Veniceblog

Foreign Wedding Boom

According to the Comune di Venezia, more and more wedding gondolas are being filled with non-Italians. Over the last decade, there has been a 254% increase in the number of marriages in Venice in which both groom and bride were foreigners (see the Veniceblog graph below). Mostly it's other Europeans (85%), with only a smattering  from North America (7%).

Guess I was ahead of my time, though I wish I hadn't been. I had an ill-starred wedding there myself in 1992.

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Panic at the Fenice

Power to the La Fenice opera house mysteriously shut down yesterday, disabling the sophisticated fire prevention technology that was installed to prevent a repeat of the 1997 tragedy, when the landmark jewelbox was reduced to a smoldering pit. Members of the National Fire Department swarmed over La Fenice and Campo San Fantin. The resulting insanity rousted some 900 students and teachers -- many from out of town -- from their nearby hotels and forced them scrambling for other accomodations.

In the end, it was a dead computer back-up battery.

Advice For Handicapped Visitors to Venice

Over the last few months, I've gotten a few emails from folks wondering about how people with disabilities might best cope with barriers when visiting Venice. A city of bridges, stairs and water creates formidable logistical challenges, to put it mildly.

I knew that the Comune di Venezia put out a guide for handicapped folks, but it was in Italian. Translating it has been on my to-do list for a while. But now there's no need: I  noticed that an English version is up at the following address: http://www.comune.venezia.it/handicap/nuovo/pagina.asp?idmenu=19&lang=2

Message to handicapped folks: Venice is, true, harder than most destinations to visit, but it's worth every extra erg of energy. You can have an amazing trip there, even if you're wheelchair bound.

Rialto: Mostly Foreign Fish

This surprised me. Only about 20% of the fish sold at the Rialto fish market come from local waters.This according to a new statistical bulletin put out by Il Mercato Ittico del Tronchetto, as reported in today's Gazzettino. While some come from other spots in Italy, the majority are from other parts of the world, mainly  Northern Europe, Asia, and South America. Shrimp from Argentina. Cuttlefish from Malaysia. Squid from Norway and Thailand.

Reasons? Lower production levels in the local Adriatic waters and in the Venetian lagoon combined with the effect of the globalization of markets. The news, however, is not all bad. 2005 local production is actually up 20%, so it may be turning around.

                         Looks Finnish to me

Vap Prices Hiked

ACTV has just hiked the vaporetto ticket prices in time for Carnevale.

Basic, one way, non-Grand Canal trips, now cost 5 euros, up from 3.50 euros. That's pretty major.

Day passes go up too (10.50 euros from 12.60 euros), but remain the better deal.

Of course, for gamblers, there's always the Free Vaporetto Dance.

Jumpy Jacko in Venice Vamoose

Apparently Michael Jackson flew into Marco Polo Airport incognito with his two kids last week, but he left immediately before disembarking when word slipped. The airport reception area was reportedly jammed with media. His reason for coming to town? Beyond merely bizarre, of course. According to a Roman Catholic Church spokesperson, Jackson has been in secret discussions with the Vatican in a bid to put the prayers of late Pope John Paul II to music. Venice somehow figured into the deal, though nobody's quite sure how (perhaps he was there to meet the Patriarch, Angelo Scola).

This Morning's Activity

A paper Canalazzo, about 7 feet long. Natalie Venezia and Miles, on the job. Nat imagines submarines gliding under the Rialto. Miles wanted to put a boat on top of a palazzo. It's all for Grandma's 67th birthday ... we're "taking her to [paper] Venice".

To see the masterpiece full-up,  click here.

Pigeon Football

Authorities are looking for some cruelly inventive kids who started an impromptu game of pigeon football in Piazza San Marco yesterday. Lots of witnesses saw the feather-flying action, but apparently, the carabinieri arrived after the final whistle. At the end, 6 birds had retired permanently from the league with fatal injuries.

On the case for the city of Venice is Maurizio Francesconi, a kind of animal detective who's cracked similar cases in the past. Recently, after a pigeon pummeling in Campo Santa Maria Formosa caused a city-wide uproar, Francesconi made the collar -- a case that led to a change in the law, escalating the penalty beyond fines to actual criminal charges.

Somebody call The Fox Network. I smell a reality show based on Francesconi's cases. What would we call it though?

-- from an account in today's Gazzettino

Calatrava Dreaming

Let's see now. The Calatrava bridge over the Canal Grande, connecting the train station with Piazzale Roma was supposed to be completed in June 2004. Febuary 2006: no bridge. Cost overruns are reported to be in the 1 million euros plus territory.

Glancing at my watch, it appears to be time to sue someone.

Accordingly, there's been an official inquiry into the delays, and yesterday, the engineer and architect responsible for the audit concluded that the construction company made serious judgment errors in estimating costs, anticipating the archeological challenges, and even the in the way in which the bridge's construction materials were spec-ed out.

Next up, lawyers. Lots of them. The sharks are circling around famed Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava himself, among others.

Not sure if there's even a fake date for anticipated completion of the bridge.

Nebbia

Winter means fog in Venice. The winter nebbia there, as it's called in Italian, is quite unlike anything I have experienced: dense, hood-on-the-head, rain-cloud-come-to-earth fog that seemed to sock us in at least every other morning. As we lived on La Giudecca, an island apart from the rest of Venice, we had to cross the wide Canale della Giudecca several times daily, a journey that fog complicated. Vaporettos were often late or suspended. And if you did finally get on one, you needed to place unnatural faith in the boat's captain, as visibility on the canale was at 0 (is there such thing as negative visibility?) and the waters were simultaneously criss-crossed by enormous cruise ships, dozens of small merchant vessels, water taxis, garbage scows and god knows what else. I used to stand outside the window of the captain's cabin, watching the surface radar over his shoulder, scanning for battleship-sized blips that were headed for our broadside. The captain didn't even bother to look up from the screen, there was nothing to see but the nebbia.

Word in today's Gazzettino about two different fog-related collisions within minutes of each other in the Bacino di San Marco, the hectic, wide-open area between the island of San Giorgio, the Lido and the Piazzetta. In the first, 5 people were injured and taken to the hospital after a vaporetto collided with a tourist boat, the Cristina II, packed with Tiawanese tourists. The Cristina II was left with an enormous gash that had officials marveling that it did not founder and sink, which could easily have resulted in loss of life. The second collision was near the Lido, and while mainly a sidescraping, the boats involved were whales -- motonavi -- and nearly collided head-on.

Another controversy: apparently numerous vaporettos are out there with faulty radar, according to the Mayor's office, and they put heat on the ACTV (the transit authority) to clean things up prontissimo.