Thursday 17 September 2009

A Slow Boat to Venice

In the past we have arrived in Venice through Marco Polo Airport or it’s railway station, this time the experience was fundamentally different. Although every new visit adds something to our conception and interpretation of this endlessly fascinating city, arriving by boat, slowly over a matter of days, will have a long-lasting effect on how I will forever perceive it’s nature. We came from the Fiume Sile into the Lagoon, entering through the lock at Portegrandi, leaving behind the meandering reed-sided waterway to be exchanged for the brackish water channels sided by a low-lying, floating world of almost-terra firma islands. Passing fishing stations with their suspended nets still dangling the occasionally missed and now sun dried, silver sardine, we wind our way into the outlying channels of the Lagoon. From now on we navigate by bricola, the three posted pine pilings, that act as sign posts and channel markers through out the lagoon, all are numbered and marked on nautical charts, and some have lights to make the channel boundaries visible at night. Our pace is wonderfully slow and mesmerizing, the sun beats down, the wind is with us and with only the occasional campanile on some outlying island for reference, we glide imperceptibly closer to Torcello.A speeding camera warning on a bricola

Nearing our mooring

Bob-bobbing moored up on Torcello
To be continued........

6 comments:

sweetbay said...

I love the last shot. The colors and the quality of the water is just magical.

Jan said...

It looks lovely. Enjoy!

immersion said...

Your description is marvelous . . . I can easily imagine being there. Enjoy!

Julie Oakley said...

I'd so love to see Venice this way. Beautiful descriptions and photos. Was it a motorboat? I presume it's too shallow to be navigable in a boat with a keel.

Woodland Fay said...

Thanks, everyone, for your lovely comments.
sweet bay - lots of photos to come, hopefully catching a little of the atmosphere.
Jan - lovely to hear from you, thanks for popping by. Hoping to catch up with all my friend's blogs soon.
immersion - just hoping to relay a small fraction of the full-on experience. Hope you'll sign up for the full excursion!
Julie Oakley - As long as one stays firmly to the marked channels, sail boats are fine. I will be posting some photos of some fine and dandy yachts, smartly crewed by Nantucket-types. The marina at Portegrandi is a rather posh affair, we however were slumming it in a motorboat. More swallows and amazons to come.

Carol said...

I regret to say I have never visited Venice but so long to... off season! Your description of arriving by water inspires me further to hurry my dream of going. I too find your last photo stunning in texture and light. I look forward to the other posts on your trip.