3406 A Venetian living in Oxford

From one beautiful City to another, I have many fond memories if my time in Oxford, give Ruskin my love next time you pass (hopefully by bike !!) :) :cool:

So do you like Italy? Are you Italian?
I find Oxford has a human dimension (it is not too big) and has beautiful architecture just like Venice does. And like Venice we have lots of tourists in the summer (and foreign language students).
But if you ask me which one I prefer, I have to say Venice is enchanting.
I really like the water in Venice, the noise and the reflections of the water in the canals and in your own home. And Venice is a lot noisier, the Venetians are not afraid to shout from one window to another if necessary or if the doorbell does not work. I think it is great to be a child in Venice, due to the complete lack of cars, and I have never been afraid with falling into a canal either! This Italy mag website is very fun, and it is interesting to see how people enjoy and respond to Italy and Italian culture.
Ciao

Valeria from Oxford

No, in my heart maybe :) but I intend to stay here for the rest of my life, I truly love Italy, and, agree with you on Venice

Salve!
I am just responding to your post because one of my dreams is to visit Venice one of these days and possibly live there. I am living in the U.S. but am so excited to get out of here and visit Italy. I am from a small town in the north, but I am living in Orlando, FL now. I would love to live in Venice, especially since there are no cars! I just can't imagine how wonderful that must be. But I have heard that the city smells quite a bit in the summer because of the sewers. Is that true? Is tourism so great during the summer that it is irritating? I guess one would get used to it after living there for a while.
I would love to hear anything you have to write about your life in Venice. I am interested in learning as much as I can about the city. Thanks!

Katie

[QUOTE=kmac1104].....especially since there are no cars!....[/QUOTE]

Katie, belive me, you WILL get there.

As for the cars, it freaked me that there was 'something' odd about the place & wasn't until my wife mentioned it that I realised it was the lack of car traffic & associated noise!

As for the tourists..........even I got sick of them after a few days; but the more I explored, the more I found that there was a 'real' place behind the facade...get a decent pair of shoes & walk the place, talk to everyone (who doesn't have a camera!) and enjoy!

As I say, you'll get there ;)

[QUOTE=tuscanhills]but the more I explored, the more I found that there was a 'real' place behind the facade...get a decent pair of shoes & walk the place, talk to everyone (who doesn't have a camera!) and enjoy![/QUOTE]

So true. To get away from the main drags is a sheer delight, since few tourists venture far from San Marco and the Rialto. There are so many quiet places, so much of interest. You never know, but you may, like us, come across a wedding group dressed in traditional Venetian finery - masks as well. Things like that leave an indelible memory. Then there are buildings like the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo (bovolo is snail in Venetian dialect).

My favourite from Carnivale 2006.....

[QUOTE=tuscanhills]My favourite from Carnivale 2006.....[/QUOTE]

Bless! Lovely photo.

amazing! thank you for the pictures. it must be so wonderful to see such sights. Yes, someday I will get there... Thank you for the encouragement! I am almost getting impatient nowadays. I want to go now! I guess I can only do my best and wait until the time is right. :D

My family has always lived in the Venice in Riva del Vin by the Rialto Bridge.
I was born in 1961 and in 1966 I think we had an exceptionally high water tide for a few days. I was only a child but I remember my father having to wear very high rubber fishing wellies to go out of the house. We live on the first floor of a palazzol, so we were ok. Nobody in Venice lives on a ground floor. Ground floors are reserved for shops and storage. The problem of high tides and water erosion remains; I am not sure what it is being done at the moment. Yes Venice has no sewers, a lot of stuff ends in the canals. It is after all a very ancient city and not very big either. The drinking tap water is perfectly fine. It's brought to Venice by acqueduct.

If I had a wish I would like to live on the top floor of a building with an Altana where I could get the sun. I still enjoy walking around Venice and one thing I was really fond of was to see the Venetian cats basking in the sun in a little square. Old ladies used to take care of these stray cats and feed them.

Over all I think I was lucky to grow up in Venice - for a child especially was enchanting. I also did the thesis of my first degree in Venetian history based on a travel diary.

I would like to add that the luckiest people in the world are those who see and experience Venice for the first time. We Venetians after a while we tend to give it a little bit for granted.

You say water comes to Venice via an Aquaduct? I have been there several times and I don't remember seeing one, does it go under the water via a pipe or something?
Ciao, Dan

Not a Drop to Drink

Venice is famous for its canals, but drinkable water is brought in from the mountains.
How waterlogged Venice quenched its thirst
By Rick Steves
Venice, while surrounded by water, had no natural source of drinking water. For centuries water was collected dangerously and with much effort from the mainland.

In the 9th century, locals devised a way to collect rain water using town squares as catchment systems. Clay tubs were constructed under each square with a sand filtering system. Channels directed water to a cistern at the center. Squares were paved at a slight slant so rain water would drain through funnels into the tub, which served as the neighborhood "well."

With a safe local source of drinking water, Venice's population grew. Thousands of these cistern systems provided lagoon communities with drinking water right up until 1886 when an aquaduct was opened, bringing water in from nearby mountains.

The old clay tubs have rotted out. Today, at hide tide, the floods show first on these grates, which mark the low point of each town square.

For lots more information, check out our best-selling Rick Steves' Venice guidebook — or join us on one of our free-spirited tours in Venice.

And in more modern times....

[url]http://www.veoliawater.com/history/1879/[/url]
1879 - Venice
The first international subsidiary Veolia water

Inauguration of the concession at St Mark's Square in Venice 20th June 1884
Creation of the first international subsidiary of the Compagnie Générale des Eaux with the right to supply drinking water to the city of Venice.

The Venice concession, inaugurated in 1884 with all the pomp of the "Serenissima" (Venetian Republic), embodies the internationalization of the Company outside its borders - Italy (Verona, Naples, Bergamo), Switzerland (Lausanne), Portugal (Porto) and the Ottoman Empire (Constantinople).

The Company thus develops in tandem with the increased urbanization of the 19th century.

This first series of contracts is followed a century later with the winning of major contracts by Veolia Water in Europe (Prague, Bucharest, Budapest), in the USA (Indianapolis), in China (Shanghai), in Australia and in Africa (Morocco, Gabon).

Building site of the water system under the Grand Canal in Venice in 1884
1853 - Setting up of CGE
1879 - Venice contract
1889 - First laboratory
1903 - The engineer Iørgen Krüger
1905 - Increase in life expectancy
1907 - First ozonation plant
1918 - Setting up of SADE
1953 - The construction of Clay Lane 1960 - The move to rapid filtration 1982 - The new "Anjou Recherche"
1997 - The first customer service center 1998 - Waterforce
1999 - Nanofiltration at Méry-sur-Oise
2000-2001 - Industrial outsourcing services
2002 - Cities of the world
2002 - Helping with the floods in Prague

This is my family home in Venice. When I am in Italy, I stay there. We live just below the Greek Consulate by the Rialto. Like everything else it is quite an old building.
Windows have shutters so one can make a room very dark, and the home has terrazzo floors and wooden decorated beams on the ceiling. One can see the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge from the windows.
But I have been residing in Oxford since 1997 and I really like living in the UK. So I go backward and forward between Italy and the UK. I am very close to my relatives in Italy.
I am quite happy to be Italian and I think Italy is really fantastic. Every place is different and for a country which is not a very big size it is amazing to see all the rich history and traditions we have.

Valeria -
Very interesting information about the water system! You have a very nice home as well. I noticed some construction in the picture. Is construction going on constantly in Venice because of the age of the city? Does it take away from the beauty of the city? I live in Orlando and there is SO much construction. It's not a very pretty place to live to say the least! Anyway, thanks for all your info. I'm glad you found a second home in the UK :)

We noticed a fair amount when we where there; a fair amount to reline the canals around the Grazie doumo; some of the palazzi on the Grande Canal & innumerable smaller jobs that were going on.

I also understand that the construction of the Venice Barrier is going to start soon (or is it?!)

Venice is a very old city with just about 70,000 local residents and let's just say that the humidity we derive from the canals does not help us either.

We do not have construction per se, we very rarely have space for new buildings, well we had the Fenice Opera House which burnt like paper not too long ago and that required a lot of re-doing ;)
but pretty much everything in Venice means conservation, protected building, the process of restoration requires a certain number of permits.

Unless one knows what is doing it is best to buy something which has already been renovated. Everything is old in Venice. Conservation works are in large parte carried by International organizations who can devote these funds to the preservation of the city. I think the Mose, barrier thing is still in process, I will check.

In our home we have chosen to use some nice wallpapers because over time the humidity from the canals will have a dampness effect on intonaco alone. Wood and stone, or marble, or tiles work a lot better in Venice. It is the way it is. We all accept that our buildings are old and we do what is required. I was born in Venice so it is my home, not a holiday place, so it carries a different value to me.

Conservation is a continous process. Recently when I went to Venice I see that they cover the monuments under renovation with large painted canvas which depict that very same building. Like a painting. This has been done for the Doge's Palace, for the St. Marc Clock Tower and so on. I think it is a great idea.

I also think that the canals are less polluted now compared to 20 years ago.
but it is not good enough. In the last century water pollution has been a big problem.

And the pigeon too.... I love them but we have too many. Flying rats!

[url]http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venice/solutions.html[/url]

I think this would be useful about the background -- I like the photos too.

I usually have a look at this on my tea break.

Ciao

I just love this picture.

What a stunning photo... that would do me nicely as a pc wallpaper! ;);)

Is it your own? Lovely!

hey, nice one.

No this photo is not mine. I forgot where it comes from. Sorry I cannot recollect.