Viva Venice

Viva Venice on Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle

The Most Unusual Christmas Trees

Conde Nast Traveler's collection of The Most Unusual Christmas Trees

Source

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK CITY

What this 13-foot-tall tree lacks in stature it makes up for in history (the tradition goes back more than 30 years) and workmanship: Preparation starts in July, when volunteers begin folding the 500-plus origami ornaments into shapes inspired by present and past exhibits.

KAUNAS, LITHUANIA

This tree may be green, but it’s no ordinary spruce. The tree in Kaunas, Lithuania, is made of more than 40,000 recycled plastic bottles.

LISBON, PORTUGAL

In lieu of decorations this 90-foot-tall techie tree (Europe's tallest five years running) uses real-time video projections of passersby and images of bells and angels.

MOUNT INGINO, ITALY 

Nearly 3,000 lights are strung together to form a Christmas tree shape on the slopes of Mount Ingino, just outside of Gubbio, Italy. The giant tannenbaummeasures nearly 2,130 feet tall.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL 

The view of Rio de Janeiro’s harbor alone is usually enough to draw in a crowd, but during the holiday season it’s the 280-foot-tall floating tree that commands attention. The tree—as tall as a 28-story building—floats in the middle of the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon. During a light show, the tree's design changes to represent the four seasons: Simulated falling leaves signify autumn, stark white stands in for winter, flowers illuminate for spring, and bright yellow portrays a sunny summer day.

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL 

It's hard to ignore this 190-foot-tall tree in Sao Paulo's Ibirapuero Park: A total of 500 bulbs and 12,000 feet of LED lighting give the holiday icon a futuristic glow.

TOKYO, JAPAN

This insanely decadent Christmas tree took 10 craftsmen two months to complete—and it's no wonder. The eight-foot-tall revolving tree is made of 40 kilograms of pure gold and is decorated with the silhouettes of 50 popular Disney characters. Jeweler Ginza Tanaka will sell it to you for $4.2 million. Not in your budget? A 10-inch version has a $240,000 price tag.

VENICE, ITALY 

No surprise here: Venice is home to the largest glass Christmas tree in the world. Internationally renowned glassblower Simone Cenedese, known for his Murano glass sculptures and installations, designed the 24-foot-tall tree with 1,000 multicolored tubes.

Vogue

Piazza San Marco, Venezia

Vogue Australia, 1966

Flooding Hits Tuscany

The swollen River Arno flows under the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

Three dead as Italy flooding hits Tuscany Three people died on Tuesday when their car fell into a swollen river as torrential rain caused widespread flooding in Tuscany and Umbria.

by Nick Squires, Rome

13 November 2012

The flooding in central Italy followed heavy rain and an unusually high tide in Venice – the sixth highest level since records began in 1872 – which left nearly three-quarters of the lagoon city under water. The three people feared to have drowned – two men and a woman – were believed to be employees of Enel, Italy's biggest electricity company. The car they were travelling in was swept off a collapsed bridge in Grosseto, a few miles inland from the Tuscan coast. The deaths brought the death toll from the bad weather to four – on Monday a 73-year old man was swept away in his car by floodwaters near the town of Capalbio, also on the coast of Tuscany.

Elsewhere in the region, normally known for its sun-baked summers and idyllic landscapes, people were plucked from their roofs of their flooded homes by rescue helicopters. As rivers broke their banks, more than 100 people were forced to flee their homes and take refuge in emergency shelters. The towns of Orbetello and Albinia were inundated with water, with the latter "looking like Venice", according to Italian news reports. In Rome, the Tiber was so swollen that it was no longer possible to walk or cycle along its banks. Major roads and railway lines were blocked.

Enrico Rossi, the head of Tuscany's regional government, said the flooding was so severe that it required intervention by the army. He said floods had worsened in recent years and blamed global warming. "Climate change is causing ever more serious flooding," Mr Rossi told Corriere della Sera. "We can no longer postpone the work that needs to be done." He called for 50 million euros a year for the next 10 years to build new bridges and embankments. The flooding in Venice on Sunday and Monday allowed tourists to pull on their swimming costumes and go take a dip in St Mark's Square, the lowest lying part of the city. The level of the water reached 149 centimetres – the highest since 2008.

The flooding underlined the need for a multi-billion pound flood protection barrier to be completed as quickly as possible, the consortium behind the project said. The Moses flood prevent project entails the construction of giant steel gates across the three inlets through which water from the Adriatic surges into Venice's lagoon. The 300-tonne hinged panels will be fixed to massive concrete bases dug into the sea bed and will be raised whenever a dangerously high tide is predicted. Inaugurated by Silvio Berlusconi, the then prime minister, in 2003, it was due to be completed this year but is now expected to be operational in 2016. The consortium, the Consorzio Venezia Nuova, said that had the much-delayed project been up and running on Sunday, Venice would have remained dry. "This high tide underlines the urgency and necessity of completing the project quickly," it said in a statement.

Source

Acqua Alta

Acqua Alta has left two thirds of Venice, Italy, submerged in water.

  

Images found here on The Telegraph.

Visiting Venice

Visiting Venice on Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle

Venice

There is a glorious City in the sea.

The sea is in the broad, the narrow streets,

Ebbing and flowing; and the salt sea-weed

Clings to the marble of her palaces.

No track of men, no footsteps to and fro

Lead to her gates. The path lies o'er the sea,

Invisible; and from the land we went,

As to a floating city—steering in,

And gliding up her streets as in a dream,

So smoothly, silently—by many a dome,

Mosque-like, and many a stately portico,

The statues ranged along an azure sky;

By many a pile in more than eastern pride,

Of old the residence of merchant-kings;

The fronts of some, though Time had shattered them,

Still glowing with the richest hues of art,

As though the wealth within them had run o'er.

- Samuel Rogers

Venice

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;
A palace and a prison on each hand:
I saw from out the wave her structures rise
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand:
A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
Around me, and a dying Glory smiles
O'er the far times, when many a subject land
Looked to the wingèd Lion's marble piles,
Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles!

She looks a sea Cybele, fresh from ocean,
Rising with her tiara of proud towers
At airy distance, with majestic motion,
A ruler of the waters and their powers:
And such she was;—her daughters had their dowers
From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East
Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers.
In purple was she robed, and of her feast
Monarchs partook, and deemed their dignity increased.

In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more,
And silent rows the songless gondolier;
Her palaces are crumbling to the shore,
And music meets not always now the ear:
Those days are gone—but Beauty still is here.
States fall, arts fade—but Nature doth not die,
Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear,
The pleasant place of all festivity,
The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy!

But unto us she hath a spell beyond
Her name in story, and her long array
Of mighty shadows, whose dim forms despond
Above the dogeless city's vanished sway;
Ours is a trophy which will not decay
With the Rialto; Shylock and the Moor,
And Pierre, cannot be swept or worn away—
The keystones of the arch! though all were o'er,
For us repeopled were the solitary shore.

The spouseless Adriatic mourns her lord;
And, annual marriage now no more renewed,
The Bucentaur lies rotting unrestored,
Neglected garment of her widowhood!
St. Mark yet sees his lion where he stood
Stand, but in mockery of his withered power,
Over the proud Place where an Emperor sued,
And monarchs gazed and envied in the hour
When Venice was a queen with an unequalled dower.

Before St. Mark still glow his steeds of brass,
Their gilded collars glittering in the sun;
But is not Doria's menace come to pass?
Are they not bridled?—Venice, lost and won,
Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done,
Sinks, like a seaweed, into whence she rose!
Better be whelmed beneath the waves, and shun,
Even in destruction's death, her foreign foes,
From whom submission wrings an infamous repose.

- Lord Byron

At Venice

On the Lido
On her still lake the city sits
While bark and boat beside her flits,
Nor hears, her soft siesta taking,
The Adriatic billows breaking.

In the Piazza at night
O beautiful beneath the magic moon
To walk the watery way of palaces;
O beautiful, o'er-vaulted with gemmed blue
This spacious court; with colour and with gold,
With cupolas, and pinnacles, and points,
And crosses multiplex, and tips, and balls,
(Wherewith the bright stars unreproving mix,
Nor scorn by hasty eyes to be confused;)
Fantastically perfect this lone pile
Of oriental glory; these long ranges
Of classic chiselling; this gay flickering crowd,
And the calm Campanile - Beautiful!
O beautiful!

- Arthur Hugh Clough

Rottura dell'acquedotto a Venezia

La Domenica del Corriere

30 July 1911

Rottura dell'acquedotto a Venezia: La gente accore a provvedersi d'acqua importata ai pozzi ed alle fontanelle.

Rupture of the acqueduct in Venice: People come to provide themselves with water imported to the wells and fountains.

University Graduates

Stopping the Brain Drain: How Venice is trying to keep its university graduates on Deutsche Welle. It seems like many cities have the same problem that New Zealand does; of university graduates emigrating in search of better job security. Perhaps with globalisation has come a stronger compulsion and desire to travel and to experience new things; and moving to a new country for work just seems like a logical way to make this happen. I think that utilizing the English major of my degree will open more doors than the Art History or Fine Arts will; especially for the European education field. Hopefully there will be jobs available when I graduate!

Un giardino di Rose sull'acqua

I have just come across Venezia: un giardino di Rose sull'acqua (Venice: a rose garden on the water), but unfortunately can't seem to find any photographs of the event. On the 6th of May, Venice's Grand Canal was transformed into a colourful rose garden; a project by Dania Lupi, president of the Rosetieventi association, in collaboration with John Aliata, Gianluca Bisol, and Anna Maria Giannuzzi Miraglia.

All the most beautiful cities in the world have a rose garden, except Venice, and Lupi wishes to promote the initiative through transforming the Grand Canal with flowers. In a press conference, Dania Lupi explains her concept, 'Tutte le più belle città del mondo hanno un roseto tranne Venezia. Per questo a maggio promuovo questa iniziativa con l'obiettivo di far fiorire il Canal Grande. Quattro anni fa mi sono state regalate 2100 piante di rose e ho pensato di dar vita a queste installazioni di fiori sull'acqua. Quest'anno saranno 1100 piante e 2000 le rose recise che sfileranno sull'acqua.'

Francesco's Venice: Death

Francesco's Venice: Part IV (Death)

Venezia

Venice, 1959

Willy Ronis

Franceso's Venice: Sex

Francesco's Venice: Part III (Sex)

Francesco's Venice: Beauty

 

Francesco's Venice: Part II (Beauty)

Francesco's Venice: Blood

Francesco's Venice: Part I (Blood)

Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco, Venezia

Herbert List, 1929