Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site Shops at: Zazzle & PrintFection
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Venice,
La Fenice Opera House, Carnevale, Virtual Tours...
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Posters and Prints of Venice to Buy |
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Venice from space courtesy of GoogleEarth. Note the Grand Canal snaking through from the train station on the left to Saint Mark's Square and the Doge's Palace. Giudecca is the island at the bottom. Murano is the island at the top.
Visit my Murano Glass page for inspiring images.
Canaletto's view of the main square of Venice. Visit my Venice Art - Canaletto page for more images and info.
See my Decorating with Framed Prints page for ideas.
Carnevale Poster from AllPosters.com Free Art Prints
Visit my Coloring Pages for
images of Venice for children to color |
IntroductionVenice is called the Serenissima, or the Most Serine, because of it's serine beauty, and for the quiet atmosphere created by waterways running through the town rather than roads. Some call it the Queen or Jewel or Pearl of the Adriatic. I prefer to call it magical, especially when the fog is blurring her rougher edges, and mist has given every stone a reflective sheen. The geographic isolation of Venice has contributed to the unique character and dialect of Venetians. They are famously soft-spoken, sweet-tempered and mild-mannered, in an Italy more known for it's extraversion. The spoken dialect sounds like a whispered song; very sensual.
Virtual Tours and Real ToursIf you've never been to Venice, take this virtual photo tour to get an idea of what you're missing. It is an uniquely beautiful town that words alone cannot describe. If you want to see Venice right now, this moment, visit this WebCam.
The most unique travel service I've seen for touring Venice is Venicescapes.org's themed guided walking tours. Their site describes in great detail the tours, thus describing much of Venice's history. Click on the image above to go directly to their list of walking tours. Any visit to Venice is not complete without a visit to the Jewish Ghetto. It is the most lively neighborhood in a town too often over-run by tourists. I recommend before you visit the real thing, to visit this Virtual History Tour of the Ghetto, the world's oldest.
Text from the Jewish Venice site you access when you click on the photo above: "Welcome to Gam Gam, the finest Kosher Italian Restaurant! We are located at the entrance to the old Ghetto (Ghetto Vecchio). Gam Gam is a five minute walk from the train station. Or vaporetto number 52." Fodor's has put their guide to Venice on-line, covering accommodation, restaurants, cafes and bars, and shops and services, so you can arrange your own tour to your own tastes.
The Antico Martini Restaurant in Venice one of the many famous restaurants that serve glorious food in glorious surroundings, well worth a visit. They have a website with photos, history, menus, recipes and famous person's guestbook.
The Antico Martini Restaurant next to La Fenice, the world famous opera house and concert hall, today and in the 1700's. Click on either image to read my page with excepts from a book written in 1866 about life in Venice, by the U. S. Consul, William Dean Howells. Whether you are going to Venice for Carnevale, or at another time of year, this Things To Do In Venice site offers a great City Guide to get your plans started. For apartment rentals Apartments Venice. These are just tips so you can get more information before you travel, or to do some armchair traveling.
The Local Point of ViewA colleague from Venice once confided in me the four things that most worry Venetians:
These are two very good articles to get you up to speed on the flooding situation, from the Economist, and the BBC. In Europe, the French are the most famous for wanting to discuss the philosophical aspects of every issue rather than the actual issue itself. But I've noticed that the average Venetian is also very philosophically minded. An example is the time I approached a Venetian cafe for a well-needed coffee. Outside I noticed, seated around the tables, the barista and at least five twenty-year-old men. Were they discussing sports or women? Not exactly. While preparing my coffee, the barista asked my opinion on their topic of discussion: "Isn't it very interesting to note that even wealthy and beautiful people have romantic difficulties just like the poor and the plain; wealth and beauty make only a superficial difference in life; to be human is to be the same as every other human in what causes suffering and loneliness." So there, all you Francophiles!
La Fenice and the ArtsLa Fenice is the town's famous opera house. Their website is full of history, concert schedules, a shop and photos.
Two images from opening night at La Fenice in December 2003. La Fenice burned down in 1996 but has recently risen from the ashes. To fully understand how devastating the fire was to Venice and her proud citizens:
During it's absence, productions and symphonies were held in a special tent, and the shows were aimed at a wider audience than those usually shown in La Fenice. Now that the restored and rebuilt theatre is open again, there is a fight going on between the artistic and business managers about whether to continue the more popular, and profitable, performances, or return to a narrower audience for challenging musical spectacles.
Venice's Rialto Bridge. Click on the image to visit the site for Venice's famous 'Biennale', or arts program, which includes the Venice Film Festival, among dance, music, art ... exhibits. If you're interested, you can read about theatre in Venice in the 1860s, on a page I've made with excerpts from a book by William Dean Howells, the U. S. Consul in Venice from 1861-1865.
CarnevaleVenice is famous for it's celebration of Carnevale, and for the carnival masks. To see the schedule of events for Carnevale. I've a page dedicated to Venice's Carnival, with lots of beautiful images, the characters you might see roaming the streets, and some background. Click here to view 5 pages of colorful photos of Carnival in Venice 2003 from the Venice On Line site, and from 2004, and 2005. Carnevale began as one of those wild festivals that give periodic relief to citizens of repressive societies. Masked Venetians could make fools of themselves and their partners without paying the consequences only that night of the year.
The wild nature of the celebrations wore out even the ever-ready-for-an-adventure English poet Byron. He left Venice after a wild Carnevale, too exhausted to remain.
Posters and Prints to BuyIf you want to purchase posters and prints of Venice, the two top on-line sellers the Art.com site and AllPosters.com have beautiful selections, some of which you can see in the left column of this page.
Venice Posters and Prints from Art.com
Free Art PrintsI've created some free art prints of Venice you can download and print out on a color printer. Small versions of the Venice prints appear in the left column of this page. You can click on one of them, or here, to link to the gallery page that has all the instructions you need. From the gallery page, you can visit the other five galleries of prints or click on the links below. Farm - 5 images Florence - 4 images Rome - 6 images Sunflower - 4 images Venice - 6 images Village - 5 images
Venetian Artists Mini-BiographiesThe Venetian school of art overflows with artists and their masterpieces. To help prepare for a visit to Venice's churches and museums, visit my pages with short, illustrated biographies of these artists.
If modern art is more to your liking, you must visit the Guggenheim Museum in Venice.
To read about Peggy Guggenheim and her modern art museum in Venice, click on the image to go through to my Art page.
Books About Venice
If you'd like to read more about Venice before your trip, or checkout the printed guidebooks, you can use this Search tool to see what's available from Amazon.com, what people say about the books, and what they cost. Just enter 'Books' in the 'Search' field, and 'Venice Italy' (for example, or you could put 'Guggenheim' or 'Venice Italy camping'...). Then click on the 'Go' button to see the resulting list.
Here are a few selections I've made of non-fiction and fiction books, concert DVDs, a game and a 3D puzzle I think you might enjoy.
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