Bringing Home A Christmas Tree

13 December 2014

Fruttivendolo Near the Ponte dei Pugni

I've posted this image from 22 December 2017 before but it continues to suggest something to me about the experience of being out and about in Venice at this time of year, so I'm posting it again. It stands out in greater relief for me now while living in a place where, like most places, food shopping has been reduced to an experience as impersonal, sterile, and "efficient" as a factory line. 

Christmas Spirits

24 December 2013

A Marzipan-Colored World

My son's favorite thing about the Christmas stalls set up in Campo San Bartolomio around the Goldoni statue was marzipan--an item which never appealed to me, and a taste I could only attribute to the fact he grew up in Venice. (23 December 2013)

Carting a Tree Home

At the Christmas tree lot set up each year in front of the church of San Felice (7 December 2013)

22 December 2017 (Produce Boat, Rio de San Barnaba)

Holiday Cheer in Red (With Campari Spritz)

19 December 2015

December Diptych

17 December 2016

Christmas Past, With Wishes for a Happy New Year

27 December 2019

Threes Scenes of Christmas Past

11 December 2016

22 December 2017

18 December 2017

Acqua Alta for Christmas (Two Years Ago Today)

Coming just a month after a record high tide in November, the acqua alta that rolled into Venice shortly before Christmas in 2019 was yet another bitter reminder of just how vulnerable the city remained in spite of the billions of dollars poured into the MOSE flood barriers. For businesses still cleaning up after the November flooding and trying to regain their financial footing, it was like a recurrent nightmare--and seemed like the worst thing that could befall them...

But by February 4 signs of another threat began to appear, and for many of the businesses which had managed to hobble through the end of 2019, this new one would finish them off.

 

Santas Galore, On Water and Land

23 December 2018, Grand Canal

21 December 2014, Sant'Elena

Santa Colors, Venetian Scene

23 December 2014

Boating Home A Tree (8 Years Ago Today)

It's debatable whether boating home a Christmas tree is actually a tradition in Venice (I think not), but it became a tradition for us, at least. 

For an account of the debate, and of our purchase of this particular tree, you can get the full story here in "Boating Home a Christmas Tree: Tradition or Folly?"

 

Under the Bridge

8 January 2020

All Is Quiet, Tonight

 

Holiday Colors (3 Views)

Lights over Murano's Rio dei Vetrai

Stability in a moving boat is always difficult--when it's so dark that a long shutter speed is necessary, it's impossible

'Tis the Season, or, Venetian Tidings

In the area around the church of San Giacometto, between the Rialto's Bridge and market, water was over an adult's knee at 9:40 am this morning

It's the acqua alta season in Venice and the tidings this year have made no residents glad, as an unprecedented number of what used to be considered exceptionally high tides have repeatedly flooded the defenseless city, causing more than a billion euros worth of estimated damages.

The total of five tides we've already had this season in excess of 140 cm is 3 more than the second highest number of such tides in any given year since 1872, and the overall frequency and intensity of the flooding is unparalleled. This morning's tide came in at 144 cm, a number which as recently as last year would have qualified as disturbingly high. But after a string of 140+ cm tides, it's gotten to the point that there was a certain amount of relief today because, well, at least it didn't hit 150. 

One could have shopped at the vegetable stalls of the Railto market without ever leaving one's boat

Campo San Giacometto (or San Giacomo di Rialto) submerged

Though never known for his beauty, the statue/pedestal known as "Il Gobbo"--atop which public announcements were proclaimed to what used to be the bustling hub of the Venetian Republic's expansive commercial empire--appeared to make like Narcissus in this morning's high tide....

While just a stone's throw away at the Osteria al Pesador, the Catch of the Day could quite literally have been caught while seated at one's table (appropriately enough, I suppose, as pesador is the Venetian word for fisherman).

But regardless of how high the water rose, deliveries still had to be made

Christmas Lights, Rio Fondeco dei Tedeschi

Witch- and Watercraft on the Grand Canal, This Morning

One of the most interesting boats on the water today was this gondola constructed of fruit crates that any customer of the Rialto Market will recognize (and anyone who stays in Venice for any longer than a few hours really should be a customer of the Rialto's produce or fish stands)

The Reale Società Canottieri Bucintoro celebrated today's Feast of the Epiphany with the 41st edition of its Regata de le Befane, featuring, as usual, five of its members dressed in the gear of the holiday witch who delivers sweets to the stockings of good children and coal to the bad.

It's nowhere near as long a race as the Regata Storica, nowhere near as big a production, and nowhere near as fiercely competitive, but the good feelings it inevitably conjures up among the crowds observing it from the Rialto Bridge and the Riva del Vin each January 6 make it an event worth attending.

Images of last year's race are here: https://veneziablog.blogspot.com/2018/01/witches-on-grand-canal-today-regata.html

After holding off early challenges...

the regata's pink-shawled winner led from start to finish

 

The second, third and fourth place finishers acknowledge the cheers of viewers along the Riva del Vin...

followed by the winner of the regata with her/his bandiera rossa