After a vigorous rendition of Ravel’s “Bolero”, the small, five-piece orchestra on the stage outside the famous Café”Florian” in Piazza San Marco strike up the opening bars of Strauss’s “Blue Danube” waltz, much to the delight of the still sizeable audience sitting at the tables on the square.

It’s getting on for midnight here in St. Mark’s Square, but the warm air has brought out many tourists and locals to enjoy an evening passeggiata, and there’s quite a crowd standing behind the fortunate – and perhaps wealthier – customers sipping their drinks at the Café Florian‘s tables.

White-jacketed, bow-tied waiters

In their twos and threes, white-jacketed, bow-tied waiters stand in desultory fashion under the arches of the arcade in front of the Florian that borders the piazza. There seem to be an awful lot of them in proportion to the available tables, but this late in the evening their attitude is very relaxed. Nevertheless, they appear preternaturally alert to the slightest sign of a desire to order – or pay – evinced by their customers.

His dramatic playing style is all movement and attack

The orchestra’s violinist has neatly trimmed silver hair and beard and is a real showman. His dramatic playing style is all movement and attack, and the audience love it. Swaying and pirouetting, proudly upstanding then bending forward enticingly to emphasize his alternately silky-smooth and then staccato bowing, he inveigles his listeners into a conspiracy of appreciation.

Legendary meeting place in the heart of Venice

Although there is a certain atmosphere of studied artificiality about the whole scene, the musicians, the waiters and the audience all seem to be willing and, at least in the case of the latter, enthusiastic participants in the performance. A performance which is repeated every night in this legendary meeting place in the heart of Venice.

© Venice Travel, 2013. Written by Tony Page

Post tags: Blue Danube, Cafe Florian, live music, passeggiata, Piazza San Marco, St. Marks Square, Strauss, Venice in Categories: Sightseeing

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“Acqua Alta” is Italian for “High Water“, and when a big tide comes into Venice’s lagoon, that’s exactly what you get in Piazza San Marco and many pedestrian streets. Fortunately, it usually only happens from autumn to spring, and the city fathers set up a network of gangways (wide wood planks on iron supports) to help people get around, but in busy areas this can make for some exciting balancing acts…

“Well, here we are in St. Mark’s Square in Acqua Alta. Actually it’s not so bad, and the punters seem to be having a lot of fun, as you can see. I’ll just give you a sweep round here. You’ll see the Clock Tower and right up there it’s pretty much under water, but it’s only six inches deep, so nothing serious. In fact, everyone pretty’s good-humoured at the moment.

“Helen unfortunately is in very light shoes and so she’s hovering over here, but the orchestra’s playing on. As you’ll see everywhere is flooded, and I’m at the farthest point which is dry, well, rather, half an inch deep.

Trying to find a way around, but inevitably an epic fail

“Well, here’s the Clock Tower, current time about quarter to one in the afternoon. Behind the scenes here in the Merceria, that street there, you can get chaos as people continually zip down each alley trying to find a way around, and of course failing, as you can see.

Coffee drinkers are ankle deep

“Ah, at last I’ve found Helen, who’s busy shooting the orchestra which seems unfortunately to have stopped at the moment, just when I want to record it. They’re definitely dedicated these waiters. As you can see, there’s a certain element of moisture when it comes to having a quiet coffee this morning, here in the finest living room or drawing room or whatever you want to call it, in Europe.

Dedicated waiters in wellington boots

“I’d love to do one of those classic reflection shots, but unfortunately the waters are too rippled from everyone wading in it, so forget that. And here comes a waiter, balancing a tray of drinks, so let’s go in and have a look at just how good these guys are. Very cleverly, knowing how filthy the water is, they are wearing wellington boots. Now, there’s dedication to service.

Nothing fazes the souvenir sellers

“Well, it’s getting a bit steamy now, so with a last look at St Mark’s, the tourists, the sellers – who are still here right in the middle of the water, nothing fazes them – I’m going to retreat to dry land to Helen who is rather tired of dodging puddles of water in her very light shoes. See you later.”

© Venice Travel, 2013. Written by Tony Page

Post tags: acqua alta, high tide, high water, Italy, Piazza San Marco, St. Marks Square, Venice in Categories: Sightseeing

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Escaping from the Grand Canal, the gondolas explore the hidden canals running through the back blocks of Venice, winding their way along the narrow waterways towards Piazza San Marco. Inaccessible if the tide is high, these Venetian “side streets” provide a glimpse into the true character of the city.

“Well, off we go, off the Grand Canal into the deeper recesses of Venice. No, I’ve not fainted, I’ve just got a change of view looking upwards.

(Musical interlude)

“Interestingly, earlier on today we would not have been able to do this trip. If I just switch around to the wall here, the division between the brick and the concrete, just there, that’s approximately where the water was earlier on today. As a result you saw even the gondolas could not get under the bridge; their prows would not clear it because they stick up and of course that’s one of the ways the gondoliers judge the situation.”

High tide means no gondola trips

“We saw a few try at the centre of the bridges, but basically you can’t get under these, they’re all the same height for the most part. You can see where the water usually comes up to and this is a relatively normal occurrence.

On a really high tide – and there’s a mark on a few places places along here indicating the high water mark – it can get past the level of the first floor windows.”

Drag racing gondolas: fierce competition (well, sort of)

“Hello, with a surge of unleashed power, another gondolier is overtaking us. They’ve obviously bribed their gondolier to drive faster and they’re having some kind of dispute back there, but it’s in the Venetian dialect and so although I speak fluent Italian (Ed: Yeah, right), I can’t understand a word of it. So there we are. Oh, there’s a gay badinage between the two gondoliers.

(protest from gondoliers as Helen tries to slow down the competing gondola by pulling at it)

“Hey, grabbing hold of the next gondola and pulling is not seen as good form, definitely not seen as good form. Well, there’s all kinds of things going on here. Oh dear, well, we’ll give them best on this one, even though they cheated.”

Giorgio Armani fails to impress our gondolier

“Well, much to Helen’s disappointment, we’ve just gone past the Giorgio Armani shop which is directly behind on the left. (Gondolier is vociferously not impressed by his female passengers’ excitement) Well, it seems our gondolier has strong opinions on Giorgio Armani.”
(Helen:“Armani domani!”)

It’s Gondola Central (and the Hard Rock Cafe)

“We seem to have come just about full circle because here seems to be a gondola park. There’s the Hugo Boss shop, and just in case you think it’s all designer outlets and the rest around here, there’s the Venetian, or the Venice Hard Rock Cafe just on the right down there – no, I’m not going to show you a picture of it, but there is one here, although it seems to me to speak of times past… Well, as we glide smoothly into the gondola park, I say farewell, from Venice.”

Don’t miss Part 1 of this gondola trip as we brave the vaporetti, Alilaguna boats and all kinds of traffic on the Grand Canal.

You can see more photos at Travelsignposts Venice Gondola Rides album Here.

For more information about Venice, see our Venice Trip Planner Here.

© Venice Travel, 2013. Written by Tony Page

Post tags: bridges, canals, Giorgio Armani, gondola, gondola cruise, gondolier, Grand Canal, high tide, Venice in Categories: Sightseeing

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Six gondolas abreast down the Grand Canal? Tony and Helen Page brave a slightly out-of-control shared gondola cruise (maybe the prosecco had something to do with it) that starts off at the Rialto Bridge and parties on down the famous Venetian waterway. Warning: contains singing of “Volare“.

“Well here we are on a standard gondola cruise which has been very peaceful and uneventful so far (which is why I haven’t shot anything), apart from the champagne which somebody very kindly supplied on the way. People rather take the mickey out of these gondola cruises, especially the joint ones like we’re on, but there is a certain charm to it. Not quite the James Bond romantic, hidden gondola – you know, the ones attired with the curtains and everything like that, which really rarely occurs – but it’s still a pleasant experience. It raises a smile with everybody you pass.”

Onto the Grand Canal at Rialto

“And here we are, as we come out onto the Grand Canal. Are we going right, are we going left? I have no idea! You might like to take bets at this critical moment. And anyway, I think we’re going left because on the right, yep, it’s the Rialto Bridge. There’s surprisingly little action going on at the moment. Sorry, it’s rocking a bit here – I’m holding everything as steady as I can.

“You can’t help but thinking as we go transversely across the Grand Canal that we’re lucky that there are no ACTV vaporetti hammering down the Canal at this particular moment.

Now these restaurants over here, next to the Rialto, they’re tourist restaurants, but these are some of the better ones, the food is reputedly not so bad and the atmosphere and position, of course, is perfect at night. We had dinner last night at Trattoria al Madonna which is up a road off there and it is very authentic. Good for seafood, try their seafood risotto.”

This Gondola trip is getting out of control!

Tony on the Grand Canal

“And talking about ACTV vaporetti, here’s one right now. Fortunately it’s stopped. Now, as you can see, there’s a certain degree of out-of-control nature here, which may or may not have something to do with the amount of alcohol and the bottles of champagne that people have been handing out, actually not really, not really champagne. There’s Helen, immortalizing me.
(Ed: Gondoliers talk volubly amongst themselves)
Now if you can speak Venetian, and I mean the Venetian dialect which they cunningly speak so that we can’t understand a word they say, you would at least hear what they’re talking … my god, there’s three of them (Ed: gondolas) now.

“Well, there we are, it’s all one big happy family here on the Grand Canal.”

Six Gondolas abreast down the Grand Canal

“Now we will be caught up by the rest of our flotilla, it’s like, “hey, we’ve got ourselves a convoy” (Ed: that reference really dates you). Now the musicians have come up here because we haven’t heard them before.
(Musicians sing and play)
Now here we are, one, two, three, four, five, in fact, there’s an additional gondola, so that’s six gondolas abreast down the Grand Canal. They’ve just had two of their friends go by in a motorboat.

“The flotilla’s starting to split up slightly. This may be because there’s an ACTV vaporetto just on our left. This is going to be fun when he takes off. Actually I think the gondoliers quite like being six abreast going down the Grand Canal.

“Oops..sit down – Helen stands up, a fatal thing in a boat. And here’s an ACTV guy powering past. Now wait for the wake. Surprisingly, the ACTV ferries don’t actually make that much wake, by accident or design, who knows. Anway, here comes another ferry. I’ve got to say, they’re pretty frequent.

They just HAD to sing “Volare“

“I knew it couldn’t last, they’ve started in on “Volare”. Our little flotilla is seemingly gathered on one side of the Grand Canal. I’d love to say it was opposite something important, but actually it’s opposite a rather large placard which I’ll just show you: restoration that you’ll find quite a lot of on the Grand Canal.

“Here you are, four gondolas abreast and there’s two more in the lead. I think these gondoliers rather enjoy being in … ah, he’s rocking the boat. Well, it’s getting rough. Well, we’re going back off the Grand Canal probably to the thanks of most of its denizens, including the Alilaguna boat and the water taxi.”

Don’t miss Part 2 of this gondola trip, which takes us through the back canals of Venice to the gondola assembly point near St. Mark’s Square.

See more photos at Travelsignposts Venice Gondola Rides album Here.

For more information about Venice, see our Venice Trip Planner Here.

© Venice Travel, 2013. Written by Tony Page

Post tags: Actv, gondola, gondola cruises, Grand Canal, rialto bridge, seafood risotto, tourist restaurants, Venice in Categories: Sightseeing

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Canaletto’s Bucentaur

The Festa della Sensa (Feast of the Ascension), is a historical and colourful Venice festival that has been captured by many artists. This Ascension Day festival goes back to the days of the Venetian Republic and marks two important events in the city’s history.

Venice was a maritime power in the past and La Sensa celebrations also highlight the city’s close affinity with the sea and the art of rowing – Voga alla Veneta. The festivals of Venice attract millions of visitors to its lagoons every year and the Festa della Sensa is one of these famous festivals.

Festa della Sensa

La Sensa celebrations commemorate two historical events in Venice:

On May 9 in the year 1000, the inhabitants of Venice were saved from the Slavic menace when Doge Pietro II dispatched his fleet to wipe out the Croatians and Narentines who were notorious as pirates. Doge Pietro also made the defeated Narentines to renounce an old tax that the Venetians had been paying since 948. In addition, the Narentines also had to guarantee safe passage of Venetian ships in the Adriatic. The Doge’s conquest of Dalmatia was celebrated as the Festa della Sensa, Ascension Festival.

The second historical event took place in 1177 during the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani. The century-long dispute between the Papacy and the Empire was brought to an end when Pope Alexander III and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa signed the peace treaty in Venice.

Francesco Guardi’s Bucintoro

Marriage of the Sea

To commemorate the conquest of Dalmatia and the maritime dominion of Venice, a Marriage of the Sea (Sposalizio del Mare) ceremony was introduced by Doge Pietro on Ascension Day, being the day that he started his Dalmatian campaign. Led by the Doge’s galley, a solemn procession of boats would sail out of the lagoon, through to the mouth of the Lido. In the water in front of the Chiesa San Nicolò (the patron saint of sailors), a mass was held, asking for protection for sailors and invoking good fortune for the Venetian navy. The tossing of the symbolic gold ring into the water was a later addition to this ceremony.

Since Doge Pietro’s conquest of Dalmatia, the Marriage of the Sea ceremony has been held on Ascension Day each year, with the Doge leading the processing in his state barge – the magnificent Bucintoro being introduced from about 1253.

Festa della Sensa 2013

Today’s Marriage of the Sea ceremony is presided upon by the Mayor of Venice together with civic dignitaries, religious and military representatives.  They lead a colourful procession of decorated boats, which leave from St. Mark’s Square and sail to the Port of San Nicolò where a gold ring is tossed into the sea and a wreath in memory of those lost at sea.  A solemn religious ceremony takes place at the Chiesa San Nicolò del Lido.

Afterwards, visitors can enjoy the Sensa market which takes place in the church grounds and other events, including a gondola regatta which closes the day’s celebrations.

Event: Festa della Sensa
Dates: May 11 – 12, 2013
Venue: Venice

© Venice Travel, 2013. Written by Helen Page

Post tags: festa della sensa, la sensa, marriage of the sea, sposalizio del mare, venice festivals, voga alla veneta in Categories: News & Events

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Piazzale Roma

Piazzale Roma has none of the charms of the many Venetian piazzas and campos. This large Venetian square at the western end of the island is a major hub for all Venice transport and the thousands of people who use the square every day are either hopping on and off buses, catching the People Mover or looking for a place to park.  You can buy your transport tickets at the Hellovenezia/ACTV office here and there is also a luggage storage office (Deposito Bagagli) at the square.

Venice Bus Terminal

Piazzale Roma is the main terminal for the Venice buses. If you need to catch a bus to Mestre or other suburban or regional areas, the buses all leave from Piazzale Roma.

The airport buses from Marco Polo Airport or Treviso Airport drop off incoming passengers at Piazzale Roma and likewise, if you need to catch a bus to Marco Polo Airport or Treviso Airport, this is where the airport buses set off.

For the shopaholic, one other useful bus that operates out of Piazzale Roma is the Veneto Designer Outlet bus.

Veneto Outlet Bus at Piazzale Roma

People Mover

For those who need to get to their cruise ship at the Marittima Terminal or the car park on Tronchetto island, the People Mover is conveniently located at Piazzale Roma. This is the most efficient transport to get to your cruise terminal and the Tronchetto carpark. It’s also much cheaper than catching a water-taxi. The direction to the People Mover station is clearly signposted on the square.

Car Parking

A car is not needed when you’re in Venice, but if you’ve driven here as part of your driving holiday, it’s advisable to park on Tronchetto island and take the People Mover to Piazzale Roma, or the vaporetto, if your hotel is on the vaporetto route. If you must park your car on Venice island, there is a car park at Piazzale Roma which is very busy and pricey as well.

Vaporetto

Piazzale Roma is one of the main vaporetto stops. Vaporetto lines 1 – 6 stop here.

Train Travel

The Santa Lucia (Ferrovia) railway station, the main train station for Venice, is across the bridge from Piazzale Roma.  The station is within walking distance from Piazzale Roma, but if you have large cases, be aware  that the Ponte della Costituzione is a huge bridge to cross.

Piazzale Roma Hotels

If you have an early morning flight to catch and intend catching the bus to the airport, a hotel around Piazzale Roma is recommended, at least for your final night in Venice. With its many bridges, Venice is not an easy city to manoeuvre if you have large cases. Even if you’re booking a hotel around Piazzale Roma, check to see the number of bridges you’d have to cross. From personal experience, I can share with you that at 5:00 or 6:00 am, dragging large cases across bridges can be stressful. But once you get onto Piazzale Roma, catching a bus to the airport is a fairly simple process.

Two of the closest hotels to Piazzale Roma, with no bridges to cross are: the Hotel Santa Chiara right on the Grand Canal and the Hotel Ca Doge.  Other hotels close-by with a small bridge to cross include the Hotel Arlecchino, the B&B Ai Tre Ponti and the Best Western Hotel Olimpia.

© Venice Travel, 2013. Written by Helen Page

Post tags: Piazzale Roma, piazzale roma bus, piazzale roma hotels, piazzale roma parking, transport in venice in Categories: Getting around

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Ponte del Megio in Santa Croce

Trattoria al Ponte del Megio is a smallish canal-side trattoria in Santa Croce. It is located on Calle Larga, right by the bridge of the same name.

Restaurants near Ponte del Megio

We had planned to dine at La Zucca, a popular vegetarian restaurant near Ponte del Megio, but it was full. Luckily, there is a small cluster of trattorias in the area and as the evening was getting on, we settled on Trattoria al Ponte del Megio right across the bridge from La Zucca. We’ve walked past this trattoria a couple of times during our stay in Venice and liked its picturesque setting. It also seemed to do a reasonable trade.

Dinner at al Ponte del Megio

At 9:30 pm, Trattoria al Ponte del Megio was quite full and so we chose to sit outdoors. Canal-side tables would usually be more popular, but on this evening it was coolish and I was concerned that our food might get cold too quickly. The trattoria serves traditional Venetian dishes with plenty of seafood on its menu. Cozze e Vongole was one of the offerings and both Tony and I ordered this, as neither were prepared to share this all-time Italian favourite. The waitress said that the dish was quite substantial and so we ordered a mixed seafood and a salad to share.

Dinner at Trattoria al Ponte del Megio

It took about fifteen minutes or so before the bowls of vongole arrived, and when they did, the bowls were large. We thought that being late in the evening, they must have given us all the vongole that they had left. Decidedly missing were the mussels. When we asked the waitress, she said “oh, didn’t I tell you that we’d run out of cozze?” She certainly didn’t – not that we would have changed our mind about the order as the vongole was delicious. We seemed to take forever to finish the dish as there was plenty of clams. The fritto misto was fine, nothing fancy, and the house prosecco was very drinkable.

The dishes that we had were simple traditional Venetian dishes but the picturesque atmosphere of Trattoria al Ponte del Meggio makes it an enjoyable dinner venue. And if you like being entertained at dinner-time, a local busker does tight-rope walks across the canal as well as other stunts on the bridge.  For the generous vongole alone, I would certainly dine here again.

Address:

Trattoria al Ponte del Megio
Ponte del Megio
Calle Larga
Santa Croce 1666

© Venice Travel, 2013. Written by Helen Page

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Carnevale

Carnevale di Venezia 2013 (Venice Carnival) runs from January 26th to February 12th. The central theme this year is ‘Vivi I Colori – Live in Colour’.  There’s no doubt that Venice is a colourful city and artists such as Canaletto, Guardi, Bellotto, Titian, Bellini and Veronese have all captured the colour of the city and the colour in the lagoon through their perspective painting.

Visitors to the pre-Lent Carnevale can expect a hive of activities in Venice, with pageants, entertainment, street performances, balls, theatre and plays.

Piazza San Marco and the Venice lagoon are where most of the Carnevale events will take place, although there are activities scattered around the city, such as the Ice Skating Village in Campo San Polo, a regular feature of Carnevale.

Carnevale Program

The Festa Veneziana announces the arrival of Carnival in the city.  This typical Venetian feast includes a big night show and a mask parade.  There is also a water parade which will sail along the Grand Canal to the folkloristic district of Cannaregio where stalls will offer traditional Carnival delicacies and Venetian specialties.

Carnevale is officially launched at midday on Sunday, February 3rd, with the traditional re-enactment of the Flight of the Angel (Volo dell’Angelo) from the top of the Campanile.  The ‘angel’ is lowered into Piazza San Marco where she pays homage to the Doge and is greeted by a cast of people in period costumes.

Some of the major Carnevale events include:

• The Best Masked Costume Contest at Piazza San Marco
• A walking theatre show which reveals the “Secrets of Venice”
• Gran Teatro di Piazza San Marco
• Ice Skating
• Festa delle Marie
• The Colours of Music – Abba Gold

For the complete program and making bookings for ticketed events, see the Carnevale website.

Event : Carnevale di Venezia 2013
Dates : January 26 – February 12, 2013
Venue: Piazza San Marco (main venue), Venezia

Carnevale Operas and Concerts

• Musica in Maschera is an entertaining concert performance which combines the art of melodrama and the mysterious and enchanted world of Venetian masks. What more appropriate time to enjoy this concert than at Carnevale.  This concert is held at the impressive Scuola Grande dei Carmini in Dorsoduro.
• The Orchestra I Musici Veneziani performs its famous Carnival Concerts at the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro.   To set the mood for the evening, every musician will be dressed in XVIII century Venice costumes.
• Why not make the most of your Carnival outfit and enjoy an Opera Gala Dinner at the Palazzo Barbarigo-Minotto, one of Venice’s greatest palaces.  In addition to exhilarating music, guests can enjoy typical Venetian Carnival pastries and fine wines. There is no dress code, but guests are encouraged to mask up.
• For those who want to go the whole hog with Carnevale celebrations, this event is for you.  The Carnival Opera Gala 2013 at the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista is a full evening of cocktails, dinner, Opera Gala and finishing off with disco dancing.  You have to dress in Costume for this event.  For more information about the evening and where to rent your costume, see Here.

Venice Hotels

Venice is flooded with visitors during Carnevale so it is a good idea to book your hotel as early as possible. Some of the better hotels on the Grand Canal and Piazza San Marco may already be fully booked.
For the complete list of Venice hotels see Here.

Airport and Cruise Port Transfers

For your airport arrival and departure transfers and cruise port transfers see Here.

© Venice Travel, 2013. Written by Helen Page

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Trattoria alla Madonna

Trattoria alla Madonna was one of the first restaurants we dined at when we arrived in Venice. Located near the Rialto Bridge in the San Polo district, it was easy to get to from our hotel in San Marco. Having been around since the 1950′s, Trattoria alla Madonna is a Venetian institution and a good base from which to compare all trattorias that planned on dining at during our stay.

Trattoria alla Madonna

Mr. Fulvio Rado opened Trattoria alla Madonna in Venice in 1954 and for the last 35 years it has been managed by his son Lucio. There are nine dining rooms at alla Madonna and one of the features of this Venice trattoria is the wealth of Italian contemporary artwork which decorate its walls.

We arrived at Trattoria alla Madonna to find a queue of people waiting to get a table in the restaurant. This popular and busy trattoria only takes reservations for tables of four or more.  If there is only the two of you, just show up and join the queue – it’s best to get there at 19.00 or after 21.00.

The antipasti counter and seafood chiller are at the front of the restaurant and as we waited for our table, we were entertained watching the waiters in their black and white uniforms busily assembling antipasto plates and seafood dishes ordered by diners. The clientele was a mix of locals and tourists. It may have been my imagination but the tourists were ushered to the left section of the restaurant and we found ourselves sitting next to an American couple, a Malaysian guy and a French couple. In front of us was a table occupied by a Japanese group.

Granseola Condita – a Crab-meat antipasto

Seafood Specialties

Trattoria alla Madonna specializes in seafood which suited us just fine, but if you prefer meat, they do have meat dishes on their menu, such as Fegato alla Veneziana (liver), Scaloppine di Vitello (veal scaloppine) and Costato di Vitello (grilled veal chops).  Although I was tempted by the Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia (squid-ink spaghetti), we ordered the Antipasto Misto di Pesce, followed by  Risotto ai Frutti di Mare (seafood risotto) and the Fritto Misto (mixed seafood). The French couple next to us, who were medical professors from Dijon, have been coming to the Trattoria alla Madonna for over 20 years. Madame Carli insisted that I have a taste of her Granseola Condita, the trattoria’s specialty crab-meat antipasto. It was very tasty and certainly a dish that I would have on our next visit.

Trattoria alla Madonna serves traditional Venetian dishes at reasonable prices.  Whilst we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner there, I would not go so far as to say that the food was excellent – I’ve had nicer Risotto ai Frutti di Mare elsewhere. The trattoria’s menu is quite large so it requires more than one visit to get an appreciation of the restaurant’s offerings. We liked the lively atmosphere of the trattoria and would certainly dine there again.

Trattoria alla Madonna entrance

How to Get to Alla Madonna

From the foot of the Rialto Bridge, at the San Polo end of the bridge, turn left and follow the Riva del Vin along the Grand Canal. Look out for Sottoportego della Madonna, the second passageway on your right, which then becomes Calle della Madonna. Trattoria alla Madonna, with a big yellow sign across the street, is on your left, .

Note: Trattoria alla Madonna is closed on Wednesdays. It is also closed for holidays all of January and for two weeks in August.

Address:
Trattoria alla Madonna
Calle della Madonna
San Polo, Venice

© Venice Travel, 2013. Written by Helen Page

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Ponte dei Pugni – Tony gets ready for his fight

There are hundreds of bridges criss-crossing the back canals of Venice, but one that is quite well-known is the Ponte dei Pugni. Located near Campo St Barnaba in Dorsoduro, Ponte dei Pugni is a famous Venice bridge that tells of an ancient tradition of fistfights on Venice bridges. Ponte dei Pugni (Bridge of Fists) takes its name from the vicious fistfights that used to take place between the Castellani and the Nicolotti clans.

Warring Factions

It seems that the division between the Castellani of San Pietro di Castello and Nicolotti of San Nicolo dei Mendicoli occurred as early as the days when Venetians were forced to seek shelter in the lagoon by invading forces. To distinguish themselves from the other clan, the Castellanis settled in the districts of Castello, San Marco and Dorsoduro whilst the Nicolottis occupied San Polo, Santa Croce and Canareggio.

Bridge of Fists

Members of the two clans would frequently challenge each other to fights on a bridge which in the early days included the use of weapons such as sticks and canes. The fight usually starts with one clan member against one opponent.  Others then join in and before long the entire bridge is packed.  The idea is to try and throw your opponent off the bridge which was devoid of railings at that time.  Once off the bridge, the fighters can clamber back on again and so the fight goes on for hours.  At stake was the possession of the bridge on which the winning side could place their insignia. Due to the ferocious battles and the number of casualties, weapons were eventually banned in 1574 and only fistfights were allowed.

Ponte dei Pugni

The banning of weapons didn’t stop the fights and neither were the authorities able to limit the number of fights. Even the nobles got into the act and would build temporary bridges so that their visitors could be entertained with the battles. The fights became so frequent that after a bloody clash in 1705 the government intervened and banned any further gathering at bridges. Jail sentences of five years or more awaited those who broke the law.

When walking across Ponte dei Pugni, remember to look at the stone footprints which marked the starting posts for these fights. The first time we crossed this bridge we were so focused on the canal views that we missed the footprints.

Of the many other bridges that had been used as a battleground in the war of fists, there is one other bridge with footprints in stone in Campo Santa Fosca in Cannaregio.

© Venice Travel, 2012. Written by Helen Page

Post tags: famous venice bridge, ponte dei pugni, venice ancient tradition, venice attractions, venice bridges in Categories: Sightseeing

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