Venice on ice is a rare sight. This anonymous painting shows Venetians skating between the north shore (le Fondamente Nove) in Venice and the tiny island of San Michele (now the city's cemetary island) in January 1709.
I've known Venice for almost 15 years now, and I've never seen such a thing! The closest we've ever come was when we were trying once in January to take the Alilaguna shuttleboat from Venice to the airport like we had a million times before, but this time the boat's engine started to overheat because the water injectors were getting clogged with ice... So, they were force to detour to the car park at Piazzale Roma, where we had to get an automobile taxi to take us the rest of the way! I thought we'd never make it...
But now you can see this rare and strange event from the comfort of your own computer without ever getting your feet cold (or risk missing a plane!) From the "Serenissima" discussion group, a beautiful video of when the Venetian lagoon and canals froze over in 1929... Enjoy!
2 comments:
Reminds me of old photos I've seen of people driving their cars onto frozen Lake Erie. Of course, a few would...kerplunk...through the ice, and are probably still down there.
Amazing video!
Near San Canciano there are some columnns where someone carved some words in the stone and describes the ice lagoon.
Post a Comment