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Notturno Veneziano

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As usual, many many thanks to l'bogo and Eulalia... :)

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'Here we are, San Silvestro, we’ll get off here.'

We make our way Calle Sbianchesini.

'Tell me more about Cà Zane.'

'Can’t I know why you care so much about that house?'

'Just curiosity - so you don’t know anything about it?’

'No, I know almost everything, I even visited it when I was a student, while they were renovating it. It was covered with sheeting then, for some years, hiding the design of the facade while the work was going on from the sight of those passing by on the Grand Canal. The original core of the building dates back to the late fifteenth century. It was built at the command of the Zane family, with a ground floor, main floor and two mezzanines. In 1560 it was completely renovated; at that time a second main floor was added, making it a sumptuous residence for display.

The main façade is an excellent example of Venetian Renaissance architecture, although there are no monumental elements. it has a sober appearance, in contrast with the many buildings that are festooned with decorative embellishments. The corners are edged with cornices in Istrian stone. At the bottom level, divided typically into three, there’s a big, austere central watergate flanked by two other entrances. Above the mezzanine are the two grand floors – the two sets of four columns correspond to these, one’s in Doric style and the other in Ionic, with several pointed windows and projecting balconies. At the top of the façade there’s an attic. There’s evidence for fresco decoration over the entire surface of the façade in a painting held in the Museo Correr, but it was lost long before the recent renovation works.

Standing next to the Rio delle Erbe, the secondary façade has a very simple appearance, but it’s interesting for its pointed-arched watergate. In the interior, there are important decorations, beautiful stucco-work and frescoes. Within it there’s also a courtyard, of typical elongated shape, connecting the two wings, and overlooked by two Renaissance three-light windows. On the right-hand side of the façade is the ground-level entrance, opening onto a tiny square, in the middle of which there’s a real medieval well ... '
He’s like a recorded commentary, my learned guide!

'But why didn’t you tell me about when we first passed it?'

'I wanted to tell you about the Palazzo Bernardo next door.'

'Who are the owners?'

‘I don’t know who owns it now. As long as anyone lived here, they were descendants of the Zane family, one of the oldest patrician families of La Serenissima, and very wealthy. It may belong to their son, but no-one knows anything about him, he went to live outside Venice.’

Poor Vio, you were living like a Trappist monk: nobody knew you, you wanted to hide from the world, and nobody looked for you...

We walk along the last stretch of our route, down the Calle della Madonna. A rancid stench of frying oil signals the presence of a trattoria crowded with tourists. At the bottom, a gate bars the way.
 
Many many thanks to Eulalia, so incredibly clever at translating (and else)! :)

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I press against the railings as if they were the bars of a prison - but the prison is out here, not inside, the little courtyard is a serene place, like a convent cloister, a surreal peace reigns there. At the far end one can see the porch that opens out onto the Grand Canal, this too is barred by a heavy grating.

'Why is this gate here?'

'I remember they’ve put it here since the restaurant was opened, the rude customers were using the courtyard like a beer garden, it had become a mess. In the old days, before it opened, nobody dared make it dirty - the only solution was to prevent access . '

A rose is climbing beside the heavy walnut door, a calycanthus bush has just come into bloom despite the cold, a large bronze plaque with the family coat of arms proclaims the ownership. Someone is taking care of cleaning the place, it is not being neglected, which is a comfort to me.

'Let's go now, I want to go to Campo Sant'Agostin, it shouldn’t be far.'

'I don’t understand you, didn’t you want to take a ride on the Grand Canal?'

'We’ll do that, but just now I want to go there.'

'When a woman wants there is nothing she cannot get .'

I am also amazed that I’ve just said 'I want', whatever is happening to me?

Returning to Calle della Madonna at the Sotoportego della Madoneta, we reach Campo San Polo. Passing that square on our right we enter Calle de lo Scaleter, then we cross the bridge across the Rio de le Do Torri, and carry on to join the Rio Terrà Secondo (which is a street, Rio Terrà means an underground channel), then turning left we reach Campo Sant'Agostin.

'Where is the Palazzo Zane?'

'We must carry on.'

We continue straight towards the Campiello de la Chiesa that overlooks the Rio de Sant 'Agostin. After crossing the bridge on the left we enter Calle de Donà, in Campo San Stin, then turn right on Calle de l'Orio and cross Calle Zane. We make our way through some back alleys, perhaps of Calle Zane. We are behind the Palazzo Zane and the Casino Zane, at their entrance on Corte del Calderer. The main facades are on the Rio de Sant'Agostin where it continues into Rio San Zan Degola, and on the Rio San Giacomo de l'Orio at a right angle to it. From this point we can only see the back of the Palazzo Zane, and we cannot see anything of the garden of the Casino (small house), the entrances are shut off by large, solid gates.

'I want to see the facades of the two buildings.'

'You have to go there by boat. But would you care to explain why?’

'Not now! We'll look for a boat, and then you can tell to me about the two buildings. '

'You really do seem like a skittish little girl '

'I can afford to be.’

'Oh well! Let's go back to the Campiello de la Chiesa, there's a landing-stage.'

As soon as we arrive at the bridge we see a gondola, the gondolier rowing slowly, a whistle.

'Ghe xe speta?' (a polite but assertive Veneziano ‘are you waiting?’, I think)

We go down to get aboard.

'Ove ve deo menar?' (where do you go? I think)

'All around ...'

'Go ahead across there, towards the Palazzo Zane, and stop there.'

'So, architect, what can you tell me about the building?'

‘The building, from 1665, is the work of the famous architect Baldassarre Longhena, who was commissioned by the Zane family, one of the richest dynasties of the Venetian cinquecento. He was their proto, master builder, and he realized his project by designing a façade that brings to mind some of the formal solutions found in other civil buildings of the same architect. In particular, the arrangement of the façade recalls elements present in Ca 'Pesaro, another famous building by Longhena.

The white Istrian stone façade of Palazzo Zane highlights the presence of a ground floor dominated by two main floors. Apart from the surviving remains of two storeys of a pre-existing, minor building on the left-hand side, the façade is symmetrical, with two large, arched portals opening onto the canal in front. Above them, the two main floors are noteworthy especially for the two round-headed pentafore (groups of five tall, narrow arched windows, typical of Venetian architecture?), placed centrally, with a large mask on each keystone, an element that also characterises the two side windows, which differ from the central ones by the presence of balconies, those on the first floor projecting, on the second floor flush with the façade. The seventeenth-century garden at the back of the main building and served by a watergate is also important in the overall composition of the work. In the garden there is the Casino di Ca 'Zane, a structure dedicated to study and leisure, with a ballroom on the ground floor, and finely decorated and frescoed chambers - there are frescoes attributed to Sebastiano Ricci.’
 
'The windows are open ...'


'It’s now occupied by an Academy of Fine Arts - painting and sculpture.'

'Who is the owner?'

'I really don’t know, I'm not an official of the Land Registry, to find that you’ll need to do a Land Registry search.'

‘I’ll pardon you, this once.'

'Gondolier, go left into the Rio de l'Orio.'



Just a few strokes of oar, a swing to the side, and the gondola takes us along the stream.

'Stop in front of the Casino Zane.'

‘And what can you tell me about this?’

'Separating the two buildings there’s a luxuriant garden in the French style. After the renovation of the Pallazzo Zane palace by the baroque architect Baldassarre Longhena, it was commissioned by Domenico Zane, who died before the works were complete. Domenico left his possessions, including a collection of paintings and valuable books, to his nephew Marino Zane, who, to preserve and enrich his legacy, decided to build what later became the Casino Zane.

The construction was entrusted to the same studio, Longhena’s, but the architect Antonio Gaspari took responsibility initially, and, after his death, his assistant Domenico Rossi, who decided to surround himself with other artists. The interior decoration was entrusted to the Swiss stucco artist Abbondio Stazio and the sculptor Andrea Brustolon, who was also responsible for engraving the wooden balustrade facing the ballroom. The building currently houses a musical foundation, and is accessible to the public.'

'So can we visit it?'

'Not today, didn’t you read the visiting hours on the garden gate?'

'No, I didn't look at that sign, I was trying to see inside.'

'I’ve visited it several times. The interiors are wonderful, the acoustics of the hall are exceptional, chamber music concerts are often held there.'

'Who is the owner?'

'Again, I simply do not know. But why do you keep asking who the owner is, do you want to buy these buildings?’

'Who knows, when I'm a famous dancer maybe.'

'Gondolier, take us to the Rialto bridge.'

'Come xe comanda Siòr.' (‘As you wish, Sir .')

'Let's have a bite to eat, I’m hungry.’

‘Do you know somewhere to go? Just don’t take me to La Giada where you eat fried crickets.'

'There's a nice place in the Sotoportego del Bancogiro, inside one of the old Rialto warehouses. The merchant bank called Bancogiro was established there in 1600. in the piazza there’s the hunchbacked statue, il Gobbo del Rialto, and that’s where the laws of the Serenissima were proclaimed, and malefactors were taken, after they’d been tortured, to kiss the hump of the statue. The Sotoportego (covered alleyway) was the place where the wealthy Venetians sent their messengers to collect their credits and pay their debts, they didn’t like to handle money in person. Then there’s the little church of San Giacometo, the first church in the medieval city.'

Returning along the Rio de San Polo towards the Grand Canal, the gondolier heads towards the Rialto Bridge.

'Gondolier, pull in here.'

‘Sure!'

After paying the gondolier we set off for Ruga dei Oresi (Goldsmiths’ Street, from rue in French) from Rialto to the Campo di San Giacomo di Rialto and the Piazza del Gobbo is only a few steps. At the tavern we decide on a light meal:

starter:
Prosciutto crudo di San Daniele (a district in Friuli renowned for its sweet ham) for him,
Cheeses with homemade jams for me.

and, for the second course, since we’re almost at Eastertide:
Grilled lamb chops with herbs, apple sauce with port and rosemary, and purée of Jerusalem artichokes.

Red wine:
A half litre of Corvina Veronese.

Sweet:
Creamy white chocolate, raspberry sorbet and bitter cocoa caramel,
accompanied by a goblet of Moscato Passito di Pantelleria.
 
a light meal:

starter:
Prosciutto crudo di San Daniele (a district in Friuli renowned for its sweet ham) for him,
Cheeses with homemade jams for me.

and, for the second course, since we’re almost at Eastertide:
Grilled lamb chops with herbs, apple sauce with port and rosemary, and purée of Jerusalem artichokes.

Red wine:
A half litre of Corvina Veronese.

Sweet:
Creamy white chocolate, raspberry sorbet and bitter cocoa caramel,
accompanied by a goblet of Moscato Passito di Pantelleria.


To die for .... mmmmmmmmm :p:)

I agree with Barb, but LIGHT????
 

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Hunchback of Rialto
The Hunchback of Rialto is a statue of the sixteenth century, a kneeling man who, in Campo San Giacometo in Rialto, supports with his back the ladder leaning against the column from which the commander proclaimed the laws and gave other announcements regarding the departures of the Galee for the Middle East.

In this campo (open space) gathered the captains who were looking for a ship on which to embark their goods and sailors who were looking for a job to make ends meet.

Being located in a strategic place, in the economic heart of the Republic of Venice, that is in the place where the most valuable goods were exchanged, where the Banco Giro existed, a real bank where they exchanged effects that had value in the East, real checks, exchangeable at destination, then for the place of considerable economic and financial interest in Venice, even the calls shouted from above by this special Piera del Bando, had in fact a more pregnant value.

Even for those who had committed a non-serious offense and were considered guilty, after the trial they were sentenced to whipping and this was the point of arrival and therefore the end of the sentences imposed, penalties that had begun in Piazzetta San Marco, between the columns that hold up Marco and Todaro and had lasted all the way. In order not to make the Hunchback a symbol of liberation, the Senate of the Republic decreed that a cross be engraved on the corner column of the building under the railed pergola of Rialto, a short distance from the Hunchback, which thus became the new point of arrival of the condemned, under the Leo in Moeca.

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With many many thanks to l'bogo and Eulalia! :)
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Patiently we wait to be served.

'Now, can you tell me why you’re so interested in the Zane buildings?'

'Not yet...'

'You're so mysterious ...'

‘I am... a mystery!'

'I think you're plotting something ...but you’re reminding me of an affair, back in the mid-nineteenth-century, that involved the Cà d'Oro. In 1846, the Russian prince Alexander Trubetzkoi bought it with the intention of making a gift of it to a famous ballerina of the time, Maria Taglioni, with whom he was in love. Taglioni, had triumphant successes in Venice at the Teatro Gallo in San Beneto in 'La figlia del Danubio' and 'La caccia di Diana', and she was a true "collector" of palaces along the Grand Canal. She already owned the palazzo Giustinian Businello at Sant’Aponal, palazzo Corner Spinelli at Sant’Angelo, and palazzo Giustinian Lolin at San Samuele. For her, owning the Cà d'Oro was like a dream, but the house of the Contarini had sadly fallen on hard times. To restore the shabby building, la diva commissioned a fashionable architect who’d already distinguished himself with the restoration of La Fenice Theater after it was devastated by fire, Giovanni Battista Meduna from Ravenna. This architect proved to be a real disaster for the Cà d'Oro, he had no regard for the precious work that Raverti and Bon had executed with such passion, so, without any hesitation, he eliminated the really beautiful well, destroyed the open staircase in the courtyard, removed marbles, capitals, floors, and even opened new windows on the facade, a catastrophe.'

'But could you undo such serious damage at Cà Zane?'

'First you’d have to get a Russian oligarch by the balls, then you’d have to get him to buy Cà Zane for you... then we could have a talk about it.'

'And if I did? You wouldn’t believe me?’

'Of course I’d believe you, many men have lost their heads for dancing girls, even literally.'

'You're a clown of an architect, you’re saying things you don’t believe just to make fun of me. But just think, I, a poor dancer, might be given a palace on the Grand Canal? Whoever would be crazy enough to do that?'

Forgive me Vio, I’m only saying it to stop these insinuations of my architect, the one you were jealous of at Carnival.

The lunch was pleasant, the cheeses delicious, the lamb tender and delicious, the wine divine, the dessert even more so.

'So you want to go on with our tour of the Grand Canal?'

'Yes please, but don’t tell me anything more about the buildings, just let me dream, I want to see them in my imagination as they were when they were built, with their coloured facades, curtains on the windows, with tapestries hanging out, the traffic of merchant vessels, the markets , the stalls, the swarms of people on the banks of the Canal, like it was back then... '
 
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