Answer to travel photo #5

The photo was taken on the lovely island of Torcello which is in the lagoon north of Venice. Once heavily populated, it now has very few inhabitants. It does have an interesting history The forgotten Venice   and the  ancient Cathedral of Torcello among its attractions.

The photo shows the containers that are used twice a year to provide the soft shelled delicacy know as moeche. These containers, known as vieri, used to be made of wicker. Now they consist of wooden planks, spaced so the water can circulate to keep the little crabs alive when the containers are lowered into the  shallow waters of the lagoon. 

I have eaten them once. Then I found out how they are prepared, and never had them again. Poor moeche

 

Torcello

When I look at these photos, I feel so peaceful.

And, for those of you who  like to hear bells, this is from the Campanile in front of San Marco.

A quiet walk while on Torcello

As I walked along behind the campanile, I thought “This is one day I would happily relive  as often as possible”.

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Here are the bells of the campanile signalling noon has arrived.

And now, la crème de la crème, or the coup de grâce, thanks to Andante. The alternate way to get up that tower, if you have dodgy knees!

I think I’ll just hand over my blog to Andante and Andrew.

The sun shone on Torcello

Torcello is where it (*) all began, when people fleeing from the barbarian invaders found some mud flats that they deemed better than the fate that would have befallen them if they had been taken by those barbarians. (Phew, I haven’t written such a long sentence for ages.)

(*) it being Venice

Here is the destination as seen from Burano.

I bought a combined ticket to gain access to Santa Maria Assunta and Santa Fosca, and the campanile which has finally reopened after about 5 years of restoration. Do yourself a favour and visit Jeff Cotton’s site for descriptions of the two churches: santamariassunta  (No photos are allowed inside these ancient places of worship.)

As you walk along the side of Santa Maria Assunta, heading towards the campanile, look up and notice these  massive stone shutters on the side windows. How in the world did they ever open and shut them?

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Here is where you’ll begin the ascent of the campanile. There is a combination of steps and ramps for the climb. I don’t recall the ramp being quite so steep, 5 or 6 years ago!

It’s a tad difficult to show in a two-dimensional photo, but if you look straight up before you hit the first step, this is where you’re heading, up and up.

At the top, you’ll be rewarded with views such as these.

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This fellow, seen far in the distance, piqued my attention, and I noticed there was a path behind the campanile which leads along a tranquil canal. I’ll show you a bit of that in the another post.

Part of the restoration involved maintenance of the old reinforcing rods that go from side to side in the campanile, and installation of new stainless steel ones. They should keep this bell tower standing for a few more centuries.

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Here’s what is attached to the external ends of these rods.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I descended the campanile before the bells rang their merry chimes at noon.

Imagine getting these up to the top of the tower in the good old days of  yore.

At the end of the day, a door is closed at the foot of the incline to the top of the tower. I hope they never lose the key to this lock. And, I’m not sure of the strength of that little padlock!

 

A quiet winter’s day on Torcello

My goal when I went to Torcello was to find the stone shutters on Santa Maria Assunta, as shown on this postcard.

But, I was foiled. The door leading onto the path that would take me past these windows was locked, and will be for some time, until the work on the campanile is completed, in fact. So, the only photo I could get looked like this. That’s the campanile you can spot in the background.

It’s always worthwhile just walking around behind the churches and in the grounds around the churches.

The last of the grapes

It was so peaceful

Colour and texture is seen everywhere

 

There were a number of these stairways to access the canal, but all of them had overgrown pathways leading to them.

I was hungry! Thank goodness there was a place to sit, enjoy the silence, and eat.

I ordered the risotto, which is usually available only for a 2 person serve. But they provided a single serving, and it was delicious!

What a relaxing day this turned out to be.

The homesick blues

Can you recall when you were a child, that first separation from your parents, home, siblings? Your whole body seemed to yearn to be back there, not here at some camp with a bunch of strangers, different food, different routine.

You weren’t consoled until you did return to that safe, beloved place.

Now, we are adults, and our yearning might have a different target.

Here is the place I miss.

Where is yours?