Venice's Marco Polo

FINDING MARCO POLO IN VENICE

Next time you are wondering around Venice do not forget to visit the court yard where one of the cities  most famous son's Marco Polo, once lived.  First you need to find Corte Prima del Milion which sits near the Railto bridge.  In the very small squre you will find a nice place to eat called 'Osteria Milion', then pass through Calle del Milion passing under a second sottoporticio to Corte Seconda del Milion, this where the Polo family is suppose to have lived.  The name of the courtyard is said to come from the book 'The Million', about Marco Polo's travels in the east.
Alleyway Leading to the Courtyard of Marco Polo
Marco Polo was the son of Nicolò Polo and born in Venice in 1215.  Nicolò, together with his brother Matteo, had a trading company, which specialized in Orient goods.   This explains why the Polo's decided to travel to Katai in China, this area at the time had never been visited by other Europeans.  The Polo's were trying to corner the market on Chinese goods and perhaps satisfy their desire to explore new and mysterious lands.  
  
Marco Polo

The books chronicles how the Polo brothers set sail, taking along Marco who at the time was 17 years old, plus they carried a Papal bull.  The trip to get to Katai took three years, as they passed through Anatolia, Irn, Pamir, Turkestan, and the Gobi Desert, and then across the China to the legendary city of Beijin.  The city of Beijin was ruled at the time by the Mongol King Kublai Khan.

The Emperor kept the Polo's in China for 17 years, and finally in 1292 the Polo's were granted permission to return to Venice.   The records from that era tell how the Polo's returned to Venice and due to their manner of dress, even their own relatives failed to recognize them.  The clothes were out of fashion for the Venetians but they allowed the Polo's to hide precious stones, that the Polo's used to restart their trade business.

Marco Polo himself later served in the Venetian navy and took part in the Curzola Canal naval battle between Venice and Genoa.  He was captured on September 7, 1298 and imprisoned by the Genoans, who seem to have treated him as a VIP prisoner.  It was during this time at Marco Polo dictated his book 'The Million' to his cell mate Rutichello, a writer who was from Pisa.  The book did not meet with success at first, and Polo was called the 'Milioni di Bugie' (Guy of million lies), since no else could validate the story everyone considered the book full of exaggerated claims. 
The Travel Routes of  Marco Polo

Later as more individuals traveled west the book was considered to be one of the best adventure books ever, it has been said Christoper Columbus was a big fan of the book.  There are still versions of the book and is a good read, in English you will find the book as 'The Travels of Marco Polo'.
Did Marco Polo play in this square as a child?

The Essence of the MASK


photos of italy, venice masks

photos of italy, venice masks


From and intereting read on use of mask's:

Social psychologist Efrat Tseëlon is interested in feminist readings of fashion and culture. Tseëlon argues that while the English dictionary might define the practice of wearing masks and disguise as an attempt to conceal and misrepresent, masquerade is something different. Masquerade is not about portraying something false, but rather it is a way to understand the intricacies of identity. Masquerade draws its meaning through historical context, as the meaning of how we present our ideal selves in public has changed over time. Tseëlon  writes:
disguise is meant to hide, conceal, pass as something one is not. Masquerade  however  is a statement about the wearer.  It is pleasurable  excessive, sometime[s] subversive. The mask is partial covering; disguise is full covering; masquerade is deliberate covering. The mask hints; disguise erases from view; masquerade overstates. The mask is an accessory; disguise is a portrait; masquerade is a caricature. But these distinctions are tenuous, as each also shares the attributes of the other, at least in some uses or historical contexts… Thus, whatever shade of meaning of masquerade one chooses to employ  it is obvious that through a dialectic of concealing and revealing masquerade serves a critical function. It calls attention to such fundamental issues as the nature of identity  the truth of identity, the stability of identity categories and the relationship between the supposed identity and its outward manifestations (or essence and appearance).
Tseëlon outlines how the cultural practice of wearing masquerade is ancient. In Western culture, masquerade can be found in the philosophical writing of Plato, who wrote about life as a puppet show. Masquerade appears in Shakespeare’s plays, where comedic situations involving masquerade allow individuals to adopt new identities and experience other genders. It is also famously personified in the annual Carnival of Venice, held in Italy. Masquerade has been used throughout Western history as a way to play around with ideas of what makes up our “true” self. Masquerade has been employed by women in particular, liberating them from restrictive gender and sexual scripts, if only for brief periods at a time.

The study of masquerade allows us to ask: is there such a thing as an “authentic” self? Do we easily transgress social norms behind the anonymity of costume, or do we mostly adhere to the rules set out for us? Who are we when we don’t have to live up to the preconceived ideas of how other people see us?

Arqua Petrarca in the Euganei Hills

 Arqua Petrarca is located in the Euganei hills and still has many of the medieval homes and buildings.  It was renamed to add Petrarca after the Arezzo born poet Francesco Petrarca  moved there and spent the last days of his life.  Petrarca's small house can be visited in the village.

The land area and town became part of the Venetian Republic and there and you still see the influence of the Venetian's. 




Today the village is quiet and relaxed in the morning hours during the weekdays, and but in early afternoon there is an invasion of tour buses from the Abano thermal spa's.  Also on weekends there is an increase of walkers and cyclist passing through.  But everything seems to cease in early evening.




Biking from Trento to Bassano del Grappa on the Valsugana Path


The Valsugana connects Trento with the Bassano della Grappa, and has been a nature migration route from the north to the Veneto plain for centuries.· Sections of the via Caludia Augusta Roman road runs through the valley.· The Valsugan bike route offers plenty to see along the route or utilize the route to move up and down the valley to ride some of the classic climbs.· There is a project to extend the route all the way down into Trento, from Tezza up toward Feltre following the Caludia Augusta route, and make a designated path all the way to Bassano della Grappa.

valsugana-path
Length 81 km
Route Marked bike path mixed with secondary roads
Elevation gain Bassano della Grappa to Caldonazzo 290 meters
Caldonazzo to Bassano della Grappa 55 meters
Best time to ride From spring to fall.
Road Conditions The entire route is paved


Most of the route is sign posted.  The actual path ends at the regional border between Trentino and  Veneto from there you are secondary roads.

Rock Climbing at Lumignano, located south of Vicenza


The largest and best developed climbing area in the Vicenza Province is Lumignano, it is located above the town of Lumignano, a small village south of Vicenza and located in the Berici Hills. The numerous cliffs in the valley have been a major climbing destination since the early 1970. At one time Lumignano hosted some of the hardest climbs in Italy and routes such as Orient Express, Atomic Cafe, and Arco d'Ora were top·projects on a lot of climbers tick list. Today with so many sites throughout Europe and the expansion of the difficulty rating Lumignano no longer host the hardest routes but many individuals are surprised at the stiffness of the grades are in the older sectors. Lumignano offers a wide variety of climbs but is not the best area for first time climbers.
rock climbing in italy, climbing guide veneto, lumignano italy, vicenza
I first climbed in Lumignano in 1986 and found the routes to be challenging, the rock top quality, and the village of Lumignano a quite county village. Since that first experience the area has changed, the village has become a community of new subdivisions, there are lots of new sectors to climb, and the rock is very polished on many of the popular routes. However, the area still has a special appeal, the rating for the climbs have not changed and seem stiff compared to other sites in Europe. You can no longer can you climb in mid day in July or August and expect to find good grip and rock texture and it is a bit more crowded in the town and area. However there are still great routes to climb and just knowing the season and time of day there are plenty challenges. It is best to forget about grades and stuff and just climb for fun.
NEAREST CITYVicenza
TYPE OF SITESport Climbing
TYPE OF ROCKlimestone - red/grey pockets
BEST TIME OF YEARall year but best is cooler times of the day and month
DIFFICULTY RANGE4-8B?
TYPE OF PROTECTIONexpansion bolts, glued rings
MAP OR GUIDEBOOK rocking climbing guide to italy, lumignano
Reachable by Public TransCity bus number 8

Biking the Prosecco Wine Zone of Valdobbiadene




Prosecco Wine Road

treviso-icon-valdobbiadene This week I have been riding in the Valdobbiadene area and Colli Congeliano hills while taking a few breaks, the one wine you will continue to encounter is Prosecco.  I have been learning alot about wines in the past years; one thing is that a style of Prosecco has been made as far back as the 1100’s,  but the wine does not resemble today’s version.

Prosecco as we know it today can trace its roots back to the 1868 with the founding of the Carpené Malvoti winery by Antonio Carpené, a winemaker and a chemist. He began to make his Prosecco in large tanks instead of allowing the fermentations to occur in bottles. This was possible by using  pressurized tanks, that had been created in France, to make wine, this is now known as the Charmat (named after the inventor) style.  In order to list the DOC name on the label, the wines must be at least 85% Prosecco grapes with up to 15% being Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and/or Verdiso. A maximum limit of 10% was set only for the use of the Verdisio grape. Wines must be at least 10.5% Alcohol by volume. Now the rules have changed and for a Prosecco to be labeled a Prosecco it must have orginated in the Colli Conegliano and Valdobbiadene Zone-  Any wine made outside this zone is now must be labeled vino fizzate.

The old style of Prosecco was a faintly effervescent wine that was made and consumed locally (similar to Moscato d’Asti). The wine is made from the prosecco grape (thought to hail from two possible orgins, one group contends it originated in the region of Friuli, another group believes the grape from the Friuli started as the Serprino grape, that was brought north by the Romans to the town of Este, that sits at the southern portion of the Eugenai Hills). The prosecco grape is a white grape that naturally ripens very late in the season, so growers were forced to wait until late in the harvest season to pick the grapes. The winemakers would crush the grapes and then their fermentations would be initiated. However, in the days before temperature control, winter would set in and the lower temperatures would halt the fermentation. The wine was then bottled. When the temperatures warmed the following spring, there would be carbon dioxide bubbles trapped in the wine giving it a light fizzy quality. Because the fermentations were not complete, the wine often was sweet from residual sugar left in the wine. That is, the yeast cells were killed by the cold before they converted all the sugar in the must to alcohol and CO2.

There are some differences between the Conegliano and Valdobbiadene areas. Conegliano wines are from the lower lying areas and they tend to be a bit fruitier especially showing more of a peach quality than a citrus one. The ones marked Valdobbiadene are from the higher elevations and tend to be crisper and citrusier. I prefer the Valdobbiadene wine because the crispness and refreshing nature of these wines is, in my opinion, one of its most positive characteristic.  

Santo-Stefano-Processo-Wine-road

A smaller area also exists within the Valdobbiadene DOC zone called Cartizze, this wine is considered one of Italy’s “Grand Cru”. The vineary is made up of  about 205 acres the has become the source for the very best grape, that Prosecco has to offer. The wines are big, well made, and more serious, also the alcohol content must be at least 11%.  These wines do not fit into the usual Prosecco mold in terms of style, price or when to drink them, instead they are similar to lower level Champagnesand priced accordingly.  These wines are worth trying, and here in the Veneto we tend to use as a special occasion, where as best part of Prosecco is its refreshing qualities as an inexpensive aperitif.
If you are visiting the Veneto this area is one of the "not to miss" if you like biking or prosecco.

Foods to Try While in Venice and the Veneto


Next time you are bike touring in the Venice and the Veneto there are a few foods you should try.

Famous Venetian seafood, a culinary specialty
Venice's seafood: delicious!
If you’re heading to Italy’s Veneto region anytime soon (say, for the Mid Mountains Bike Tour or the Giro Venice and Veneto), there’s something very important you need to know: what to eat.
In and around Venice, here are the foods you just can’t miss!
One Venetian food specialty
A twist on Venice's sardee in saor
Sardee in saor. One of our favorite Venetian dishes, this delicious antipasto features sweet-and-sour sardines with onions, pine nuts and raisins. Sounds odd, tastes amazing.
Risi e bisi. A Venetian dish of rice and peas, somewhere between a risotto and a soup. So traditional, it used to be offered to the Doge every St. Mark’s Feast Day.
Pasta e fasioi. In Italian, this would be “pasta e fagioli,” or pasta and beans. But this is the Venetian version… so you just have to order it in Venetian dialect!
Scampi alla veneziana. Venetian shrimp that have been boiled and are served with a simple dressing of olive oil and lemon juice.
One of the best food dishes in Venice
Vermicelli with squid ink, a Venetian specialty
Caparossoi a scota deoLarge, plump clams, cooked with lemon and pepper. They’re so good, people can’t resist reaching for them as soon as they’re on the table, even when they’re hot… hence “a scota deo” – hot fingers!
Risotto or vermicelli al nero di seppia. Risotto or vermicelli (long, thin noodles) with black squid ink, popular in Venice.
Bigoi in salsa. Spaghetti in a sauce of sardines or anchovies.
One food to eat in Venezia
Scampetti with polenta in Venice
Scampetti con polenta. Little shrimps with polenta, a dish made out of boiled cornmeal.
Carpaccio. Raw meat, sliced thin, with a sauce made out of mayo, mustard, cream, and tomato. Invented by the famous Harry’s Bar in Venice.

Bacala mantecato. 
Cod, crushed with parsley and olive oil.
Fritole venessiane. Fritters, made of everything from cornflour to pumpkin. Popular around Carnevale.
Pincia. A pastry with eggs, sugar and raisins.


Marostica and the Human Chess Match


Sitting at the foothills of the Asiago Plateau and not far from Vicenza and Bassano del Grappa is the town of Marostica. A lovely town is enclosed within the ancient walls of its castles and still retains the magical atmosphere of the past. The merloned wall built by the Scaligeri in the 14th century connects the castle on the hill (Castello Superiore) above the town with the castle (Castello Inferiore) below. Because there were two castles, the town could be defended more easily and it had complete control over local trade routes. The town, which has been awarded the TCI's "Bandiera Arancione" (Orange Flag), is famous for a human chess tournament. The Museo dei Costumi delia Partita a Scacchi is an exhibition of the costumes used in the game of chess.

The game takes place every even year so September 2012 is the time to see. 
The lower castle of Marostica

A few meters away from Castello Superiore is the Museo Ornitologico "Angelo Fabris", with one of the largest collections of birds in Europe, (more than a thousand specimens). It organizes flying demonstrations with specially trained birds of prey and guided tours of important bird sites in the area.
The Museo "Cappelli di Paglia di Marostica" is an exhibition about the local tradition of making straw hats. The craft skill of plaiting straw to make hats and bags was so important by the mid-17th century that the town's products were exported allover Italy, to Europe and North America.
The outer walls of the city of Marostica, Italy

The famous chess game is the ultimate expression of tradition, a magical moment for this town that is also known as the City of Chess. It is a medieval re-enactment that takes place every two years in the famous Chess Square, opposite the Lower Castle, which takes its cue from a legend. It is said that in 1454 two noble warriors were both in love with Lionora, the daughter of the Castellan of Marostica.
These warriors were forbidden to fight a bloody duel and a singular chess game was played instead. The live game of chess takes place on the second Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the month of September in even-numbered years and involves more than five hundred players dressed in period costumes.
In the spring Marostica’s rolling hills are encased in an enchanting expanse of cherry trees in bloom, a soft white color gives the foliage a fabulous candor. Roana, Sandra, Francese, Bella Italia, Milanese and Romana: are some of the varieties produced in the area and are so good that they bear the PGI (protected geographical indication) mark.

Villa's of the Grand Canal


When cruising down the Grand Canal, it’s hard not to notice the many beautiful facades (fronts) of the Venetian palaces! But the architecture you’re looking at isn’t just lovely — it tells a story unique to Venice.
From their beautiful windows to their tall, elegant facades, every piece of a Venetian palazzo has a reason behind it. Here’s how to identify and understand the architecture of Venice’s palaces, along with some of it's history.

Venice’s architecture is Gothic — and Eastern

One thing to notice when you’re looking at Venice’s architecture in general, with its elegant, pointed arches and lacy details, is just how different it looks from the architecture you see in, say, Rome or Florence.
Architecture of a Renaissance palazzo in Venice
Built at the end of the 15th century, Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo mixes both Gothic and Renaissance styles
Unlike those cities, Venice was at its most prosperous during the Middle Ages. By the 12th century, it was already a powerful republic. And at that time, Gothic-style architecture was the trend. Unsurprisingly, therefore, Venetian architecture became largely Gothic architecture, with its asymmetricality and emphasis on light. After the Renaissance hit, with its focus on rationalism and balance, architects started to incorporate some of its hallmarks (like rounded, rather than pointed, arches). Even so, they’d continue to blend Renaissance innovations with that same Gothic style.
Plus, unlike other Italian cities, Venice had close ties to the East thanks to its vast trade networks. A lot of Venetian architecture, therefore, was taken from Byzantine and Moorish styles. Just check out this photo of the Ca’ d’Oro, one of Venice’s loveliest palaces, built in the early 15th century:
Reading a Venice palazzo
The Ca' d'Oro palazzo is a great example of how Venetian architecture drew on both the Byzantine and Moorish
You can see the inflected arch above, which likely originally came from the Moors. And on the bottom, you can see the pointed arch, always a hint that what you’re looking at is Gothic.
Meanwhile, the crenellations that you see, topping many of Venice’s palaces like a row of lace, were often seen topping ancient Greek temples — but the ones on the Ca d’Oro have a Moorish style.

When you’re building on water: brick, stucco, wood, and all that glass

Venice’s setting on the water may have made a lot of sense for the mercantile city — but it was also dangerous when it came to building! The area’s land was extremely soft, as well as subject to the tides, meaning that heavy or inflexible materials were very risky. Plus, all that moisture was hard on building materials.
Many palaces in Venice used a lot of wood in their architecture
The painted, wooden ceiling of the chapel in the Ca' d'Oro
One solution was to build in brick. Much lighter than stone, bricks also had the benefit of being smaller and placed side-by-side — so if the earth moved beneath the structure, the building could (to some extent!) shift with it. Plus, bricks don’t retain moisture, always a help in a water-logged city. That brick would then usually be faced with stucco, protecting them even more from the weather.
The problem with having to keep buildings light also led to using a lot of wood. While buildings elsewhere might use stone for their foundations and vaults, for example, Venetians would use the lighter wood. That also explains the painted, wooden-beamed ceilings that you often see in the palaces.
Finally, other Italian cities shied away from using too much glass in their palaces, given its expense and how vulnerable it was to those who might wish the wealthy residents harm. Thanks to Venice’s setting on the lagoon, though, it was very safe from enemies. Meanwhile, the nearby island of Murano had an extensive glass-making industry, meaning that the material was much cheaper than elsewhere. The result? Lots of windows!

Why Venetian palaces don’t face the streets

One odd characteristic of Venice’s palaces is that they don’t face the streets… the palaces face canals! Of course, since Venice’s canals were its streets, this makes sense. (And keep in mind that many of the streets that you walk on in modern-day Venice didn’t exist for most of Venetian history. When the main train station was built in the 19th century, the city filled in many canals and created piazzas to help out all of the new visitors who didn’t have their own boats!).

The Bello Figura

Lions on the balcony of a palazzo in Venice
You can't get much more intricate -- or Venetian -- than this balcony with its watchful lions!
Because of how many people would see your canal-facing facade, you’d make sure that your facade showed not just style, but wealth. Showing how rich you were was especially important in Venice — since it was a merchant city, money and power were closely intertwined.
At the same time, a noble family’s hands were somewhat tied. To have some architectural cohesion (and to keep people from parading their wealth around too much!), laws restricted ornamental statuary and other over-the-top touches.
But, of course, families got around this.Ornate carvings showed off an (expensive!) artisan’s skill. And, although you had to be careful of using too much of a heavy material like stone or marble, it might be used as an accent and a further display of your wealth. Expensive red porphyry roundels, for example, might stud the facade of your home, and even though it was probably small, your courtyard might use tiles of precious stones.

The Ca d'Oro courtyard might not be huge, but it is filled with precious stones

Making use of space

Other architectural features of Venetian palaces often come about for practical reasons — like lack of space. While noble families could build sprawling palaces in cities like Rome and Florence, that Venice was an island meant that land simply… ran out! With space at a premium, even wealthy families had to compensate by building up, not out. Venetian palaces, therefore, usually look tall and elegant, not broad and formidable.
With every inch counting, an expansive courtyard or garden, features of so many palaces elsewhere, was out. Instead, Venetian palaces boasted balconies to allow their residents to get a bit of air. The lack of open space inside could also make the buildings very dark and dreary — so builders opened up the palaces’ facades with big windows, loggias and arcades, letting light into the interior of the house.
Front of the Ca d'Oro
Palaces like the Ca d'Oro were often opened up in the front, letting in light and air
Two gates into a Venetian palace
Twin water entrances lead into the Palazzo Bernardo, a way to save space
Another way around the lack of land was by building “double palaces.” Instead of every family building their own house, two parts of a noble clan might live in one palazzo, splitting it by each having its own water gate — the reason why you sometimes see two doors onto the water in the same building.

Did you ever notice all those big chimneys

One other oddity of Venice’s palaces is that they have big, funny-shaped chimneys, usually in the form of an upside-down cone or pyramid. The reason is simple: Fire was a constant threat in any city, but for a city built on water, it was all the more frightening. Plus, with all of those wooden ceilings and beams, it would spread quickly!
As a result, the chimneys were designed to keep embers from escaping and burning down the palazzo you’d put so much effort into building.