life style Reflections: Venice Lagoon


Words: Sandy Orr Painting and photographs: Stewart Orr Part 5 of a series for Style of Wight Magazine.


To see more work by Stewart Orr please visit www.stewartorr.com


The Grand Canal, Venice (2007)


IT is November 2007 and we are in Venice. We are renting an apartment in San Polo in an old palazzo which delights us. We have oblique views over gardens to the Grand Canal and can hear all the hubbub of its life: the thrum of the engines of the crowded vaporetti, the purr of the elegant water taxis, the rhythmic splash of gondoliers’ oars, distant voices, shouts, laughter; snatches of serenades. Te palazzo is close by the Rialto food market and we make a pilgrimage there for breakfast supplies early each morning. Fruit, vegetables and fish are laid out in the splendid abundance of a harvest festival. Te adjoining labyrinth of narrow streets is a hive of activity. Dozens of small specialist food shops are opening up, blinds are being raised, pavements washed, windows cleaned. Smells of freshly ground coffee and freshly baked bread waft in the crisp morning air. Queues are already forming for loaves, focaccia, pastries still warm from the oven. We buy different things every day: figs, parma ham, creamy mozarella, tomatoes, local cheeses, hams, tiny almond cakes stuffed with cherries. Each day we lazily explore the streets, art galleries and


churches of a different sestieri of the old city. Te Venice Art Festival Biennale is in full swing so in the sestieri of Castello we spend the day feasting on cutting edge art from all over the world in the national exhibition pavilions of the Giardini. On our last day we attempt to visit every one of the principal islands of the Venice Lagoon by vaporetto but we run out of daylight. Tankfully this offers us the perfect excuse to return. Our sense of the overwhelming wealth and beauty of Italian culture, history, art and architecture of Venice is heightened on this visit because we have come to Venice slowly, exploring its ancient maritime empire along the


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“Reflections: Venice Lagoon” by Stewart Orr


way. Tis was completely unplanned. We have spent the summer sailing between Turkey and Preveza in Greece in our boat ‘Just Ginny’ (JG) and have been discovering carvings of the Lion of St Mark, symbol of Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia - that Most Serene Republic of Venice which endured for over a millenium - in ancient forts and historic towns and cities ever since we left Athens. Te Argo-Saronic islands - Aegina, Poros, Spetses, Hydra - the towns of Navplion, Monemvasia, Koroni, Methoni, Pylos, Vonitsa, the Ionian islands - Kythira, Zante, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Lefkada, Corfu - have all been under Venetian rule at some stage, often for many centuries. We have learned to recognise the hallmarks of Venetian occupation: the guardian fort, the remnants of elegant architecture, narrow streets with fine marble pavements, Italian influences in local dishes, enviable locations, safe harbour for boats. Caught in high winds rounding notorious Cape Maleas in the Peloponnese we holed up in Avlemonas on Kythira for a week. Te tiny quay was full but this inlet used routinely by Venetian fleets made secure anchorage for JG. Finally, after laying up JG in Preveza, we caught a Greek


ferry from Patras to Venice. We entered the city early on a sunny morning passing right past the Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Square with the Lion of St. Mark on its column guarding its entrance. A slow sea approach to La Serenissima is to be highly recommended.


May / June 2011 89


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