LA CUCINA VENEZIANA

IL PONTE DI RIALTO

Ecco il protagonista...fino al 1854 è stato l'unico ponte di Venezia che attraversava il Canal Grande ed ha ancor oggi il primato assoluto per il numero di turisti che si sofferma a fargli foto...

Un tempo chiamato Ponte della Moneta, o Quartarolo, venne costruito nel 1181 da Nicolò Barattieri, colui che riuscì a issare le colonne di San Marco e San Teodoro che erano a terra da circa un secolo. Il  ponte venne sostituito nel 1255 e quindi, di nuovo, dopo essere parzialmente bruciato a seguito del fallito tentativo di colpo di stato del 1310 capeggiato da Bajamonte Tiepolo. Ancora una volta, dopo il crollo del 1444, fu ricostruito in legno come ponte levatoio (per consentire il passaggio delle navi), con palafitte di sostegno e con le botteghe sui due lati. Crollo' ancora nel 1524. Fin dai primi anni del Cinquecento si pensò di costruirlo in pietra. Nel 1551 le autorità di Venezia indissero un bando per il rifacimento del ponte. La sua costruzione venne ritardata da una serie di motivi, quali eventi storici (la pestilenza del 1576 e l'incendio di Palazzo Ducale) e da discussioni per motivi economici da parte dello Stato di Venezia e per motivi personali da parte dei proprietari dei negozi sul ponte, i quali non volevano cessare la loro attività per tutto il periodo di costruzione del ponte. Alla fine, scartati i i progetti presentati (tra i quali quelli del Michelangelo, del Palladio, del Vignola, del Sansovino e più tardi anche di Vincenzo Scamozzie di Alvise Boldu'), nel 1588 la costruzione del ponte fu affidata alla direzione dell'ingegnere Antonio da Ponte (autore del restauro del Palazzo Ducale dopo l'incendio del 1577) e il ponte fu completato nel 1591 durante il dogado di Pasquale Cicogna. La sua costruzione richiese 250.000 ducati e l'impiego di 12.000 pali di legno e olmo e tavoloni di larice per compensare la spinta del l'arco del ponte.

A MUST READ

http://www.2venice.it/category/itinerari/

http://www.venessia.com/index.htm

http://www.blogs.com/topten/cat-bauers-top-10-venice-blogs/

http://venicetravelblog.com/

http://rialtofil.com/category/la-mia-citta//a>/

http://theveniceexperience.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.thatsvenice.com/travel-guides/sestieri-venice-districts/ 

Churches

http://www.thatsvenice.com/travel-guides/churches/

RIALTO
http://www.rialtovenezia.com/i-luoghi-di-rialto


CA' D'ORO
http://www.polomuseale.venezia.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/157/pianoterra

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca'_d'Oro

http://www.cadoro.org/sito/ing_informazioni.html

ARTISTS
http://www.wga.hu/index.html

PEOPLE

Caterina Cornaro
http://wwwbisanzioit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/caterina-cornaro.html

ARSENhttp://www.veneziamuseo.it/ARSENAL/caxa_arsenal.htmhttp://www.veneziamuseo.it/ARSENAL/caxa_arsenal.htmhttp://www2.comune.venezia.it/lidoliberty/index.ht/a>>http://www2.comune.venezia.it/lidoliberty/index.htm

LIDO

http://wwwhttp://www.turismo.provincia.venezia.it/turismoambientale/cd_1/itinerari/lido/lido.htm/a>m/a>ovincia.venezia.it/turismoambientale/cd_1/itinerari/lido/lido.html

http://strangewondrous.net/browse/subject/v/venice

My very favourite...

There is something so difce all accustomed habits andeveryday sights to enter anenchanted garden. Mary Shelleya>e/a>ece all accustomed habits and
everyday sights to enter an
enchanted garden.
Mary Shelley

Posted via DraftCraft app

La Vecia del Morter

Si racconta che la notte tra il 14 e il 15 giugno 1310, una vecchietta, affacciatasi alla finestra per vedere chi stesse facendo chiasso, facesse cadere il pesante mortaio che era poggiato sul suo davanzale e colpisse involontariamente il vessillifero di un gruppo di rivoltosi. Si trattava dei congiurati capeggiati da Bajamonte Tiepolo che stavano per attaccare il doge Pietro Gradenigo e il suo gruppo di fedelissimi. Partiti da Rialto, erano quasi giunti in Piazza San Marco e si trovavano alle Mercerie, precisamente sotto la Torre dell'Orologio all'altezza di Calle del Cappello Nero, dove appunto si trovava la casa dell'anziana Lucia Rossi (o secondo altre versioni Giustina Rossi). Il loro obiettivo era quello di rovesciare il partito aristocratico e di liberarsi del Doge Gradenigo. I congiurati si erano divisi in tre gruppi: due partivano da Rialto e proseguivano uno (quello capeggiato da Bajamonte Tiepolo) per le Mercerie e l'altro (quello capeggiato da Marco Querini) per Calle dei Fabbri superando il Ponte dei Dài; il terzo gruppo (capeggiato da Badoero Badoer) raccoglieva le genti padovane e veniva dalla terraferma attraverso la laguna. La leggenda vuole che la Rossi con la caduta del mortaio provocasse la rotta dei congiurati e salvasse il Doge. In realtà, al fallimento della congiura contribuirono due fattori importanti: la rivelazione della congiura fatta da  Marco Donà, congiurato poi ritiratosi, che avvertì il Doge permettendogli così di rafforzare la guardia e allertare i suoi alleati e la tempesta che infuriava su Venezia e rendeva molto difficile l'attacco, soprattutto quello del gruppo proveniente dalla terraferma. All'insaputa dei congiurati, gli armati del doge li attendevano in Piazza San Marco. Nello scontro morirono molti ribelli e tra questi anche il Querini col figlio Benedetto. Il Tiepolo fu costretto al l'esilio per 4 anni in Schiavonia (anche se, in realtà, dopo meno di un anno si trovava a Padova e più tardi a Treviso). Il Badoer fu catturato a Fusina, torturato e decapitato. Come sempre l'architettura conserva i segni della storia. In Calle del Cappello Nero sopra il sottoportico si trova un bassorilievo della vecia del morter per ricordare l'anziana che salvò il doge. A lei e ai suoi discendenti fu concesso come ringraziamento di non pagare l'affitto. Nel 1364, dopo che la casa di Bajamonte fu abbattuta, venne messa al suo posto una colonna d'infamia. Il luogo divenne pubblico e fino alla fine della Serenissima fu proibito costruire case in quest'area. La colonna in seguito venne danneggiata da un complice di Bajamonte, il quale fu punito col taglio di una mano, la perdita degli occhi e l'esilio. Adesso rimane solo una pietra con un'incisione 'LOC. COL. BAI. THE. MCCCX' all'angolo di Campo Sant'Agostino. 

Del palazzo Ca' Granda dei Querini rimarrebbero solo le arcate del Mercato del Pesce di Rialto rivolte verso il Campo delle Beccarie e gli stipiti e alcuni marmi che sarebbero stati donati alla chiesa di S. Vio e sono ancor'oggi visibili.

A seguito della congiura venne creato il Consiglio dei Dieci, ma di questo parleremo più tardi...

A Fortunate Find - The Fortuny!

This post is mainly visual as it is hard for me to describe such beauty and atmosphere only with words. 

I love visiting this palace/house-museum and I really feel at ease in its cosy atmosphere. If you come here you will enter a magical world, walking in dim light you will be surrounded by beauty everywhere you look. You will visit the rooms created by Mariano Fortuny and sit on the big sofa contemplating the luxury of the wall-hanging tapestries and Fortuny's eclectic collection of different objects - the famous lamps, the paintings, wonderful pieces of furniture, statues and even a huge snake. 

It was Fortuny's atelier of photography, stage-design, textile-design and painting and it still has his library in perfect condition. Unfortunately it is open only during temporary exhibitions, which luckily are happening often. Last time I visited it, it was in November during the temporary exhibition Proportio.

Interesting capitals of the arcades of the Doge's Palace

Emperor Traiano and the widow

According to the story Emperor Traiano was on his horse on the way to fight a war when he was stopped by a poor widow who asked him to revenge the unfair death of her son. He answered he would revenge his death once back from the war but the woman would not let him go by saying that if he would die in war he would never be able to revenge her son's death. Moreover, he was the emperor and therefore the only one that should revenge her son's death. Moved by her words Traiano fulfilled her wishes.

http://www.versionitradotte.it/altre-versioni/l-imperatore-traiano-e-la-povera-vedova/

The three corners of the Doge's Palace

I must have walked past the Doge Palace hundreds of times while I was living in Venice and contemplated its beauty while trying to avoid the hordes of tourists trying to get a selfie with the Bridge of Sighs or the never ending queue to get in the palace.  However, I must confess I have never asked myself what the figures at the corners represented, even though, I have always guessed that one was obviously Adam and Eve and the figure with the long beard must have been Noah. And this information was luckily correct. 

In the three corners of the Doge Palace there are three groups of sculptures. In the corner near the Ponte della Paglia the group of Noah with his three sons, in the main corner the scuptures of Adam and Eve and, finally, on the corner near the Porta della Carta the representation of the Judgment of Salomon.

Noah is here represented with his two sons Shem and Ham, the third son Japeth is represented further away, after the first arch.

Noah 

Noah and his sons - Shem is covering his father while Ham looks like if he despises him.

Japheth is represented further away from them with his hands up and his palms turned up almost as a gesture to say that he does not want anything to do with this. 

In the last corner, the one closer to the Basilica, the Judgment of Solomon refers to a story from the Hebrew bible. Two young women both claimed to be the mother to the same child. As it was impossible to judge who was telling the truth, King Solomon asked for a sword in order to split the child in two so to give half to each woman. Of course, the true mother opposed herself to this terrible verdict and asked Solomon to give the child to the other woman. The love of the true mother for her son prevailed (she would have surrendered her baby to somebody else rather than having her baby hurt) and therefore Solom was able to declare the true mother and give back the child to her. 

A Magic Encounter

Here we are, right in the middle of the Venetian Carnival. We are wandering around the city. For sure the crisis is noticeable to those who are no longer children even among the hundreds of masks and people that crowd the piazza. But can you get a better occasion to get rid of the daily things? This thought takes me back to when I was a child, to the joy I would feel when, after the flight of the Colombina, I would discover the sky covered with thousands of coloured balloons. I have kept this precious memory and it comes back in the most magic moments. I used to look at the crowd with their noses looking up and in their faces I could see the magic. The same magic that as a child I was feeling. For long moments time and space seemed no longer to exist. WHY DO NOT THEY DO IT ANY LONGER?? I have asked myself for many years. IT WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR THE SOUL.
What a magic! The same magic that I have experienced this year meeting a person very dear to me and well known in the city. A unique occasion, I hope not unrepeatable as I would like, though his tales, to understand better life. For a long time, I had been charmed by this character, or better, by the image that was coming out from a book I had read a few years earlier, which seen him witness and not only, of a tragedy for our city, that we both love, the fire of La Fenice theatre. I remember that year really well as an other most painful event for me, my grandfather's death, marks it in my memory. It was 1996. The years had passed by... and there he is... at the celebration for my graduation, where I find out that he is my father's acquaintance and friend. His spontaneous presence at my graduation, charmed me much more than his international fame.
Finally, today I have a chance to find out his world. Is he really the person I have been admiring for many years and that I have been trying to seeing into his 'surrealist' paintings? It is the afternoon of the 8th of February and, for the first time, I enter a magic place. Suspended between past and present, it seems as it almost wants to anchor itself to the rests of a glorious past in the same way as Venice Titanic constantly fights to save itself from the water. Since the very entrance I notice the link to the past. The bell, actioned by pulling a cable, produces a sound that you have not heard for a long time. The door opens on a long corridor that seems not to end and on the right there is the entrance to the artist's study. There are painted wooden beams and an opaque and rustic wooden floor. Insects, hundred of tubes of paint and brushes, brushes with small points with which, like Canaletto, he creates characters and millimetric details in the Procuratie portici, one of his works' scenography. Piles of books that, as the artist himself, do not follow conventions. They are, indeed, books of different genres, but laid one next to the other without a precise order or, at least, without an order comprehensible to the visitor. Sartre next to Bronzino, an art book next to De Sade, a book on Casanova.
Casanova brings my attention back to the canvas in front of the artist. It has intense colours, the blue prevails, and the light is explosive. In the middle, Casanova in his conventional role entratains a woman. On the right, Casanova is represented once more, now as the man object. Next to him, created thanks to Fellini inspiration, there is the mechanical doll. They are both objects and the only way left to communicate for them is through their aerials that we can notice above their heads. On the left, painted in blue, appears the Queen of the Night who carries her vassal on head.
It is really him, as I had imagined him. Once again, the sensation of the magic. THANKS TO LUDOVICO DE LUIGI for making me understand the magic of the simple and natural things of . The magic of carpet diem, of seizing and tasting unique moments that will never come back and that mark in our memory unforgettable feelings and memories.
Wow! here we are! Right in the middle of the Venetian Carnival! Of course, I am lucky as here I was born, but my boyfriend, who like myself has a passion for photography, is a foreigner. As I was saying, here we are, wandering around the city. Yes, for sure there is a crisis and for those who are no longer children this is evident even among the hundreds of masks and people that crowd the piazza. But can you get a better occasion to get rid of the daily things? This thought takes me back to when I was a child, to the joy I would feel when, after the flight of the Colombina, I would discover the sky covered with thousands of coloured balloons. What an emotion! I have kept it in my memories and it comes back in the most magic moments. I used to look at the crowd with their noses looking up and in their faces the magic. The same magic that myself, a child, was feeling. For long moments time and space seemed no longer existing. WHY DO NOT THEY DO IT ANY LONGER?? I have asked myself for many years. IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR THE SOUL.

Foto di Iain Reid

The old woman with the mortar

Si racconta che la notte tra il 14 e il 15 giugno 1310, una vecchietta, affacciatasi alla finestra per vedere chi stesse facendo chiasso, facesse cadere il pesante mortaio che era poggiato sul suo davanzale e colpisse involontariamente il vessillifero di un gruppo di rivoltosi. Si trattava dei congiurati capeggiati da Bajamonte Tiepolo che stavano per attaccare il doge Pietro Gradenigo e il suo gruppo di fedelissimi. Partiti da Rialto, erano quasi giunti in Piazza San Marco e si trovavano alle Mercerie, precisamente sotto la Torre dell'Orologio all'altezza di Calle del Cappello Nero, dove appunto si trovava la casa dell'anziana Lucia Rossi (o secondo altre versioni Giustina Rossi). Il loro obiettivo era quello di rovesciare il partito aristocratico e di liberarsi del Doge Gradenigo. I congiurati si erano divisi in tre gruppi: due partivano da Rialto e proseguivano uno (quello capeggiato da Bajamonte Tiepolo) per le Mercerie e l'altro (quello capeggiato da Marco Querini) per Calle dei Fabbri superando il Ponte dei Dài; il terzo gruppo (capeggiato da Badoero Badoer) raccoglieva le genti padovane e veniva dalla terraferma attraverso la laguna. La leggenda vuole che la Rossi con la caduta del mortaio provocasse la rotta dei congiurati e salvasse il Doge. In realtà, al fallimento della congiura contribuirono due fattori importanti: la rivelazione della congiura fatta da  Marco Donà, congiurato poi ritiratosi, che avvertì il Doge permettendogli così di rafforzare la guardia e allertare i suoi alleati e la tempesta che infuriava su Venezia e rendeva molto difficile l'attacco, soprattutto quello del gruppo proveniente dalla terraferma. All'insaputa dei congiurati, gli armati del doge li attendevano in Piazza San Marco. Nello scontro morirono molti ribelli e tra questi anche il Querini col figlio Benedetto. Il Tiepolo fu costretto al l'esilio per 4 anni in Schiavonia (anche se, in realtà, dopo meno di un anno si trovava a Padova e più tardi a Treviso). Il Badoer fu catturato a Fusina, torturato e decapitato. Come sempre l'architettura conserva i segni della storia. In Calle del Cappello Nero sopra il sottoportico si trova un bassorilievo della vecia del morter per ricordare l'anziana che salvò il doge. A lei e ai suoi discendenti fu concesso come ringraziamento di non pagare l'affitto. Nel 1364, dopo che la casa di Bajamonte fu abbattuta, venne messa al suo posto una colonna d'infamia. Il luogo divenne pubblico e fino alla fine della Serenissima fu proibito costruire case in quest'area. La colonna in seguito venne danneggiata da un complice di Bajamonte, il quale fu punito col taglio di una mano, la perdita degli occhi e l'esilio. Adesso rimane solo una pietra con un'incisione 'LOC. COL. BAI. THE. MCCCX' all'angolo di Campo Sant'Agostino. 

Del palazzo Ca' Granda dei Querini rimarrebbero solo le arcate del Mercato del Pesce di Rialto rivolte verso il Campo delle Beccarie e gli stipiti e alcuni marmi che sarebbero stati donati alla chiesa di S. Vio e sono ancor'oggi visibili.

A seguito della congiura venne creato il Consiglio dei Dieci, ma di questo parleremo più tardi...

Funny Face

It isn't Audrey's cute little face, it is a completely different face, but a funny one too, at least in my opinion. The mascaron, this is how we call it, is like a big mask. In Venetian we use the same word to describe the face of a woman who has put far too much make up on to the point that she looks like a mask. The big stone deformed face is positioned on the top of the door of the entrance to the bell tower of the church of Santa Maria Formosa (St. Mary the curvy!). As custom, it is probably here to scare off the devil preventing him from walking up the tower to toll the bell and frighten people. To Ruskin it was, of course, a symbol of the decay of Venice. To me, instead, it looks more like a poor deformed fellow with a funny face looking at me sticking his tongue out!

Left side from the : apples near Rialto bridge, side entrance of the Chiesa 

dei Carmini, garden of Palazzo Zenobio. Right side from the top: side of the Chiesa di Santa Maria Formosa, plaque on the wall of a house in Campo near the church of San Pantalon.

Come to Lido and meet Santa!

Like most Venetians I have always known the church of San Nicolò in Lido as every year in the lagoon just in front of it takes place the celebration of the Sposalizio del Mare (the Marriage of the Sea) and afterwards in the church  the solemn mass related to this celebration.

Francesco Guardi, The Doge on the Bucentaur at San Niccolò del Lido

Also, I have often read about it when coming across the story of Nicolò Giustinian. This young man from one of the greatest Venetian families had become a monk and was living in the convent on the Lido. As he was the only male member left in his family and people in Venice were worried his family would be extincted, a public petition was sent to the Pope to grant permission to release him from his vows. He married the daughter of the Doge at the time and they had nine boys and three girls. Later on, after having ensured that his family would live on, the monk returned to his religious life on the Lido's convent and the woman went to a convent too on a different island. 

But recently, while reading an article, I have discovered this church is also known as they say here rest some of Saint Nicholas's relics. According to the story and to most recent studies, the church in Bari would own most of the relics of the Saint but Venice would still own a few of the fragmented bones left by the people of Bari. In their expedition, in 1087, they looted most of the bones of the Saint. However, being in a hurry, they left some behind for the Venetians... And when the Venetians left for their First Crusade, in 1099, and stopped at Myra, in the Church of Saint Nicholas they would have found a copper urn containing some of the left over fragmented bones. As it always happens, there was disagreement about where the relics should be kept and in the end it was decided to keep them in Lido as here there was already a church dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MerryOldSanta.jpg

For centuries Bari and Venice have been rivals as they both claim to possess the real relics of the Saint. The figure of Saint Nicholas, is important also because it has probably inspired the figure of Santa Claus. Nicholas was a rich and kind man living in the fourth century AD in Myra in Asia Minor (today called Turkey), who had become a bishop and was always helping the poor. There are several stories about him but the most famous is the one of the poor man with three daughters. His three girls could not get married as the family was so poor they could not have a dowry. One night, Nicholas would have dropped a bag of gold down the chimney and into the house for the first daughter. The bag would have obviously fallen into a stocking that had left to dry by the fireplace! The same would have happened for the second daughter. Therefore the curious dad would then have secretly waited impatient to discover who he should thank and he would have seen Nicholas. Even though he was begged not to reveal the fact, the secret was revealed and every time somebody would get a secret gift people would say it had been thanks to Saint Nicholas. He became popular because of his reputation as a bringer of gifts often in shoes or boots. He inspired both the figure of the American Santa Claus and the British Father Christmas. Saint Nicholas is celebrated on December 6 in many European countries and also in many other areas in the world.

http://www.biography.com/people/st-nicholas-204635