Countdown to Christmas - Venice Style, Day 1

Ciao tutti!

It's December 1 (well, it was about an hour ago still), and I decided at the last minute to do another round of my holiday advent calendars.  In 2014, I had great fun every day of December on my blog opening a new door each day, sharing something "Venetian" that reminded me of Christmas. 

This year I have something similar up my sleeves. I hope you'll flip open a new door with me every day as I countdown to Christmas.  I'll have a different photo of an advent calendar that peaks my fancy to share, as well. 

For December 1, I'm sharing my version of the 12 Days of Christmas with you. Remember that old favorite Christmas song?  Here it is, Venice style. 

On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

A gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 2nd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Two Murano chandeliers

and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 3rd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Three Carnevale masks

Two Murano chandeliers

and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Four Vaporettos

Three Carnevale masks

Two Murano chandeliers

and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Five more brid-ges

Four Vaporettos

Three Carnevale masks

Two Murano chandeliers

and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 6th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Six Spritzes spritzing

Five more brid-ges
Four Vaporettos
Three Carnevale masks
Two Murano chandeliers
and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 7th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Seven gondoliers-a-rowing
Six Spritzes spritzing
Five more brid-ges
Four Vaporettos
Three Carnevale masks
Two Murano chandeliers
and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 8th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Eight Panettone from Colussi
Seven gondoliers-a-rowing
Six Spritzes spritzing
Five more brid-ges
Four Vaporettos
Three Carnevale masks
Two Murano chandeliers
and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 9th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Nine Vivaldi concerts
Eight Panettone from Colussi
Seven gondoliers-a-rowing
Six Spritzes spritzing
Five more brid-ges
Four Vaporettos
Three Carnevale masks
Two Murano chandeliers
and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 10th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Ten Canals-a-rising
Nine Vivaldi concerts
Eight Panettone from Colussi
Seven gondoliers-a-rowing
Six Spritzes spritzing
Five more brid-ges
Four Vaporettos
Three Carnevale masks
Two Murano chandeliers
and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 11 th  day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Eleven Fritelle frying
Ten Canals-a-rising
Nine Vivaldi concerts
Eight Panettone from Colussi
Seven gondoliers-a-rowing
Six Spritzes spritzing
Five more brid-ges
Four Vaporettos
Three Carnevale masks
Two Murano chandeliers
and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Twelve cicchetti platters
Eleven Fritelle frying
Ten Canals-a-rising
Nine Vivaldi concerts
Eight Panettone from Colussi
Seven gondoliers-a-rowing
Six Spritzes spritzing
Five more brid-ges
Four Vaporettos
Three Carnevale masks
Two Murano chandeliers
and a gondola on the Grand Canal.

(Venice version words by Karen Henderson, 2016)

Make sure you practice so you are all ready for Christmas caroling at the end of the month!

See you all tomorrow when we'll open door #2 together. 

Ciao!

As an extra little bonus, I'll post the link to each day's advent calendar from my 2014 blog so you can get a double whammy. I promise, all of this year's posts will be different from those. Enjoy!
2014 Day 1 Countdown to Christmas post

Venice from inside the boat

Ciao, tutti!

I've very excited to share some of my latest adventures with you.  

Recently I received a GoPro camera as an early birthday gift from a group of fabulous friends so I could record some of my rowing experiences. 

Last week I strapped the camera to my head, got in the boat and went out for the first live test run. 

I filmed our entire exercise session, from getting into the boat to pulling it up out of the water.  The video clips are unedited.(It was my first attempt at this. Just getting them up into YouTube was a learning curve)  But I thought you might enjoy seeing Venice from my perspective in the dragon boat on last Wednesdays row. 

There are 6 clips- with each of the first 5 lasting 12 minutes and the last 5 minutes. Grab a paddle and come on along with me. Or, if you prefer, grab a glass of prosecco instead, and enjoy a bit of Venice with me. 

                                                                           Part 1

                                                                                    

Part 2

Part 3 

                                                                            Part 4

Part 5

                                                                              

                                                                        Part 6

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I've enjoyed sharing it with you.

P.S. If anyone has any GoPro tips or tricks, this novice would love to hear them. 

A Venetian traffic stop

Yesterday, while rowing down the Grand Canal in our dragon boat, we were pulled over by the local police.  Yes, you read that right. The Lionesses were pulled over, just before reaching the Rialto Bridge. I'll get to all the gory details in a sec.

Before last summer, any sightings of police on any canals was  rare, very rare.  Now, since a very tragic boating accident in which a German tourist lost his life, there are new regulations and a greater police presence. These regulations, on both speed and when and where certain types of boats can be on the Grand Canal, are directed towards delivery boats, water taxis, vaporettos and gondolas.   However, a  week ago the city has issued yet another boating regulation, a  ban on small rowing/paddle boats in the Grand Canal as well as several smaller canals in the city.  Effective March 1, no dragon boats, kayaks, canoes or paddle boats will be allowed on any of  the named canals. Niente. Nada. None. Basta. 

There was a meeting this past Monday between the city and one of the boating associations to request  the  ruling be rescinded. The result:  nothing will be changed. 

This map  shows all the routes included in the ban ( canals  marked in red and pink).  This also  limits the ability to row from one area of the city to the other, without rowing out in open waters. This gives the ban an even bigger sting, and it's going to be a tough pill to swallow for small paddlers like us.

And so, with March 1 just around the corner,  we Lionesses have only a few more days to enjoy our practice/exercise rows out on our beloved Grand Canal. There is something magical about being out there in a small boat. It's an entirely different experience, one I have a tough time putting into words.  I feel almost a part of the water, instead of a spectator looking down at it. Magical. Just magical.  

 We expected to be rowing on Wednesday, however at the last minute high winds curtailed our exercise plans. Yesterday the day began with thick fog.  We fully expected our row to be cancelled yet again. With luck, the fog lifted by mid afternoon. Almost gleefully, we put the boat into the water, loaded up and turned expectantly to our timoniere (helmsman), Francesco, wondering what he had planned for the day.  He grinned, "The Grand Canal, of course!"

We're rowing along, silently for a change (usually the lionesses are chatterboxes, requiring Francesco to be yelling "Silenzio!").  I think each of us were a bit lost in our own thoughts, savoring every moment of what will be one of our last rows in this magnificent canal. 

As we approach Rialto, we notice a the team of policemen in their new post alongside the canal are waving us over. We look around, thinking they must surely mean another boat behind us.  No, they mean us. Francesco complies, maneuvering the dragon boat alongside the pier.  The policeman bends down to speak to us all,  explaining calmly that there is a new law in place effective March 1, after which dragon boats are banned from certain canals, including the Grand Canal.  If we were found rowing after March 1, we will be fined.  Aha. He'd  pulled us over to give us a traffic warning. 

What ensued next should  have been enough to cause that policeman to run for the hills, and refuse that duty post in the future.  He should have known better, should have left well enough alone and let this group of Venetian women just keep on rowing, but no, he had to place nice cop and pull us over to issue a warning.  Everyone in the boat, with the exception of Francesco and myself, started yelling at the top of their lungs all at the same time. This is what Venetian women do, of course.  Me, I know better.  I'm an American by blood, and we Americans know to keep our mouth shut when a policeman pulls you over. "Yes, Sir, here's my drivers license and registration, what seems to be the problem, Sir? ".  That's how we're trained to handle any police interaction. These Venetians?? Oh, no. 

Here's how this situation went down. These women (most of them over 60), lashed into this young man like he was their son. I bet they would have smacked him alongside the head if we weren't so far down in the boat. Several of them were trying to stand up waving their hands as they yelled, but realized the boat was wobbling, so sat back down again. Thank God!

The yelling continued and continued. I heard a raft of stuff:   We want this law changed. Can you get it straightened out? It's not fair. We're Venetians, we should be able to row in the Grand Canal. This is shit. We're going to protest at City Hall. No, we're going to STORM City Hall!!   (And this is just the calm stuff). Just imagine a bunch of irate ladies going for the jugular vein. I think they expected that cop would grant them special dispensation right there on the spot.  

With what little shreds of dignity he had left, he tried to explain he was only delivering the message, making sure they all were aware of the law, and sadly, there was nothing he could do to change it.  "Bye ladies, have a nice day." 

We pushed off, continuing our row, but the lionesses were not very silent. Francesco was smart in not giving the "Silenzio" command at that point in time.

Me?  Yes, I was silent. I wasn't about to mouth off to any cop. I quietly observed the whole event, getting yet another lesson in just how differently life happens over here. 

Ohhh, the girls were hot under the collar after that.  They proceeded to yell at the next gondolier who passed, telling him all about the cop pulling them over and how unfair the whole new law thing is. Fortunately, for him, he agreed with them. He would have been taking his life into his own hands if he hadn't!

So what happens with this ban next?  There is a petition floating around locally and on Facebook, I hear there will be a protest at city hall schduled soon. In the meantime, I'm hopefully for two more days of rowing on the Grand Canal before the dreaded deadline, if the weather gods are kind to us on Wednesday and Friday. And praying for no more alterations with the local police. 

Countdown to Christmas - Italian style - December 20

photo courtesy www.newford.org.uk


Day 20 (venti)!

Believe it or not, I selected each of the Advent Calendars I was going to feature on these blogs way back on December 1. I chose the calendars, and assigned them each to a day of the month.  I got a huge chuckle today when I opened the file for today's blog and took a look at this calendar, because what is behind door number 20 is the annual Babbo Natale Regata in Venice!

How perfect is that! Babbo's for the Babbo Natale Regata.  What a great coincidence.

The Babbo Natale Regata is one of my favorite events of the season in Venice.

For the last several years, on the last saturday before Christmas, the city holds a special regata on the Grand Canal.  The requirement for anyone rowing in the regata, either as a competitor or one of the boats in the corteo (parade) is that everyone must wear a Santa Claus (Babbo Natale) costume. I

Usually, I take up a spot near San Zaccaria vaporetto stop to watch all the Santas rowing. This year, I got to don one of those fantastic costumes myself!  The Pink Lionesses in Venice (of which I am now a member), suited up at the Bucintoro rowing club along the Zattere.

 Here we are waiting to get into the dragonboat ( our sleigh for today's regata)

 Loading up all the Babbe (lady Babbo Natale's) into the boat

                    100 Babbos (technically that would be Babbi) rowing down the Grand Canal on a                                                                  beautiful sunny December morning.

Even the boats are decorated!

We've all arrived at Ca'Foscari.  A very happy bunch of Babbi !

Festive boats!

                                        Buon Natale!

Regata Storica 2014

Not a cloud in the sky, lots of sun- it was the perfect day for the Regata Storica. This is one of Venice's most spectacular festivals, the culmination of the rowing season AND a parade down Venice's main street, the Grand Canal.  But this isn't just any parade, it's a fabulous water parade of 16th century style boats filled with rowers and passengers decked out in period costumes. 

This is a festival for and by Venetians, and they certainly showed up for it this year. LOTS more boats lining the Grand Canal and people hanging out of the palazzo windows from St. Mark's to the train station and back this year than in previous years.  This was different- in a good way.  I too, was doing the Regata a bit differently this year.  In years past, I've watched from canal side at San Vio and by the train station. Both were great viewing posts, but not the optimum.   I have also had the pleasure of watching from in a gondola, in the water,  tied up near the Rialto bridge and I thought that was as good as it could get. This year, I got the golden ticket.  This year, I rowed in the historic parade- the Corteo.  Yes, I was not only IN the water, I was in the parade itself.  

For the last few weeks in August the anticipation had been building, and finally the day was upon me. I could barely believe it was true. I was going to row down the Grand Canal along with the Corteo in the Regata Storica.  Sunday morning I was ready. My gym bag was packed by the door. I practically wore a hole in the floor pacing until it was time to leave for the boat yard. 

Finally it was time to go.  As the vaporetto Mike and I were on motored past The Bucintoro, I spotted our dragon boat waiting on the fondamenta and several Pink Lionesses already in their rowing outfits outside finalizing their preparations. In just a few more minutes, I'd be there too.

I think I flew off the vaporetto and raced to the boat house.  As I entered, I was greeted with hugs and kisses from my fellow Lionesses and enthusiastic greetings. Many of them had been away on their summer holidays for the month of August and this was the first time seeing them since they had gotten back.  That's when it hit me. I wasn't just rowing in the Regata Storica this year. I was rowing with my fellow lionesses. That made all the difference.

(Me, with our beautiful dragon)

 Even our dragon boat was ready for a special party! Several of the lionesses had spent the previous afternoon decorating our two boats for the occassion.  We not only had a full dragon boat of lionesses, we also had our smaller boat filled with guests, other women in pink, from Chioggia, Mestre and Montebelluno.  The small boat was lifted into the water, fully loaded with excited women ready to row.

 Next the larger dragon boat was lowered into the water, with  only  4 rowers and our helmsman on board.  The rest of us marched down the street to where we normally board. Today we not only had ourselves loading up, but also Nina, the grand daughter of one of the lionesses, who would be up front beating the drum cadence for us during the Regata, and lots of sacks full of food and wine.

 Finally, we were off, paddling towards the Grand Canal.

 Once on the Grand Canal, we took up our position behind the elegant historic boats, the ones filled with rowers and passengers in period costumes.  As we headed towards Rialto, we passed by the judges stand at Ca Foscari, where we, like every other boat, raised our oars in salute.   All along the route people stood and clapped  in recognition of  the women in pink as we rowed past.   I couldn't have been more proud of my lionesses!

Having rowed the entire length of the Canal, we then turned the boat around, heading back towards the Accademia Bridge searching for the best spot to tie up along the banks to watch the afternoon's races. After slowing down at several possible locations, the ladies finally agreed on the spot they thought would be perfect, just before the San Toma vaporetto stop. We tied up alongside several other boats, and then the party really got started.  The women in the front of the boat dug into the sacks of food, passing plastic cups and plates down the rows from front to the back. Bottles of prosecco were popped open. Amidst lots of  Salute's and Cin Cin's  (toasts) we had ring side seats to view  the historic boats as they completed their return trip down the canal. Next, mortadella paninis (sandwiches), olives, and pizzettes (small pizzas) were passed down the line. When I thought  we couldn't eat more the tortas (cakes) came out.  Peach torta, apple torta and even a nutella torta.  And cookies.  In between it all, the prosecco and red wine circulated from the front of the dragon boat to the rear. Things were being passed from our boat to the boats along side us, and vice versa.  

All along the Grand Canal Venetians just like us were celebrating, eating and drinking in their boats. This is how Venetians do it, and here I was, right smack in the middle of it all.  I had a grin plastered on my face from ear to ear that lasted the entire day. This was beyond my wildest imagination. 

Races in several categories - children, older youths, women, six man teams and finally two man teams round out the rest of the afternoon. The last race, the two man teams of gondoliers in gondolini (shaped just like a gondola, but specially constructed for competitive racing) is much anticipated all year long. Everyone in boats or on the sidelines cheers madly for their favorite team, and the competition is fierce.

I had the perfect perch from which to observe all the action!  And "action" is not quite the appropriate word to describe the last race. It was a nail biter! The two rival boats were neck and neck as they passed me on their way up the Grand Canal, and they were within inches when they came back past me towards the finish line. The race ended in a photo finish. It was that close. The sheer muscle and athleticism required to perform at this level is indescribable.

Add to that, if you can just imagine, the setting: the Grand Canal, empty except for these boats, with the pink hues of the setting sun behind the palazzos as these racers headed for the final few feet at Ca Foscari.  An amazing ending to an amazing day.

For me, it wasn't quite over yet. We had to row back to the boat house, in what suddenly seemed like rush hour at Grand Central Station.  Every boat was back on the canal, rowing at the same time!  Bedlam!  It only took seconds for the local police to be directing traffic so we all got to where we were headed safely.

After putting the dragon boat away for the night,  we headed up to the locker room to change clothes. Reflecting on the day, and not really wanting it to end, all I could think about was how different this experience was from the year prior.   I've somehow, miraculously, gone from being on the sidelines to being right in the thick of it. I'll take that.

Two Americans in a boat

Yesterday, I was a little late arriving at the Bucintoro for our Wednesday afternoon rowing practice. As I was just about to the door, I could see that  most of the Lionesses were already out on the street with oars in hand, getting ready to climb into the dragon boat, and they were all making a fuss, yelling to me "Karen, Karen, hurry up, hurry up!"  (Note: YES, the lionesses ALL call me Karen!)

I ran upstairs, changed quickly, grabbed my paddle and life vest, and ran for the boat. I was nearly tackled by lionesses, all clamoring at me, all at the same time. They were all trying to tell me that we had a special guest rowing with us that afternoon, a fellow breast cancer survivor dragon boater from Philadelphia.  The head of our group, Anna, wanted to make sure that I understood I would be the one rowing next to this woman, Lynne, and that I should translate for the rest of the group as we rowed.  Oh, this should be a lot of fun, I thought.  When all of them get speaking a mile a minute at the same time, I don't do so well with my Italian. I said a quick prayer to the patron saint of Italian language learners and hoped for the best!

While in the boat, Lynne explained to me that she and others from her Philadelphia group had been competing in dragon boat races in Ravenna during the previous week, and now she and her husband were wrapping up their vacation with a brief two day stay in Venice.  On Tuesday afternoon, while taking a walk down the Zattere, they happened into the Bucintoro and noticed photos on the wall of the Pink Lionesses. Lynn asked someone at the clubhouse about the lionesses, and was directed to talk to Marissa, one of our lionesse who by happenstance was also there at the club at the same time. Marissa doesn't speak any English, and Lynne doesn't speak any Italian, but somehow they managed to communicate for about 30 minutes, during which time Marissa invited Lynne to show up on Wednesday to row with us.

What a happy coincidence this must have been for Lynne!  Isn't it wonderful when worlds collide unexpectedly?  The lionesses were ecstatic to be able to share some rowing time with a fellow cancer survivor.  For Lynne, it might have been an opportunity of a lifetime.  As we rowed the boat onto the Grand Canal, she was as awestruck by that moment as I am every time I get the chance to row on that canal.  Something about it just takes your breath away.

While we rowed, Lynne bombarded me with  questions about our group. She was particularly interested in our boat, commenting on how beautiful it was compared to the boat her group rows in back home, and also that this was the first time she had been in a boat with cushions on the seats. What a luxury!  I agreed wholeheartedly! Those cushions are a godsend after you've been rowing for about an hour. Another first for her was to be seated in the boat while it was being lifted in a crane to go in and out of the water. Lynne thought we had some high tech methods over here!  They normally push the boat into the river where they row.

Lynne is competing in the International Breast Cancer survivors regatta in Sarasota, Florida which will be held in October. One of our own lionesses, Tiziana, will be making her very first trip to the US to compete in that race with the Rome team. Lynne got a chance to connect with Tiziana during our row, both promising to meet up again in Florida.

At the end of each of our normal practices, the boat is lifted out of the water, and we all pitch in to wash and dry the boat in order to get all the salt water off of it before it gets stored in the boat house.  Lynne was invited to join with this task.  Her group never  has to wash their boat off.  While we were washing, the lionesses wanted to explain to Lynne what we were doing.  In sort of mime fashion, they demonstrated  hosing down the boat and using the  sponges to soak up the water inside the boat. Lucia, one of the lionesses, asked me how to say that we were cleaning and drying the boat with sponges, in English. (Fyi, sponge, in Italian, is spugna) As I got the word "sponge" out of my mouth, Cristina, working  next to me, started repeating what came out like "Spuuun-ge"  "Spuuun-ge", making a very Italian sounding end to the word every time.  We all had a little English pronunciation lesson right then and there, with everyone saying "Sponge" "Sponge" "Sponge",  in between laughing and drying. Sort of a little like "Whistle while you work"... lioness style.

Lynne certainly had a unique Venetian experience Wednesday afternoon!

La Befana comes tomorrow

The Befana comes by night

With her shoes all tattered and torn

She comes dressed in the Roman way

Long live the Befana!

Tomorrow, January 6, is the day of Epiphany, a Christian religious celebration in honor of the day the three wise men arrived in Bethlehem to visit the baby Jesus.  In Italy, the celebration involves a witch, La Befana, who flies on her broom on the night of January 5 to deliver candies to all good children, or coal to the bad ones!

In olden days, Italian children didn't get gifts on Christmas from Santa, only candies on January 6 from La Befana.  In more recent times, Santa (Babbo Natale) delivers presents to Italian children too. Lucky Italian kids!

January 6 is also marks the end of the Christmas/New Year's holidays. It's a long two weeks of almost non-stop eating, starting with Christmas eve, then Christmas day, then Santo Stefano day on December 26.  There's a little break, but it seems we're still stuffing ourselves on traditional sweets of panettone or pandoro until New Year's eve.  On that night, you eat a  huge meal,  cenone consisting of many, sometimes up to 15, different courses of food.  And, again on New Year's day there is more food,  when families eat a traditional meal of lentils and cotechino, similar to a sausage. Lentils supposedly bring good luck or good fortune in the new year, so of course, you cannot miss eating those.  Christmas trees and decorations stay up until January 6.

In other Italian cities, there is a huge bonfire on the night of January 5 to celebrate the arrival of La Befana. In Venice, things are handled a bit differently.  Tomorrow morning at 10 am there will be a regatta in the Grand Canal starting at San Toma and ending at the Rialto bridge. Rowers will all be dressed as Befanas, with shawls, dresses, hats and wigs.  At the end of the race, there will be mulled wine, hot chocolate and candies for all.

Get your cameras ready tomorrow morning, find a spot along the Grand Canal near Rialto. I'll meet you there!

Regata Storica 2013

For me, one of the highlights of the year in Venice is the annual Regata Storica, a procession of 16th century style boats down the Grand Canal all filled with rowers and passengers dressed in period garb, including the Doge and the Doge's wife. The procession was to welcome Caterina Cornaro, wife of the King of Cyprus who in 1489 renounced her throne to live in Venice.

It's thrilling to see the Grand Canal void of all the everyday usual traffic as people line its sides waiting for the boat parade to begin. The procession participants begin at the Public Gardens, Giardini, and make their way up the Grand Canal,  turning around in front of the train station  then  ending at  Ca' Foscari  where the machina, the parade reviewing stand, is located.

Earlier in the morning a large pole, called the paleto,  is driven into the middle of the Grand Canal in front of the Santa Lucia train station. The paleto marks the turn around point for the race.  A rope, called the spagheto, is stretched across the starting point in front of the Giardini (the public gardens).

Later in the afternoon the regata is held, beginning with the race for young rowers, followed by the women's race,  the 6-man teams and finally the teams of 2 gondoliers.  A different style traditional rowing boat is used for each different race category:   pupparini for the youth, mascarete for women, caroline for the 6 man teams and gondolini for the 2 man "champions" race.  Excitement mounts as everyone waits for the last race of the day,with local Venetians cheering on their favorites from the sidelines.

Colored pennants are awarded to the winners: Red for first place, white 2nd place, green 3rd place and blue 4th place.

Regata Storica is always held on the first Sunday in September. Tomorrow's activities begin at 4pm with the historic procession. The Grand Canal will be cleared of traffic beginning at 3:00 pm.

The race schedule is as follows:
4:50 - Pupparini (youth)
5:10 - Mascarete (women)
5:40 - Caroline (men)
6:10 - Gondolini  (gondoliers)

I'll be out with my camera somewhere along the Grand Canal tomorrow afternoon. For now, here are some photos from prior Regata Storicas to get you in the mood.

A sad day in Venice

In my last post, I commented on the run of interesting, strange, odd, wacky, weird, almost unthinkable things that have taken place in Venice thus far this summer. Things were definitely going downhill, but today, things just fell off the cliff. Bad went to worse in a hurry this morning with the  news of a tragic accident on the Grand Canal just before noon.

Amidst all the usual traffic at the Rialto bridge, a vaporetto knocked into a gondola, sending a German family of five- mother, father and 3 children-  into the canal. The father unfortunately died at the hospital shortly afterward, having taken in large quantities of water. The small daughter suffered from a serious wound above her eye and was taken to the hospital in Padua for surgery. A tragic day for this vacationing family.


   (photo courtesy La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre)

I'm almost without words.

But believe me, there will be words today, tomorrow, in the near future as blame is bandied about by the police department conducting the investigation, the city government, you name it, everyone will have something to say. We'll talk about all that in the days to come.

Today, a life was lost, a young child seriously injured, a family forever changed, and I suspect one gondolier and one vaporetto captain will suffer nightmares for the rest of their lives. Words won't change those facts.

As small consolation, I strongly believe when your time has come, it's come. While I wish there were a way this day could be rewound and played over, with a different outcome, that isn't possible. We have to deal with the reality as it is.  As thoughts of this tragic event went round and round in my head all afternoon,  I was reminded of a similar event. A few years ago on vacation in the Dominican Republic, while attending the evening entertainment at the resort, we were all up on the dance floor doing the merengue, having a fantastic time.  Not far from me a woman slumped to the floor. The emergency doctor was called, everyone was in a panic. The woman passed away instantly due to a massive heart attack. Just like that, she was gone. Dancing one minute, dead the next. Her family made a statement shortly after the frightening incident- that their mother was having the time of her life, doing exactly what she would have wanted to do- dance.

I want to not forget that life is for living. Let's remind ourselves to get up and dance every day.

I wish to express my heartfelt condolences to the family.

Vogalonga 2013

One of my favorite Venice events is the Vogalonga, a 30 Kilometer rowing event that starts and ends at St. Mark's. It's a non-competitive race open to just about every rowing type boat imaginable from one man kayaks to 16 man boats, canoes and drum boats. This year's event began, unfortunately, in a light rain, that progressed to a heavy rain at a few points during the day.  Not a good day for the rowers. The good news is the sun came out towards the middle of the afternoon, just as rowers were finding places to pull up their boats to rest at the end of a long, wet 30 kilometers.

This year 1,700 boats and 7,000 rowers from all over the world participated.

Between 9 am and 3pm, the Grand Canal is closed to all motorized boat traffic, so no vaporettos available. If you needed to get somewhere today, you were walking, or taking a very long route around the outside of the city, or- worse case, renting a private water taxi that was also taking a long route to your destination as they also were not allowed on the Grand Canal  during the regatta. I have to say, while  we were waiting for the first of the boats to return to the Grand Canal, the silence on the canal is almost eerie. It's something you don't see too often, so when you do, you can't help but be awe struck by how just how grand this canal is.

Here's a look at the Vogalonga course, beginning at St. Mark's square, down around Sant'Elena, past Certosa Island, Sant Erasmo island, Burano, Mazzorbo, Murano and back through Venice down the Cannaregio canal to the Grand Canal ending at St. Mark's.

 I positioned myself at the waterfront at Sant'Elena at 9:00 am this morning, in the rain, and was able to get some great photos.

Later in the morning I was at Rialto, watching as rowers were making their way down the Grand Canal. Right in front of me I saw a man swimming. At first I thought he had fallen overboard off one of the boats. I looked closer and noticed he had flippers, a wet suit and swim cap, and was being accompanied closely by a gondola with 2 rowers front and back. This man hadn't fallen in, he was actually SWIMMING the Vogalonga!!!!  Made me think of Lord Byron!

 The next few photos are post-Vogalonga, after the rowers had completed the course. These colorful kayaks were stowed at the Rialto fish market. All of the participants who came with these boats were changing out of their wet clothing under cover of the fish market.

 Here a group of rowers were pulling their boats up at Campo San Trovaso, and headed to the wine bars across the canal for some spritz's.

And this guy pulled his boat up at the memorial in front of Giardini. A little unorthodox, but hey, it's Vogalonga.