seo content specialist
seo content specialist
seo content specialist
Arsenal was the greatest shipyard in the world. For 700 years before Napoleon, the republic's galleys and galleons were built here. Dante visited it and thought the place was like the Inferno. But the Arsenal's 16,000 masters and builders were highly respected citizens, even if they had to toil amid vapours of boiling pitch.
seo content specialist
A rsenale, meaning house of I: industry, is another of those Venetian words that have passed into many other languages. The yard also passed along the idea of a conveyor belt system: newly built galleys were fitted out by being towed simultaneously past supply storehouses. It was incredibly fast and efficient. One of Venice's proudest tales concerns the shipyard. When Henry III of France was visiting in the 16th century, a state banquet was arranged in his honor. To impress him, the Arsenal turned out one completely equipped galley while the king was eating his dinner.
Today the Arsenal is a rather sleepy Italian naval yard. Visitors on foot get no further than the beautifully restored triumphal arch at the entrance, the finest example of early Renaissance architecture in Venice. But if you take the No.5 amoretto, you sail right through. Museum Storico Naval (Naval History Museum) A must for sea lovers, maritime history buffs and children of all ages, this three storey nautical collection provides a nice change from the standard Venetian fare of churches and art galleries. Among the more unexpected attractions is a roomful of marvelous models of Chinese junks, donated in 1964 by a French admirer of Marco Polo for the museum's hours.
Celebrated and imitated the world over, the Lido is in fact much more important as a barrier island protecting Venice than as a beach resort of long faded glamour. The word itself simply means beach or shore, and in Venice, the lidi are the sand bars or reefs separating the lagoon from the Adriatic. With swimming in that murky sea still officially permitted, much of the Lido's sevenmilelong beach strip is umbrellaed and parceled off by the busy hotels and municipal establishments, leaving little beach space for those who venture over from Venice proper.
It's all a far cry from the days of the doges, when nobles hunted in the Lido's woods and grassy wastes or rode horses along its deserted shore. Lord Byron loved to walk on the Lido. It was from the San Nicole end that he began his celebrated swimming race, which ended without his two competitors at the far end of the Grand Canal. Admirers of Thomas Mann seeking that Death in Venice atmosphere will be disappointed during the summer and early autumn. In season, the strip is boisterously alive with tourists, film festival fans, earnest golfers and speedboat enthusiasts. After October, though, when the crowds have disappeared and the first mists and fog banks seep in from the sea, the Lido does take on a rather funereal air.
Express and ordinary amoretti run back and forth between Venice and the Lido, gondolas can be hired, and there are several car ferries to the island, where driving is permitted. For those full of Venice's romance with the sea, it's worth a bus trip and walk to the northern end of the island to see the Porto di Lido, the lagoon's main passageway to the Adriatic. Here doges wed the sea yearly in that most spectacular of Serenissima ceremonies. And through this gateway passed all the republic's battle and trade fleets before striking out on the open sea.
A highlight of any visit to Venice is, of course, venturing out onto that inviting lagoon. You can see the three most popular islands in a leisurely oneday outing or can make halfday trips to one or more of them. Venetians go to the islands by amoretto. The Nos. 5 or 12 will take you out to Murano in about 15 minutes. After some sightseeing, you can continue on to Burano and Torcello by public transport. Guided tours by steamer or motorboat and privately hired gondolas are, of course, more expensive.
Anyone spending more than a few days in Venice should try to make a tour of its mainland villas. It was fashionable, in the 15th and 16th centuries for aristocrats to have country houses. Many are architectural gems, particularly those by Andrea Palladio. If you take the nostalgic boat trip to Padua (on a modern version of the historic burchiello. or barge, which operates from April to October), you'll see more villas, as well as a famous set of GiOllO frescoes and the superb eques-trian statue by Donatello. And Palladio's home town of Vicenza is filled with fine examples of the master's work.
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