seen as a homage to Scarpa, a set of works designed to complement the space, very delicate, a quite feminine grouping. Hard to describe but so worth seeing. Works that are not titled, just quietly being there, somehow complementing the architecture, and in a way, having a dialogue with the space.
The entry to the Fondazione has been re-worked in the last year, new stonework to the bridge, creating a feel of procession, and it works really well in an aesthetic sense, particularly when taken along with the red marble stairs inside, also a new installation. Scarpa's bridge is intact, and just a delight, the sort of structure that you might find painted on a Shoji screen.
So that's just the ground floor. The library was closed, but it's worth a look if it is open. Murano chandeliers, parquetry floor, stuccoed ceiling, ancient book cases, and computer monitors. A nice conjunction.
The next floor is called a museum. But it's not. It's just the rooms that the Querini family occupied, and it is really special. Paintings by Longhi showing aspects of Venetian life, bull baiting, fist fights on bridges (now outlawed, unless AC Milan defeats Torino, in which case watch out), and the well known painting, showing a gentleman in a boat with four oarsmen, the gent drawing a bow. This was, apparently, a most esoteric form of hunting for water fowl. Arrows were not used, and rather the bow was used to shoot a slug of terracotta at the fowl. Many other works, large, also intimate, and one can gain an insight into how the Querini family lived. To say nothing of a 260 piece dinner service, not one piece of which has been lost.
The Bellini "Presentation of Jesus" alone makes it worth visiting.
Practicalities. It costs about 9 euro to enter. I think that when we were there, there might have been 40 or 50 people in the place, so it is quiet. If you want to take photos, they charge one euro, and give you a sticker to prove you have paid. No flash, otherwise just go for it.The bookshop is worth a look, with some great gifts if that is what you have in mind. The attendants are friendly, maybe because they are not dealing with the hordes. A good cafe, good service, reasonable prices (2.50 per spritz, which is our Venetian benchmark). The cafe has outside seating, giving a view of the garden. You can access the cafe, bookshop and"facilities", but not the garden, without paying admission, but once you glimpse the garden, you'll be seduced.
Give yourself at least two or three hours there. We spent about four plus. Yes, we got lucky. Thank you No.12 vap for being over-crowded.
May 1st, 2014, 02:15 PM
#45
Give yourself at least two or three hours there. We spent about four plus. Yes, we got lucky. Thank you No.12 vap for being over-crowded.>>
lucky indeed, Peter.
another one of your entries for Venice less travelled.
lucky indeed, Peter.
another one of your entries for Venice less travelled.
May 2nd, 2014, 07:15 AM
#47
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It's been bucketing rain all day today. Almost acqua alta - even without assistance from the tide. We were caught out coming home from the Billa supermarket, and took refuge in the Church of San Sebastiano. It's about 100 metres or so from the San Basilio vap stop, at the west end of the Zattere.
We had last visited the church five years ago, when big restoration works were being done to the Veronese ceiling paintings and frescoes, so there was not all that much to be seen, with most of the interior shrouded in scaffold and cloth.
One should give thanks to 'Save Venice", who largely funded the ceiling works. It now looks brilliant, gilt shining, and Veronese's paintings just glowing. The painting behind the altar, Madonna in Glory with various Saint was the last work that Veronese painted for the church. He designed a marble frame for the painting, which was commissioned by one Lise Querini in 1559, so there is a connection there for me. Veronese died in 1588, and is buried in the church. There is a bust of him, mounted to the left of the altar.
There are, of course, multiple images of St Sebastian, taking unfriendly fire from a bunch of archers - one sees that image often. However, not so often seen is an image of the archers, but Veronese did a fresco of them as well.
Now that the ceiling has been sorted, work has started on restoration of the wall frescoes, and so it is not easy to much of the wall details. But I was able to see a little of a restoration artist, delicately working on a plaster statue, applying plaster with a trowel the size of a small palette knife.
We still got drowned walking from San Sebastian to our apartment!
We had last visited the church five years ago, when big restoration works were being done to the Veronese ceiling paintings and frescoes, so there was not all that much to be seen, with most of the interior shrouded in scaffold and cloth.
One should give thanks to 'Save Venice", who largely funded the ceiling works. It now looks brilliant, gilt shining, and Veronese's paintings just glowing. The painting behind the altar, Madonna in Glory with various Saint was the last work that Veronese painted for the church. He designed a marble frame for the painting, which was commissioned by one Lise Querini in 1559, so there is a connection there for me. Veronese died in 1588, and is buried in the church. There is a bust of him, mounted to the left of the altar.
There are, of course, multiple images of St Sebastian, taking unfriendly fire from a bunch of archers - one sees that image often. However, not so often seen is an image of the archers, but Veronese did a fresco of them as well.
Now that the ceiling has been sorted, work has started on restoration of the wall frescoes, and so it is not easy to much of the wall details. But I was able to see a little of a restoration artist, delicately working on a plaster statue, applying plaster with a trowel the size of a small palette knife.
We still got drowned walking from San Sebastian to our apartment!
May 3rd, 2014, 08:50 AM
#49
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A cute little conjunction. The Palazzo over the way is being restored. There is a placard detailing the architect and engineer, building permit and such like. Also the name of the property - Palazzo Querini! Maybe Lise Querini, who donated the marble surround to the painting behind the altar at San Sebastian lived there in 1559.
Paolo Sarpi, Venetian philosopher, once said, "I never ever tell a lie, but the truth not to everyone". Maybe the Querini thing is a "truth not to everyone" tale - I don't know.
We visited the Ca' Pesaro today, and somehow the collection looked a bit scant, a bit thin. The Burghers of Calais by Rodin is impressive, as is his Thinker. A handful of other works that we like such as "The Young Ladies" by Casorati from 1922. Four young ladies, three fashionably dressed, one nude, standing in a garden surrounded by items that a lady would have. Dressing table equipment, purses and what-not. Maybe a comment on consumerism, and one now expects to see an i-Phone as part of the assembled kit. The Klimt work is not on display, and I suspect that the gallery has been re-hung, as there are some building works being undertaken there. There's a nice little Henry Moore bronze, a helmet.
There is an exhibition there, "Giuseppe Panza Di Biumo, American Dialogues", American (mosty) works from the Post-war years. I struggled with it.
Phil Jones, a friend in Venice has a test. Is it Art or Junk? Maybe junk from the shed, or as Phil puts it, "Art or Shed? The Occam's Razor Test". I'm a Philistine when it comes to non-representational art, and so a lot of that exhibition fell into the "Shed" group for me. I don't understand how one can hang the corroded cast iron door from an electrical junction box, with the word "Danger" cast onto the face of the door, and call it art, title it "Danger". It's shed for me.
Ditto for the work comprising many hundreds of sharpened twigs, laid out on the floor in a square pattern. Garden shed.
Or the installation on one wall, red letters about half a metre high, saying "BESIDE ITSELF". Order 1xB, 1xD, 3xE, 1xF, 2xI, 1xL, 2xS and a T from ComputerLettersRUs.com and you too can be collectable.
An empty orange juice carton, things like that.
I think it is a language that I just don't speak. But I suspect that it may be a synthetic language, like Esperanto, known to a select and better informed group than me. I can understand Jackson Pollock, so perhaps all is not lost.
Paolo Sarpi, Venetian philosopher, once said, "I never ever tell a lie, but the truth not to everyone". Maybe the Querini thing is a "truth not to everyone" tale - I don't know.
We visited the Ca' Pesaro today, and somehow the collection looked a bit scant, a bit thin. The Burghers of Calais by Rodin is impressive, as is his Thinker. A handful of other works that we like such as "The Young Ladies" by Casorati from 1922. Four young ladies, three fashionably dressed, one nude, standing in a garden surrounded by items that a lady would have. Dressing table equipment, purses and what-not. Maybe a comment on consumerism, and one now expects to see an i-Phone as part of the assembled kit. The Klimt work is not on display, and I suspect that the gallery has been re-hung, as there are some building works being undertaken there. There's a nice little Henry Moore bronze, a helmet.
There is an exhibition there, "Giuseppe Panza Di Biumo, American Dialogues", American (mosty) works from the Post-war years. I struggled with it.
Phil Jones, a friend in Venice has a test. Is it Art or Junk? Maybe junk from the shed, or as Phil puts it, "Art or Shed? The Occam's Razor Test". I'm a Philistine when it comes to non-representational art, and so a lot of that exhibition fell into the "Shed" group for me. I don't understand how one can hang the corroded cast iron door from an electrical junction box, with the word "Danger" cast onto the face of the door, and call it art, title it "Danger". It's shed for me.
Ditto for the work comprising many hundreds of sharpened twigs, laid out on the floor in a square pattern. Garden shed.
Or the installation on one wall, red letters about half a metre high, saying "BESIDE ITSELF". Order 1xB, 1xD, 3xE, 1xF, 2xI, 1xL, 2xS and a T from ComputerLettersRUs.com and you too can be collectable.
An empty orange juice carton, things like that.
I think it is a language that I just don't speak. But I suspect that it may be a synthetic language, like Esperanto, known to a select and better informed group than me. I can understand Jackson Pollock, so perhaps all is not lost.
May 3rd, 2014, 11:32 AM
#50
Ditto for the work comprising many hundreds of sharpened twigs, laid out on the floor in a square pattern. Garden shed.>>
or possibly bonfire, Peter?
faced with such "art" I am inevitably reminded of the story of the Emperor's new clothes.
or possibly bonfire, Peter?
faced with such "art" I am inevitably reminded of the story of the Emperor's new clothes.
May 9th, 2014, 06:38 AM
#52
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Burano, Padua and Cinque Terre.
Saturday we made it to Burano. An early start to Fond Nove allowing us to miss the morning crowds, and Burano was pretty empty when we arrived. We left the vap at Mazzorbo, and walked through the vineyard and vegetable gardens over to Burano. It's fun to see what artichokes look like on the plant, when they are tiny and purple.
Burano has both Beijing and Burano lace, the former being more prevalent than the latter. But the lace museum is pure Burano, Pellestrina and European lace. It is really worth visiting. There is a great video explaining what the lace trade and market was all about, details of how a pattern starts as a sketch on paper, is refined and is then created as fabric.
There was a lace school on Burano which closed around 1970. The last pupils of the school are still making lace, and three elderly ladies were at work in the museum. None of them were too agile on their feet, but their fingers have lost none of their dexterity. Interesting to talk to them in broken Italian, and one explained that the piece that she was working on would take five hours a day, for a month, to complete. It was tiny, and would fit in an A5 sized frame, with much room to spare.
There is lace in the museum with stitches so small that you can barely see them. I have no idea how this could have been made, unless under a microscope. Maybe it says something that the three lace makers that we saw all were wearing quite heavy duty spectacles.
Coming back from Burano - the queue for the vaporetto can be horrible. You can stand in line for half an hour, and then not get on. But if you walk over to Mazzorbo, then they have to let you on, and you might get a spot near the rail.
Monday was Padua. We've visited Padua before, so the Scrovegni chapel was not on the agenda. But it is really worth visiting, and you do have to book in advance, preferably several days prior.
We mainly walked around, visited the markets in the Piazza della Frutta and Piazza delle Erbe. Found remnants of the city wall that surrounded Padua - a wall extending for some eleven kilometres. Once you get an idea of how the River Brenta almost encircles Padua, you can understand why it was a strategic city even three thousand years ago. Water, arable land and defensible geography, and you have the possibility of a city.
We had planned on visiting the University, viewing the anatomy theatre and so on, and did not make it. We went to a different part of the Medical faculty, the Botanical Garden. The garden is a bit old, having been established in 1545, after a decision of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, for cultivation of plants specifically for medicinal plants. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List in 1997. It is a place of great history. In 1545, the garden mostly comprised "simples", plants providing remedies directly from nature, but now has sections for poisonous plants, carnivorous plants that trap and devour insects, and some really old trees. The garden is laid out in a geometric fashion, inside a circular wall, fountains, shady walks and a little Belvedere
The oldest palm the garden was planted in 1585, and Goethe greatly admired it, and was inspired by it. There is an Oriental Plane tree, planted in 1680, a Magnolia from 1786, one of the oldest specimens in Europe.
There are hot-houses dating from the 1700's, but these have been more or less abandoned, as a new hot-house has been constructed, due to open in July this year - the systems were being commissioned when we visited in May.
"A new hothouse" is really selling the new work very short. The building is starkly modern, all white painted steel, glass roof and power operated louvres and screens for temperature control. In elevation, the building would be perhaps six metres high at the low end, maybe twenty high at the high end, high enough to accommodate a fully grown palm tree, which we could see inside. The whole building about 100 metres long. An enormous sloping glass roof. There is one part of the building with a solid roof, which has been planted, what is known in the trade as a "green roof". I've got a bit of a thing for Italian design and architecture ...
I was thinking of that most generous Fodors contributor, Anhig, as I was walking around, thinking how much she would enjoy seeing the garden and new hot-house. Only a half hour train ride from Venice.
We visited the Basilica di Sant' Antonio, St Anthony to others. It's pretty spectacular, which is something of an understatement. Hard to describe, as the decoration is almost overwhelming. St Anthony's tongue is displayed in the Reliquary, and he was apparently a most powerful preacher. But one cannot tell just by looking at his tongue.
Cinque Terre, left venice Tuesday 6th May, returned Thursday 8th. Pretty simple, train to Florence, train to La Spezia, and then a ten minute train ride to Riomaggiore, where we stayed for two nights.
We took a ferry ride from Riomaggiore to Monteresso Al Mare, and really enjoyed it. The ferry calls at four of the five towns (Corniglia does not have a harbour), and you can get a really good idea of the terrain when viewing it from the sea. The mountains seem to rise straight out of the Mediterranean, cut by very steep gullies and ridges. You can clearly see how the land has been terraced for horticulture and it is this terracing, some dating back a thousand years, which has made the cinque Terre as World Heritage site.
The towns themselves are quaint and fun to see, with their tiny harbours. The church in Vernazza is really worth visiting, very simple, massive stone columns and cut rough stone ribbing to the vaulting, a construction that I have not seen before.
But it is the horticulture that grabs me. The pure physical work that has gone into creating and maintaining the terraced plots - think a stone wall maybe one and a half metres hight, and a plot maybe two or three metres wide - and you can get an idea of how steep the hillsides are. Olives, grapes and many different vegetables - harvest must be back-breaking. The plots demonstrate a great deal of social cohesion, an undertaking that must have been shared by all the people working together, and many of the walls are several hundred metres long.
Each of the villages has a train station (Corniglia station being at least a couple of hundred metres below the town, great if you are going down the switchback set of steps), and the train trundles between all the villages, about every hour or so.
We trained back to Riomaggiore from Monteresso, and next day trained to Vernazza and walked to Corniglia along the coastal path. "Coastal path" might give one the impression of a beach stroll, but it is not exactly like that. The path is only 3.5 kilometres, but took us a full hour and a half, maybe a bit more. Much of the path is stepped, and climbs steeply out of Vernazza. Approaching Corniglia, the path runs through olive groves, and the views are spectacular.
Some will say that the Cinque Terre have been ruined by tourism. I did not see a lot of non-tourism activities, no shops selling ordinary stuff like electric drills or bags of cement. Maybe people go to La Spezia for those things. Many hikers, hiking poles, tanned, leathered complexions and leder-hosen (actually, no leder-hosen, I just made that up). A lot of American accents, and in the more popular times, the footpaths must be very crowded.
We ate twice at the same place - Vecin Muin on Via Colombo in Riomaggiore. Good food, local wine, and friendly service.
Train back to Venice, with a brief stop in Florence to visit the Central Market for truffle oil and fig mostarda. And at the flower shop opposite the station, we bought agretti seeds. It'll be fun to try those at home.
Saturday we made it to Burano. An early start to Fond Nove allowing us to miss the morning crowds, and Burano was pretty empty when we arrived. We left the vap at Mazzorbo, and walked through the vineyard and vegetable gardens over to Burano. It's fun to see what artichokes look like on the plant, when they are tiny and purple.
Burano has both Beijing and Burano lace, the former being more prevalent than the latter. But the lace museum is pure Burano, Pellestrina and European lace. It is really worth visiting. There is a great video explaining what the lace trade and market was all about, details of how a pattern starts as a sketch on paper, is refined and is then created as fabric.
There was a lace school on Burano which closed around 1970. The last pupils of the school are still making lace, and three elderly ladies were at work in the museum. None of them were too agile on their feet, but their fingers have lost none of their dexterity. Interesting to talk to them in broken Italian, and one explained that the piece that she was working on would take five hours a day, for a month, to complete. It was tiny, and would fit in an A5 sized frame, with much room to spare.
There is lace in the museum with stitches so small that you can barely see them. I have no idea how this could have been made, unless under a microscope. Maybe it says something that the three lace makers that we saw all were wearing quite heavy duty spectacles.
Coming back from Burano - the queue for the vaporetto can be horrible. You can stand in line for half an hour, and then not get on. But if you walk over to Mazzorbo, then they have to let you on, and you might get a spot near the rail.
Monday was Padua. We've visited Padua before, so the Scrovegni chapel was not on the agenda. But it is really worth visiting, and you do have to book in advance, preferably several days prior.
We mainly walked around, visited the markets in the Piazza della Frutta and Piazza delle Erbe. Found remnants of the city wall that surrounded Padua - a wall extending for some eleven kilometres. Once you get an idea of how the River Brenta almost encircles Padua, you can understand why it was a strategic city even three thousand years ago. Water, arable land and defensible geography, and you have the possibility of a city.
We had planned on visiting the University, viewing the anatomy theatre and so on, and did not make it. We went to a different part of the Medical faculty, the Botanical Garden. The garden is a bit old, having been established in 1545, after a decision of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, for cultivation of plants specifically for medicinal plants. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List in 1997. It is a place of great history. In 1545, the garden mostly comprised "simples", plants providing remedies directly from nature, but now has sections for poisonous plants, carnivorous plants that trap and devour insects, and some really old trees. The garden is laid out in a geometric fashion, inside a circular wall, fountains, shady walks and a little Belvedere
The oldest palm the garden was planted in 1585, and Goethe greatly admired it, and was inspired by it. There is an Oriental Plane tree, planted in 1680, a Magnolia from 1786, one of the oldest specimens in Europe.
There are hot-houses dating from the 1700's, but these have been more or less abandoned, as a new hot-house has been constructed, due to open in July this year - the systems were being commissioned when we visited in May.
"A new hothouse" is really selling the new work very short. The building is starkly modern, all white painted steel, glass roof and power operated louvres and screens for temperature control. In elevation, the building would be perhaps six metres high at the low end, maybe twenty high at the high end, high enough to accommodate a fully grown palm tree, which we could see inside. The whole building about 100 metres long. An enormous sloping glass roof. There is one part of the building with a solid roof, which has been planted, what is known in the trade as a "green roof". I've got a bit of a thing for Italian design and architecture ...
I was thinking of that most generous Fodors contributor, Anhig, as I was walking around, thinking how much she would enjoy seeing the garden and new hot-house. Only a half hour train ride from Venice.
We visited the Basilica di Sant' Antonio, St Anthony to others. It's pretty spectacular, which is something of an understatement. Hard to describe, as the decoration is almost overwhelming. St Anthony's tongue is displayed in the Reliquary, and he was apparently a most powerful preacher. But one cannot tell just by looking at his tongue.
Cinque Terre, left venice Tuesday 6th May, returned Thursday 8th. Pretty simple, train to Florence, train to La Spezia, and then a ten minute train ride to Riomaggiore, where we stayed for two nights.
We took a ferry ride from Riomaggiore to Monteresso Al Mare, and really enjoyed it. The ferry calls at four of the five towns (Corniglia does not have a harbour), and you can get a really good idea of the terrain when viewing it from the sea. The mountains seem to rise straight out of the Mediterranean, cut by very steep gullies and ridges. You can clearly see how the land has been terraced for horticulture and it is this terracing, some dating back a thousand years, which has made the cinque Terre as World Heritage site.
The towns themselves are quaint and fun to see, with their tiny harbours. The church in Vernazza is really worth visiting, very simple, massive stone columns and cut rough stone ribbing to the vaulting, a construction that I have not seen before.
But it is the horticulture that grabs me. The pure physical work that has gone into creating and maintaining the terraced plots - think a stone wall maybe one and a half metres hight, and a plot maybe two or three metres wide - and you can get an idea of how steep the hillsides are. Olives, grapes and many different vegetables - harvest must be back-breaking. The plots demonstrate a great deal of social cohesion, an undertaking that must have been shared by all the people working together, and many of the walls are several hundred metres long.
Each of the villages has a train station (Corniglia station being at least a couple of hundred metres below the town, great if you are going down the switchback set of steps), and the train trundles between all the villages, about every hour or so.
We trained back to Riomaggiore from Monteresso, and next day trained to Vernazza and walked to Corniglia along the coastal path. "Coastal path" might give one the impression of a beach stroll, but it is not exactly like that. The path is only 3.5 kilometres, but took us a full hour and a half, maybe a bit more. Much of the path is stepped, and climbs steeply out of Vernazza. Approaching Corniglia, the path runs through olive groves, and the views are spectacular.
Some will say that the Cinque Terre have been ruined by tourism. I did not see a lot of non-tourism activities, no shops selling ordinary stuff like electric drills or bags of cement. Maybe people go to La Spezia for those things. Many hikers, hiking poles, tanned, leathered complexions and leder-hosen (actually, no leder-hosen, I just made that up). A lot of American accents, and in the more popular times, the footpaths must be very crowded.
We ate twice at the same place - Vecin Muin on Via Colombo in Riomaggiore. Good food, local wine, and friendly service.
Train back to Venice, with a brief stop in Florence to visit the Central Market for truffle oil and fig mostarda. And at the flower shop opposite the station, we bought agretti seeds. It'll be fun to try those at home.
May 9th, 2014, 07:06 AM
#53
The last time I was in Burano, 1998, I had a terrific fish lunch at Gatto Nero.
I remember there was a jumble sale somewhere in a large campo.
Did you see that Peggy Guggenheim's heirs are sueing the museum over the Schulhof's "intrusion."
Thin
I remember there was a jumble sale somewhere in a large campo.
Did you see that Peggy Guggenheim's heirs are sueing the museum over the Schulhof's "intrusion."
Thin
May 9th, 2014, 07:42 AM
#54
I was thinking of that most generous Fodors contributor, Anhig, as I was walking around, thinking how much she would enjoy seeing the garden and new hot-house. Only a half hour train ride from Venice.>>
Peter, you are far too kind, but thank you for those lovely thoughts. You are right that I will seek out botanical [and other!] gardens wherever they are to be found, and I have read about, but not seen, the one in Padua. i would say that it's another place to add to my list, but actually, it's already there.
Nice tip about getting back on the ferry from Burano, BTW. When we were there, 5? 7? years ago, the lace museum was closed as it was under renovation. We too had a very nice fish lunch, not at il Gatto Nero, but at another of the restaurants along the main street where we sat out in the sun and drank prosecco. Also moeche as I recall. have you had any this year, Peter? DH did not approve but it didn't stop him trying them!
Peter, you are far too kind, but thank you for those lovely thoughts. You are right that I will seek out botanical [and other!] gardens wherever they are to be found, and I have read about, but not seen, the one in Padua. i would say that it's another place to add to my list, but actually, it's already there.
Nice tip about getting back on the ferry from Burano, BTW. When we were there, 5? 7? years ago, the lace museum was closed as it was under renovation. We too had a very nice fish lunch, not at il Gatto Nero, but at another of the restaurants along the main street where we sat out in the sun and drank prosecco. Also moeche as I recall. have you had any this year, Peter? DH did not approve but it didn't stop him trying them!
May 9th, 2014, 07:43 AM
#55
"The mast tower is interesting, allowing the mast to be stepped in a large vessel, part of the production line system at the Arsenale, the world's first military/industrial complex, able to produce 300 vessels a year. When you think that a galley sailed with ten tons of oars, 100 oars at 100 kilos each, to say nothing of ordinance, powder, shot, food, sails, cordage, anchors, everything needed to equip a fighting ship, one must admire Venetian endeavour."
Carthage also claimed to have been able to build a fighting ship in 24 hours. A little earlier and smaller but just as significant.
Carthage also claimed to have been able to build a fighting ship in 24 hours. A little earlier and smaller but just as significant.
May 9th, 2014, 07:54 AM
#56
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Anne, you will love the garden in Padua. It really is very special, botanical history conserved for centuries. An academic place, also a place of beauty. And the new hot house would amaze you.
Thin, el Gatto Nero has such a reputation, but we have not visited yet. And I noted the Guggenheim vs Others thing in the NYT. What IS it about these artistic types ...
Bilbo, I have always doubted that "create a ship in 24 hours" thing in Venice, particularly as it was said to include a cannon or mortar weighing some tons.
365 ships a year does not mean that a ship only took 24 hours. Typical Venetian marketing strategies, I think.
I never knew about the Carthage ship yards, so that will be a fun thing to explore.
Thin, el Gatto Nero has such a reputation, but we have not visited yet. And I noted the Guggenheim vs Others thing in the NYT. What IS it about these artistic types ...
Bilbo, I have always doubted that "create a ship in 24 hours" thing in Venice, particularly as it was said to include a cannon or mortar weighing some tons.
365 ships a year does not mean that a ship only took 24 hours. Typical Venetian marketing strategies, I think.
I never knew about the Carthage ship yards, so that will be a fun thing to explore.
May 9th, 2014, 01:12 PM
#58
We went to Tunisia and visited the site in Tunis, apart from the bits that were added by Romans after the "sowing with salt" thing we visited the harbours (2 of them) or at least the ruins of the harbours. One harbour was commercial and the other was military. A central island in a round harbour with a lock into the commercial harbour meant they could store their military ships in a nice safe harbour and get them out to sea very fast.
During the WW2 the Brits filmed themselves building a lancaster bomber in 24 hours (including all the stitching) machining of the engine block etc but not including the castingss. JIT for the modern age!
During the WW2 the Brits filmed themselves building a lancaster bomber in 24 hours (including all the stitching) machining of the engine block etc but not including the castingss. JIT for the modern age!
May 10th, 2014, 04:10 AM
#59
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For those that might be considering a visit to Padua/Padove, a web site for the Botanical Gardens.
http://www.ortobotanico.unipd.it/en/
http://www.ortobotanico.unipd.it/en/
