by Ann Harrison

Well, my window
looked out on the Square where Ogni Santi
meets San Trovaso
things have ends and beginnings
-Ezra Pound Cantos

When Ezra Pound arrived in Venice, he took rooms near a walled garden on the Rio San Trovaso, opposite a squero (or gondola building yard). Only a few squeri now remain in Venice, although at the height of her powers some ten thousand gondolas served the city. The gondoliers’ knowledge of the canals is legendary, and legend holds they are born with webbed feet, to help them walk on water.

I crossed the Grand Canal into the area of Venice called the Dorsoduro by the Ponte dell’Accademia. Because of its charm, this wooden bridge remains despite being built as a temporary measure in 1932. It leads to the Accademia, a set of galleries housing the world’s finest collection of Venetian art. As I walked bells chimed the hour from a handful of churches, each sounding a few minutes apart (for churches all over Italy run to their own time).

It took but a few minute to leaves the noise and bustle behind, for I’d entered a maze of alleyways and pretty piazzas where cafes spill onto the streets and picturesque residences stand dotted along the quiet canals. Small shops burst with flowers and vegetable seedlings, supplying courtyards and gardens hidden from view of the passerby. At the top of the Ponte dei Pugni – a small bridge spanning the Rio San Barnaba – are two sets of footprints, marking the starting positions for traditional fist fights. (Ultimately, these became so violent they were banned in 1705.) The Fondamenta Gherardini, which runs beside the Rio San Barnaba, is claimed by many to be the prettiest canal in Venice.

Built in the 17th century, the Squero di San Trovaso is the oldest of the remaining squeri in Venice. It sits beside a small canal, the Rio San Trovaso, allowing easy access for the gondolas. Although closed to the public, as the canal is only a few meters wide all the activity can be easily seen from the far side. On the day I passed some half-dozen gondolas rested upside down in the outside square in various stages of repair. A few were being covered with black lacquer; seven coats are needed to give the boats their famous gloss. Inside the shed another was being built. (Less than a dozen new gondolas are made annually, each taking up to six months to complete.)

Unusual for Venice, the boat-house and adjoining buildings are made of wood, and adorned with geraniums. They are Tyrolean in style, for most squeraroli, (the artisans who work on the gondolas), originally came from this area in the Dolomites, where the best boat-building wood is still to be found. Nine types of wood are used (elm, fir, walnut, oak, mahogany, larch, lime cherry and beech) and in constructing a gondola the squeraroli use some 280 separate pieces, with much of the work still done by hand.

The first record of a gondola is in 1094, when Doge Vito Falier issued a charter allowing Venetian citizens to build their own gondolas. The word is possibly derived from the Latin ‘cuncula’ (shell) or cymbula (little boat). Gondolas appear in paintings of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in works by Bellini, Carpaccio and Mansueti. Although the design has changed since it first appeared, the manner of steering the gondola is the same: the gondolier faces the bow and propels the boat with a forward stoke, followed by a compensating backward stroke. Originally, some gondolas had two oarsmen; one at the front and one at the stern, and occasionally this method is employed in the backwaters of Venice, as a novice is taught his craft.

The oars, (made of beech), complete with a ribbed blade for greater control, are built by the remeri, (which is derived from the Italian remo, or oar), and are held in place by a rowlock, or focole. The focole’s complicated design allows for up to eight different positions of the oar, depending upon speed and direction the gondolier requires. (Regardless of speed, the gondoliers continue their songs and banter amongst themselves and all they pass.) Unlike a punt, the gondola is never poled, for most of the canals are too deep.

The only metal used in the construction is the risso of the stern and the ferro at the head of the gondola, which counter-balances the gondolier’s weight. It is made from six metal strips, called pettini, representing the six sestieri (or sections) of Venice. Another strip shaped in the form of a double S represents the Grand Canal, with a doge’s cap at its top, and a lunette representing the Rialto Bridge inscribed below. The only other decoration on the gondola is a brass hippocampus (or sea horse), which adorns either side.

Gondolas were originally made watertight by coatings of black pitch. During the 1500’s, owners decorated their gondolas with fancy ironwork, bright carpets and rich colours. An increasing number boasted a felze; a small cabin complete with louvered windows, allowing privacy for passengers, and protection from the elements. (These remained common until the early 20th century, when tourist demand for better views led to their removal.) Sumptuary laws passed in 1562, however, decreed all gondolas to be black to prevent ostentatious displays of wealth.

Around this time the stability of the gondola improved with the development of a wider base, and there are even reports of the boats being used in battle in the Adriatic Sea. When bridges were built over the Venetian canals, they were designed to allow a standing gondolier to pass under their arch. The only other change occurred around the end of the 19th century, when the design became asymmetrical. The left side of the gondola is now 24cm longer than the right, (the gondolier stands on the left, with the oar on the right) to correct the tendency of the gondola to turn to the left which each forward stroke.

From the Squero San Trovaso it is a short walk to the Zattere, a long quayside which looks across the Venetian lagoon to the island of Giudecca. The breeze carries the smell of the sea, the call of gulls fills the air, and once more tourists are everywhere. Outside the Santa Maria della Visitazione there is a bocca di leone, a letterbox where anonymous denunciations were once made to The Great Council.

As I sat sipping a glass of prosecco, I could see all manner of craft plying the waters of Venice, from vegetable barges to garbage trucks and even ambulances. Enormous ocean liners often pass through the lagoon, their wash flooding into the canals. Yet gondolas and their striped-shirted gondoliers remain part of the city’s mythology, having been part of Venetian life for over one thousand years.

Private Venice Gondola Ride

If You Go:

Official website of the City of Venice
A useful guide to museums, galleries, hotels etc.
For those who are interested in a convent stay
Vaporetti (water buses) are the public transport of Venice. Vaporetto no.1 travels the length of the Grand Canal, offering spectacular view of this city.

About the author:
Anne Harrison lives with her husband, two children and numerous pets on the Central Coast, NSW. Her jobs include wife, mother, doctor, farmer and local witch doctor – covering anything from delivering alpacas to treating kids who have fallen head first into the washing machine. Her fiction has been published in Australian literary magazines, and has been placed in regional literary competitions. Her non-fiction has been published in medical and travel journals. Her ambition is to be 80 and happy. Her writings are available at anneharrison.com.au and anneharrison.hubpages.com

All photos are by Anne Harrison

Italy

by W. Ruth Kozak

As I step outside my small hotel, it is the light in the piazza that impresses me first, the way it filters through the narrow passageway, a bright shaft of daylight flooding across the cobbled path. I stand transfixed for a moment, breathing in the scent of old stones and pungent sea. It is my first morning in Venice and I am anxious to explore her ancient promenades.

Venice is a city dappled with light, tremulous and flashing, shimmering gently beneath the bridges and seeping into the shadowy lanes. Once known as Serenissima, the most Serene Republic, for centuries the sun shimmering on gilded domes and pinnacles, the soft splash of the gondoliers’ poles as they guide their sleek black crafts through the narrow waterways has been the romantic inspiration of artists, poets and lovers. And now I am here, enchanted by her sensual allure.

When I step into San Marco Square, it is absolutely deserted except for some early-morning artists sitting at their easels in front of the Doge’s Palace. I head down toward the Grand Canal and round the corner to view the Bridge of Sighs, so named because prisoners crossing it to the cells below were heard sighing. The canal is already bustling with watercraft: vaparettos, water taxis, motor launches, squat barges and the ubiquitous black gondolas. In Venice getting around by boat is the main means of transportation. There are no cars. A good way to see the city and the outlying islands is by vaparetto, the water buses that ply Venice’s canals along with the fleets of other craft. I buy a three day pass so I can hop on and off at any stop.

Venice is truly a wonder, and in spite of the reports of how it is sinking into the sea, it appears to be very much afloat. I visualize Venice in her heyday when gilded barges plied the waterways and gondoliers cruised the canals. The grandeur of the Doges still exists in the elaborate Palaces and residences that flank the wide cobblestone plaza of San Marco and along the canals are the hotels and houses where famous writers and noble families once lived.

I make my way to the Rialto Bridge, a commercial centre of Venice since the 9th century where the city’s first market was established. Ships from around the world once docked here. It was the first bridge built to span the Grand Canal and is the most used. From here, I take a vaparetto to the isolated ghetto in Cannaregio. The term ‘ghetto’ originated in Venice referring to the foundries where metals for cannons were cast. The Jews who came to Venice in the 14th and 15 century were only allowed to live in the ghetto and were actually locked in at night, not allowed freedom to venture around the city. Because as they couldn’t expand, they built up, so the buildings here are the tallest in Venice

I eat lunch at a pleasant little sidewalk cafe on one of the shaded streets then head back across the bridges and through the maze of alleys to Castello, the Greek community at St. George Dei Greci. Once about 4,000 Greeks lived here , mostly merchants, book publishers, artists, scribes and literary scholars. Greece always had a strong link with Venice when the Venetian navy ruled the seaways. It seemed appropriate that I should end up at the Arsenal, guarded by its two great lions brought from Greece in 1687.

The Republic’s navy was docked here and ships built and maintained. At the Naval Museum I learned something of Venice’s naval history. Venetian shipbuilders were renown for their fabulous designs. There are models of all types of ships, gondolas and fishing craft used over the centuries, including elaborate models of Doges’ ceremonial barges all ornately gilded. I imagine Venice at the height of her glory, the lagoon and canals crowded with all these magnificent vessels.

It seemed fitting after my tour of the naval museum, to take a gondola ride. It’s hard to describe the serene feeling you get as you cruise soundlessly along the canals. At each corner the gondolier shouts “Ohye!” to alert on-coming traffic. As the sleek high-prowed craft slides gracefully through the water I experience Venice as it used to be, Mistress of the seas, an enchanting seductress.

Enchanting Venice – Private Gondola Experience

If You Go:

The best time to see Venice is before eight in the morning and after eight at night when you can wander the labyrinth of alleyways free of the crowds, Venice is small, merely a cluster of tiny islands connected by a labyrinth of canals and alleyways only an arms width across. It isn’t difficult to navigate yourself around and you won’t get lost.

A three-Island Cruise is offered to the islands of Burano, Murano and Torcello for 19 Euro but you can also reach these islands and the Lido by vaparetto.

Private Tour: Murano, Burano and Torcello Half-Day Tour

FACTS: The central waterway is the Grand Canal (2 miles long). From that, smaller canals branch out. There are said to be 177 canals following old natural watercourses meandering through the city. When the tides are high parts of the city, like San Marco Square flood. Wooden walkways are provided.

Secrets of Venice Private Walking Tour with Guide

About the author:
It’s true that Venice really seduces you. Being there was one Ruth’s biggest thrills and no doubt one day she’ll return to cruise those waterways and sit in the piazzas. (You can see a picture of her in Venice on the Contact page.) In the meantime, Ruth is off to Greece again, her second home, in search of more stories. Email: contact@travelthruhistory.com

Photo Credits:
Piazza San Marco by Jakub Hałun / CC BY-SA
All other photographs are by W. Ruth Kozak