 | Venice Local Customs | Tips 1 - 10 of 352 |  |
I love the Italians and their way of life - they have the right idea. Fabulous sense of style, love their food and wine, the best coffee in Europe.
And their pets even get to travel in style! Look at this little fellow that I shared the train with on my way from Venice to Verona.
I snuck this picture when his owner popped to the bathroom.
Woof! Leave a Comment
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So when you live in a city built on islands you don't drive a car, you drive a boat, right. And when you come home in your boat, where do you park it....why, in the garage of course!
Take a look at this photo - it is a boat garage that I came across whilst wandering around Venice one day.
I guess the straps are lowered, the boat glides in and then it is raised up out of the water - ingenious!
Anyone know more about it? Let me know. Leave a Comment
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There are all types of musicians in the world, and when you travel from town to city to town you will invariably see all sorts of talented people playing an array of instruments.
In Venice, it was the first time that I had seen this particular type of muso - the 'incredible glass playing man'.
Has anyone else stumbled across this talented individual, or perhaps someone else out there shares this love for the music emitted from a bit of glass rubbing!?
Contact me if you can shed some light on this rarely seen and rarely heard musical delight Leave a Comment
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What I'm saying now can be very unpopular among Venetian business holders, but I feel like I have to correct all other VT suggestions that have appeared so far on this topic: tipping in Venice is NOT a local custom (!)
The restaurant bills can include some surcharges (like the "coperto", which is the price you pay for the service handling), which should anyway by law be clearly written on the menu. But there's no tip, unlike the US or other parts of the world!
So, this is definitely a myth, and in fact you'll notice it's all non-local people who claim that there's this "local custom" to tip 10-15-20% whatever. The true local custom is, you don't tip, unless of course you feel so thoroughly satisfied you exceptionally want to, and in any case it's few euros, not a 10 or more percent (!). Hope this helps, fellow travelers. Leave a Comment
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Although the most of the people consider pigeons to be the most popular Venetian "pets", reality is different – Venice is the kingdom of cats. They were loved because they used to help people fight rats, disease carriers. Now they are only beauties enjoying their Venice.
Being the persons who love cats and live with one, we have made many photos of cats all over Venice – enough, at least for one "travelogue". Leave a Comment
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I have to admit that both Carol and I are closet voyeurs. We love getting a peek in behind the slightly ajar door or the undraped window. We don't climb over fences or use a telescope but if we are walking by and a glimpse of real life presents itself...we need to take a look.
Our hotel in Venice was located in Dorsoduro so on the night we arrived we decided to stay local. It was a perfect evening so we headed for the Zattere, the quayside which runs along the southern edge of Dorsoduro. It was along here that by law, in the 17th century, all the wood that came to Venice was to be unloaded. Consequently, most of the buildings along here are warehouse structures now adaptively reused for a variety of purposes.
As we walked along we observed a man washing off a small boat at the edge of the promenade and...he was working outside an open doorway. To quote Howard Carter to Lord Carnarvon, a peek inside revealed "...wonderful things!". Stacked like dinner plates on a rack was a spectacular array of wooden boats. With the permission of the gentleman outside we went in for a better look. The boats were beautifully finished and clearly well cared for. They were variations of gondolas and other Venetian regatta racing boats. On the side wall was a collection of forcole (the oarlocks used on gondolas), woodworking tools and even a straw gondoliers hat. This was a boating inner sanctum. Leave a Comment
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the most beautiful mask will be on display, a tradition of Venice dating back many centuries.
you have to plan your visit for year in advance, the City bursting with Tourist.
should you have bad luck being here at Carnival time, during the year Mask Makers are busy, have a look around and watch how such little wonders come about. Leave a Comment
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This is what I I had been waiting for! Carol and I had purposefully kept our vacation schedule loose. Aside from hotel reservations we really didn't have to be anywhere at any given time...that is, except for 10:30 AM Tuesday morning in Venice.
I love trip planning and research...what can I say, I've been called the Gray Geek more than once. In the lead up to our trip to Italy I came across a fantastic site (other than VT's of course) called the Venice Blog. Wonderful insights not easily found. It was here I discovered the American Gondola Builder in Venice. In 1996 Thom Price received a Watson Foundation grant to go to Venice and learn how to build gondolas. At the end of his grant he decided to stay in Venice and the rest, as they say, is history.
Turns out that it's not very easy to actually watch a gondola being built as the local boat builders are not quite as welcoming as the local glass blowers. Thom Price on the other hand was willing to open his squero or boat building workshop for occasional tours. Now, I have been a woodworker all my life building furniture, musical instruments and even a spiral staircase, but this was something else. The opportunity to see a gondola in its skeletal form, to observe firsthand techniques developed over centuries by master boat builders and to meet a young man who followed his dream as unlikely as it may have seemed...this was not be missed. Leave a Comment
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You'll see little altars like this built right into the walls of some of the back streets of Venice. This one, with a statue of the Virgin Mary, was in Dorsoduro, near the Maritime Station. People put flowers or other offerings inside the bars - the devotion implied was quite striking to me, since I don't run across that often in the U.S. Leave a Comment
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This is Saverio Pastor and he is a master. He is the sculptor of an essential component necessary for the propulsion and maneuverability of a gondola...the fòrcola. Its purpose is to provide a fulcrum point for the oar. I had first heard of fòrcole while watching a Public Broadcasting Corporation program staring Nathan Lane in which he toured Venice's Grand Canal as a Main Street. During the program he visited a fòrcola workshop and I was hooked.
The fòrcola is carved from a single piece of walnut or cherry wood into a wide variety of shapes and sizes. As Saverio explained, the different shapes depended on the intended use and the type of gondola. Some fòrcole had two or three oar positions (see photo) which in effect acted as sort of gear changes for racing boats. The fòrcola which Saverio is working on in the photo is intended for a wedding gondola which Carol and I thought was romantically appropriate for us and...what we could afford.
The process of ordering one of these unique art works takes a bit of faith. Saverio writes your name and email in his notebook and explains it will take about three months at which time he will send wire transfer info because no, he does not take Visa. Then you go home and wait. Eventually, three months later I received an email which said, "I am ready" with his bank numbers listed. On faith I wired the money and lo one week later FedEx delivered our very own fòrcola. Perfect and fantastic! Leave a Comment
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