Venice seen from a porthole. A dreamlike itinerary

Venice by boat

Venice seen from a porthole

Dear Boaters, if it is true that ” in your sleep you have no worries” –  as a popular Italian song goes – please half close your eyes for a while and let your mind travel to anywhere in your imaginary globe.

What about visiting Venice, for example? Your dream travel is just a click away, so let is come true, sail the beautiful canals of the Serenissima and visit the islands of the Queen of the Adriatic. Your sail- or motor-powered boat is waiting for you, docked at the Darsena San Giorgio, a private dock located on the namesake island, in the middle of the Bacino San Marco run by Circolo Compagnia della Vela.

The Venice-based yacht club is a wealth of history emanating all the fervour of the edonist Venice of the early 1900s. So, take an hour of your time and visit the seat of the Compagnia at Molo Marciano, Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square). Both the motto and the social acronym of the yacht club (CDV) follow the suggestion, written on a personal letter, of the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, who was at the time a club partner: ” Custodi, Domine, Vigilantes“.

Inebriated by the charm of history, reach the Harbour,  rig “your” boat, lift sails, sail trough the channels and discover the islets which, like many small puzzle pieces, compose the lagoon. Vising them one by one sounds impossible, given congestion at ports; however, don’t give up and don’t deprive your eyes of the multicolor spectacle offered by the island of Burano and its old fishing village.

The façades of the houses wear of flamboyant pastel shades – velvet, yellow, blue, pink, green – while cascades of geraniums casually gush from balconies and slide over the walls, oozing with additional colour. Legend says that, a long time ago, fishermen painted their houses so that they could recognize them from a distance when, after their fishing expeditions, they came back home and the fog was so thick that they were almost indistinguishable.

The “sister” of Burano is Mazzorbio. The two islands are connected by a wooden bridge known as “Ponte Longo”. Mazzorbio won’t fail to inebriate your senses with the scent of its gardens and vineyards. Don’t miss St. Catherine’s Church with its elegant Romanesque-Gothic style and the ceiling reproducing the hull of an overturned ship. Just stop for a second and listen to the sound of the oldest bell of the lagoon which, from the top of the bell tower, is – at least, according to the legend – capable of keep storms away.

Now, it’s late and it’s time for you to come back to the harbour. Don’t be afraid to half close your eyes: the lagoon sleeps with us. If it should happen you wake up in the middle of the night, you will see it intact from the glass of your porthole, basking in the glory of the buildings of Canal Grande, of its marble churches, its voluptuous paintings where eternal history is represented.