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The streets of Venice are strange and mysterious. The city is floating on water, it has no cars, just boats. The Canals and Rii are her streets, and what’s left on land, is more or less just very narrow paths between the withering house walls. 

Once upon a time, most of the Venetians moved around on the water, in Gondola or in something else that was floating in the middle of the bigger waterways. The dark backstreets were mostly for service purposes, and of course all the different kinds of trade that are better done in the shadows. 

So, if the streets in Venice were the canals, what were the land-streets called?

The land-streets in Venice are called Calli, or Calle in singular. The word means path and it’s divided into Calletta or Callesella if it’s a small path. A big, important path is called Salizada, and if it has a lot of shops and other business institutions, it’s called a Ruga. A small, blind alley is called Ramo. Only Strada Nova and Via Garivìbaldi are named with the normal label for street and way.

Le Pissotte – The mysterious triangle in the corners of the streets of Venice.

So, if you have ventured into the incredible labyrinth of the Calli, Callette, and Rami of the Venice Street landscape, you surely have noticed the strange, triangular shapes in the corners. Peculiar forms, like a quarter of an upside-down teacup. They can be in Istrian stone or some other precious material, but mostly they’re in concrete or even iron. 

They are small, like a chair. But if you would try to sit on one, you would inevitably fall off. No, they are not for sitting. They are actually for nothing like sitting, standing, or even getting close… They are there to keep you away.

There were two distinctive reasons for them…

So, imagine a city in the 15th century… Any city. There was no electricity. The only light that could ever be obtained was from oil-lamps, candles, fires, and stoves, and such. And those weak lights were all inside the domestic sphere. In some cities they may have had some sort of illumination even in the main square, but more than that, it was mostly dark. 

In Venice, there were no street lights, and the Calli were dark… Dark as darkness in the middle of a forest at night. And the outdoors in Venice were nothing like you see it today. People had animals, they grew crops in their backyards, even horses were common. The Venetians actually used to ride in the streets of Venice, just like anywhere else at the time. 

In 1287 a law dictated that no riding on horseback was allowed in the area between Saint Mark’s and Rialto. Only newly arrived in the city were excluded. But apart from that limitation, riding in the Venice streets continued for hundreds of years.

The streets in Venice used to hide many dangers.

The darkness concealed many other hazards, apart from the horses. Robbers, bandits, and molesters were everywhere. And what better spot to hide while waiting for their victims, or simply to get away from any law enforcement… than the darkest part of the streets of Venice, the corners. 

And the corners were everywhere. It doesn’t need to be more than a small difference in thickness of the wall to create a recess of a foot or two. That’s enough to hide a criminal waiting for its victim.

This brings us to the common name of these things. Gobbe Antibandito, they are called, meaning Anti-bandit-hump. Made to block the corner and force anyone who tries to evade the glances of the passersby out in the open.    

And lastly… The name Pissotte?

There is another name associated with these stone triangles, namely Pissotte or Pissabraghe. Well, the first part of the word, piss is not difficult to understand for an English-speaking audience. Braghe is the Venetian word for pants. And there you might guess what the second reason for putting up these strange moldings is. You should also be able to speculate why the inclination of the Pissotta is the way it is…

And stopping people from urinating in the corners is a valid motivation even today. If you look around, you can even find a few that are not very old at all. They are set up even in our times, and they are still serving the citizens and visitors of Venice helping with keeping the city clean. 

Nowadays, not many bandits roam the streets of Venice at night. But men who desperately need to take a wee, are getting increasingly frequent…

Venice is not 1600 years old.

These days she celebrates her 1600th birthday. On national Tv, there was an hour and a half of beautiful images, music with chorus, orchestra, and soloists from Teatro La Fenice, and narration by the excellent Italian actor, Alessio Boni. He rides the Gondola through the deserted canals, there is drone footage (…nowadays mandatory.) over Saint Mark’s Square, and the clear, blue water is reflecting the yellowish light of the setting sun.

It’s awesome. I would never in my life criticize an initiative like that, Nor could I possibly have anything against a legitimate reason for partying, be it somewhat sober and silent partying in these times of total lockdown. It’s still an excellent way to honor my wonderful city.

So, how old is Venice?

She is supposed to be born on March 25, 421. That’s what the tradition says. We here all know that it’s not true, but we like to celebrate that precise day just the same. And why not? Nobody knows for sure when it all started. And it can’t be done… Determining one single day for the birth of the lagoon city. That’s just not the way it was.

So, we know it’s wrong… But do you?

So I checked some of the featured snippets on Google and a few websites, and I was astonished about how many of them stated that precise day, March 25, 421, as the day when Venice was founded. And not only English sites, Italians too. On that specific day, three consuls from Padova were supposed to have decided to build a metropolis in the middle of the shallow water and then succeeded in doing it.

That just didn’t happen.

But how old is Venice?

Venice was not founded as early as 421. The transfer towards the lagoon from the surrounding cities was slow and gradual, starting probably from the middle of the 5th century. In 697 the first Doge was declared in Heraclia on the landside north of Venice, In 775 the bishopry was moved to the lagoon city. In 810 the state administration was brought there, and with that, it became the undisputed capital of the republic.

And I figured something has to be done here… 

So I called the producers at Rai, the state television, and said:

–  We have to debunk this idea. Everybody thinks it’s true… That Venice was born in 421…

  –  Naw, they said… Who could ever believe that? It’s just a party. Everybody knows that… Or don’t they?

Well, obviously they don’t. 

No, Venice was not born in 421… Not even close.

But where does this idea come from?

First of all… The history of Venice is not easily determined. We don’t have written testimonies, royal decrees, and legal articles. All we have are archeological findings and historically documented facts from the surrounding areas.

• Chronicon Altinate is a manuscript from the 13th century, telling something of the history of the Veneti, the people of the region. It determines the birth of the city to 421.
• The Doge Marin Sanudo wrote in 1514 after a devastating fire at Rialto. “Only the church of San Giacomo di Rialto survived the flames. This church was the first church constructed in Venice on March 25, 421.
• In 1801 a priest from Pernumia writes a book about history, and he answers the question: How old is Venice? He states that three diplomats from Padova founded La Serenissima. And he even has their names… Publio Galieno, Simeone dei Lanconi, and Antonio di Calvo. The date is, of course, March 25, 421.

The year 421 was at the very end of the history of the Roman Empire. The Imperial forces had a very hard time defending the vast borders. The barbarians started to become a serious threat and soon they would have the upper hand. But it wasn’t until 452 when Attila the Hun entered Italy, that the Romans had to give up land more than temporarily. And it wasn’t until then, that there would be any reason for anybody to even think of starting building churches and palaces in the lagoon. That would have been completely absurd in 421.

Altino – The Roman stronghold. 

Altino just inside the northern part of the lagoon was sacced in 452. So was Aquileia, some 100 miles to the east. And Aquileia was a big fortress, one of the biggest in the Empire. After that, most of the inland towns fell. And from there the region of Veneto was no more a safe haven.

The Altinians moved out into the lagoon, to Torcello the port settlement. And probably many other islands in the lagoon saw refugees fleeing the Huns. But that is 30 years after 421, and they most certainly weren’t there to build churches. They were there to survive, hide and then go back to where they came from to rebuild and revive.

The birth of Venice can’t be pinned down to a year and a day.

So why did they invent that precise day?

We don’t know for sure how old Venice is. Because, as stated before, we don’t have the documents. If they ever existed they were lost in fires during the ages.

One plausible theory is this:

Venice invaded and conquered Padova again in 1405, like on so many occasions before. This time, though, it seems the Padovanes were in particular discomfort with Venetian superiority. They wanted their freedom. 

In this atmosphere, a few illustrious characters in Padova, Jacopo Dondi, Michele Savonarola, and others sort of collectively created a situation where it was actually Padova who invaded Venice and not the other way around. Because Venice was created by Padova. It was Padova who had sent their ambassadors to Rialto and them who had created the oldest and most beautiful of Venice’s churches… San Giacometo di Rialto.  

But, still… We have no idea.

San Giacomo di Rialto.

It is from the 11th century. The church isn’t older than that.

–  But what if there’s another church underneath? Another building on top of which the new San Giacomo was constructed?

Nope, not even that is true. It has been thoroughly examined. The Venetians want to know if their city is as old as they say, obviously. With x-ray equipment, they’ve checked, and there’s nothing underneath, other than the piles, and mud.

Documents from the 900th and the 1000s don’t tell of any church there. It was a market area, not full of palaces like today. So, no the San Giacometo is not from 421.

But how could they have kept the myth alive for so long?

I think it was convenient.

For the Padovanes, but also for the Venetians.

Venice was a major player in Europe and the Orient for half a Millenium. And it was convenient to have a start, a date, a reason. So, instead of centuries of migrants from the surrounding lands, peasants, and hillbillies, settling on the sandbanks, they got three ambassadors, a church, and God himself. That’s different. And it’s a much more suitable beginning for the most beautiful city in the world.

… And none of this means we can’t celebrate the birth of the city on March 25.

This Post is out of date. From March 2021 Venice is in lockdown. All Museums, Theaters, Cinemas, etc. are closed until further notice.

Venice Museums

In these troublesome days with continuing and substantial spread of the stupid virus, I figured I should do a list of the Venice Museums… Those that are actually open. And that was kind of an easy task. They’re almost all still closed, waiting in the shadows for the return of the tourists.

The new variants have made our politicians choke on the morning coffee. We were doing so well, but now it seems that we’re not doing at all as well as it seemed before. And people are tired. The motivation is dropping, and many lower the guard. 

On top of that, we’ve had a Government crisis. The former Government based on the biggest party in the last election, the Five-star movement, fell. A small part of the coalition walked out and suddenly they didn’t have the majority anymore. 

But they tried and tried to tie something together, but as time went by maybe they all started to address possible gain in ratings. So, the various political forces within the parliament started to accuse each other and shoot and stab in every direction.

It wasn’t until the President, Mattarella, took them by the ear and told them to stop fighting and get their act together…

  –  We will lose billions, he said.

Meaning that if they didn’t fix a functioning Government by April, a whole lot of money from the European Union would not be available anymore. And so we got a Government with Mario Draghi at the wheel. He’s a Bank-guy, an economist, and should be perfect for the job. Time will tell… 

Anyway, that’s not what I was going to write about.

I was going to tell you that among all the closed museums, there are a few that are not.

In February some of the Venice Museums opened. It was an extraordinary opening in connection to the absent Carnival. Just a few days, but many hoped that it would mean a first step on the long and winding road back to normality. It doesn’t look that way anymore. The last days have brought a distinct setback in the falling trend of the Covid-19 in Italy. We don’t know where it will go from here.

From Rome, now there are new directives, and the Museums can open. Only on weekdays, and only under certain conditions, but still. In Venice, the big, most famous sites are still closed. That includes Palazzo Ducale, The Belltower, and the Saint Mark’s Basilica. But there are others. 

And here’s the short list

You would do well in checking the various websites frequently. These things change, and often the rules and regulations from Rome change from one day to another depending on the spread of the disease and R-values. To that comes a reasonable autonomy for the Regions to decide for them selves. It all comes down to repeated variations of opening hours.

The Venice Museums that are closed.

• Palazzo Ducale  –  closed
• Basilica di San Marco  –  closed
• The Belltower  –  closed
• The Correr Museum  –  closed
• The Naval History museum  –  closed
• Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana  –  closed
• Natural History Museum  –  closed
• Cà Rezzonico  –  closed

… and the open ones:

• Cà D’Oro  –  Open Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday 9 am till 1.30 pm.  041-5200345
• Oriental Art’s Museum at Cà Pesaro  –  Open Thursday and Friday. You need to book in advance and the visit is guided. Only three groups will be let in at 9 am, 10.15 am, and 11.30 am. 041-5241173
• Gallerie dell’Accademia  –  Open Monday 8.15 am till 2 pm. Tuesday till Friday 8.15 am till 7.15 pm. 
• Peggy Guggenheim Collection  –  Open Thursday and Friday 10 am till 6 pm. Booking in advance is mandatory 041-2405440/419 
• Scuola Grande di San Rocco  –  Open Monday till Friday 9.30 am till 5.30 pm. 041-5234864

That’s it for now.

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