Articles
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Why are there so few statues in Venice?
The Venetians didn’t do statues of great men in public spaces. In over a millennium only one such statue was erected in Venice.
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The statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni
There aren’t a lot of statues in Venice to commemorate great men of the past, but there is one for Bartolomeo Colleoni, who wasn’t even Venetian.
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The Fall of Venice
The fall of Venice on May 12th, 1797, was the result of a war that the Republic of Venice formally wasn’t even party to.
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The Venetian Lazzaretti
The lazzaretti in Venice were the Venetian republic’s response to the emergency of the plague, and an efficient response too.
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Venice might not have been
Venice was an independent state for almost a millennium, but it might note have been. It all hinged on a single battle fought in the Venetian lagoon in 810.
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Why St Mark?
San Marco, or St Mark, is the patron saint of Venice since 828, and the Feast of St Mark on April 25th is an important day in Venice.
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Why the winged lion?
There are statues, reliefs and paintings of a winged lion all over Venice. The lion is the symbol of the Evangelist St. Mark
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Africa Orientale Italiana
At Sant’Elena in Venice a flagpole base commemorates Venetians fallen in Africa Orientale Italiana – an Italian colony in Ethiopia and Somalia
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Quarantine – forty days of isolation
Quarantine is derived from the Venetian (and Italian) word for forty, because the quarantine period on the Lazzaretto Nuovo ended up around forty days.
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Ciao – I’m your slave
Ciao – the Italian informal salute – is actually Venetian, and has its roots in the medieval slave trade.