Category Archives: gondolier

VIVA Italy

Posted on by
Reply

giorgia_boscoloViva Italia!

We can’t get enough of all things Italian– especially when it comes to food and wine
When it comes to Italy, I am a woman obsessed. The language, food, wine, film, fashion–I love it all. Give me half a million dollars (I’ll settle for less), and I’d probably find a way to buy a place there–if I could only decide what corner of paradise I’d want to settle in. Tuscany? Rome? Umbria? Venice? So many beautiful places to choose from.

Vuoi sapere come vincere al blackjack? Studia le regole del blackjack, impara il glossario del blackjack e scopri le possibilita’ del blackjack online!

I’m not alone. Google the word “Italophile”–someone who greatly admires the Italian language, culture and people–and you’ll find at least 132,000 references.

Our wine shops are loaded with Italian wines; our bookstores are filled with Italian cookbooks. (At least five lovely new ones have landed on my desk this fall.)

Across North America, thousands of people are dreaming of La Dolce Vita. For many of us, the good life, it seems, will always be defined by Italy.

But why?Why has this one tiny, crowded country (population 58 million, spread over 301,230 square kilometres–less than half the size of Alberta) captivated so many Canadians?

Much of it has to do with food and drink, say Calgarians who share my passion.

“It’s about family and shared experiences,” says Allan Shewchuk, a Calgary lawyer.

“That’s what I love about Italians. Go there, and you can make an instant friend just by asking what the local specialty is. You’ll have an hour-long conversation about the Parmesan cheese or the prosciutto or the asparagus or whatever.”

Ah, right. The food. It always comes back to the food.

Shewchuk isn’t Italian, but he has definitely built a reputation as a local Italophile. Not only has he been to Italy more than 20 times, he has been teaching Italian cooking classes at the Cookbook Co. Cooks for the past 14 years.

This year, he skipped a trip to Italy, and instead went to Ethiopia. What did he find? Everywhere, reminders of Italy: excellent coffee (grown in Ethiopia, but made Italian-style), pasta and more. (Italian companies have done trade with Ethiopia since the 1870s, and Italy occupied the country from 1935 to 1941, hence the lasting cultural influences.)

“They serve spaghetti on top of their injera, (the) flatbread they eat in Ethiopia,” he says.

“I talked to a cooking class in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia’s capital city); they went wild for my bruschetta . . . and the main shopping district in Addis is called Piazza.”

Shewchuk’s next trip? Sicily, in February. “It’s my 50th birthday. I have to be on Italian soil.”

We’re not saying Calgary’s a lousy place to be. Not at all. Just ask Dario Berloni, the owner of Teatro and the newly opened Vendome cafe in Sunnyside. Born in Italy, he moved to Canada in 1982, and now splits his time between Calgary and Italy.

And he loves them both –Italy, because of “the sea, the hills, the countryside, the people, the lifestyle, all those things,” he says.

And Calgary, because people are friendly, kind and polite, he says.

“Calgary means a lot to me, and I love the place and the friends I have and the things I do here.”

Of course, no discussion of Italy’s contribution to Calgary–and, for that matter, the world–is complete without mentioning the wine. Franca Bellusci, who is of Italian heritage and married to an Italian, opened a wine store that specializes in Italian wines in Bridgeland in 1999. Earlier this year, she moved the shop to a big, bright new location in Aspen Estates, one of the city’s newest neighbourhoods.

Despite the move and the economy, business is still booming, she says, partly because of the calibre of Italian products, and the care that goes into making them.

“I truly believe that we still love Italian food, wine, fashion, whatever it is, because they deliver quality,” says Bellusci. “What they make is from the heart.”

Quality. Accessibility. A relaxed pace and a variety of great tastes. Works for me.

I know I’ll be cooking Italian-inspired dishes at least one night, probably more, this week–a lovely way to end a day that I’ve likely started with a cappuccino. And on the way home from work, I’ll be listening to my Italian language CDs in the car.

True, I don’t have any return trips planned–yet.

But, like Berloni, I hope I will. Soon.

“What is there not to love about Italy?” Berloni says with a laugh. “If you visit Italy, then you are captivated for the rest of your life.”

sboettcher@theherald. canwest.com

Venice: a masterpiece

Posted on by
Reply
Venice, Italy a romance as familiar as a masterpiece
The city of Venice has ceased to be an Italian city. It is known as a collective work of European art. If you are wandering the streets for the first time there is a sense of familiarity. The picture perfect scenes of canals lapping around ancient medieval palaces and cobblestone streets do its part in enticing travelers from all over the world.
Each gregarious sight is inviting to newcomers as well as seasoned travelers. Do not let a well talked about place detour you from curiosity. The postcard you hold in your hand can not do justice to the famous fifteen hundred year old ancient world. The place has a lot to offer as far as keeping a restless heart busy.
The historical monuments are abundant starting with the main attraction of Basillica di San Marco. The mausoleum of the city’s patron Saint sits on Piazza San Marco. The most famous of the churches in Venice is adjacent and connected to Doge’s Palace both facing the Venetian lagoon. Most of the city’s treasures remain in the buildings in which they were originally made. However there are many museums worth a visit scattered through out the city’s creative artistic streets. The Academia should not be missed housing some of the most famous Venetian masterpieces available. The streets themselves are as much a collection of masterpieces as the museums display. The years wear their faces on the dilapidated palaces. If the walls could talk they would reveal as much history highlighted in the travelers itineraries. Abandon your travel books for a day and stroll in wonderment around the scenes unlike any you have experienced before or will see ever again.
Venice is where fairytales become real life. Cars are abandoned so the only way to get around is by foot or boat. The clean crisp air tickles your senses to the point that inhibitions are wiped clear. Let your free spirit roam this magical masterpiece. Inhibition will soon become a foreign word to you as well!
by: www.examiner.com

Venice, Italy a romance as familiar as a masterpiece

veniceThe city of Venice has ceased to be an Italian city. It is known as a collective work of European art. If you are wandering the streets for the first time there is a sense of familiarity. The picture perfect scenes of canals lapping around ancient medieval palaces and cobblestone streets do its part in enticing travelers from all over the world.

Each gregarious sight is inviting to newcomers as well as seasoned travelers. Do not let a well talked about place detour you from curiosity. The postcard you hold in your hand can not do justice to the famous fifteen hundred year old ancient world. The place has a lot to offer as far as keeping a restless heart busy.

The historical monuments are abundant starting with the main attraction of Basillica di San Marco. The mausoleum of the city’s patron Saint sits on Piazza San Marco. The most famous of the churches in Venice is adjacent and connected to Doge’s Palace both facing the Venetian lagoon. Most of the city’s treasures remain in the buildings in which they were originally made. However there are many museums worth a visit scattered through out the city’s creative artistic streets. The Academia should not be missed housing some of the most famous Venetian masterpieces available. The streets themselves are as much a collection of masterpieces as the museums display. The years wear their faces on the dilapidated palaces. If the walls could talk they would reveal as much history highlighted in the travelers itineraries. Abandon your travel books for a day and stroll in wonderment around the scenes unlike any you have experienced before or will see ever again.

Venice is where fairytales become real life. Cars are abandoned so the only way to get around is by foot or boat. The clean crisp air tickles your senses to the point that inhibitions are wiped clear. Let your free spirit roam this magical masterpiece. Inhibition will soon become a foreign word to you as well!

by: www.examiner.com

Giorgia Boscolo: first female gondolier

Posted on by
1

Giorgia Boscolo, a 23-year-old mother of two, is Venice’s first official female gondolier

giorgiaGiorgia Boscolo dreamed of following in her father’s gondola wake since girlhood. All she had to do was overcome nine centuries of taboos.

Reporting from Venice, Italy – As a little girl in Venice, Giorgia Boscolo was forever bugging her father to let her ride with him in his gondola. While her three sisters played with their dolls, she would beg him for a turn with the remo, or oar.

Dante Boscolo, an indulgent Italian father, humored his pint-sized shadow — to a point.

“My father only let me row when it was bad weather,” Giorgia recalled with a laugh.

His retort was swift: “That’s how you learn.”

Learn she did. Last month, the 23-year-old mother of two calmly took her place in one of Venice’s storied gondolas and gently steered the sleek black boat straight into the annals of history.

With the splash of her oar, nine centuries of taboos in this romantic canal city shattered as Boscolo passed a rigorous exam of brains and brawn to become Venice’s first official female gondolier — or gondoliera in Italian, a term that didn’t even exist until her achievement made it necessary.

The waters have been choppy at times, and not just in the canals, but Boscolo at last feels in her element.

“I was born among gondoliers,” she said on a languorous afternoon brilliant with sunshine. “It’s the only job I’ve ever wanted.”

Boscolo’s breakthrough propelled her into the ranks of what can no longer be described with complete accuracy as an elite fraternity, made up of bluff and hearty boatmen whose presence along Venice’s winding waterways seems as timeless as the city itself.

Fewer than 500 gondoliers are licensed to navigate Venice’s network of 150 canals. They’re a fairly macho bunch, instantly recognizable in their jaunty black-and-white-striped shirts, lounging lazily against the bank-side walls waiting for tourists to hire them or letting loose the occasional low whistle at women who walk by.

They are heirs to a tradition stretching back nearly a millennium, when the signature banana-shaped boats first began plying the waters as a quick and easy means of transport. The men who captained them became indispensable fixtures around the Venetian lagoon, proud of their skill and bonded by shared experience.

As is inevitable when such a testosterone-laden citadel is breached, not all of Boscolo’s new colleagues have been thrilled about her entry into their midst. Some grumble sotto voce that she’s become too big for her britches, upending the old order and hogging all the attention.

Boscolo shrugs off the criticism with the same determined cool that got her here in the first place.

“The important thing is to do what you want to do,” she declared.

Whether she sought it or not, there’s no doubt that Boscolo commands the spotlight. When it was announced at the end of June that she had qualified, just barely, as an apprentice gondolier, the media hordes swooped in.

TV stations jockeyed for airtime with the telegenic blond. A savvy entrepreneur swiftly turned Boscolo and her boatman father into pinup models, featuring them together as Mr. and Ms. April in a 2010 calendar of sexy gondoliers that hit stores within days.

“I didn’t expect it,” she said, shaking her head at the feeding frenzy. “Every phone call was a different journalist.”

Rumors spread that she’d hired a smooth-talking agent to handle her affairs and was demanding money for interviews. Boscolo has denied those reports, saying she merely delegated the task of fielding so many calls and requests to one of her sisters and that the only payment she has asked for was reimbursement for the cost of traveling to Milan for an interview.

Still, the hype rang alarm bells at the gondoliers guild, the centuries-old guardian of gondoliering tradition. The association presides over what remains a tightly controlled, almost feudally organized trade that regulates even the smallest of details, down to the width of the stripes on the gondoliers’ shirts and the hefty fines they must pay for infractions of the official code of conduct.

Guild officials warned Boscolo to rein in her newfound celebrity or risk losing her apprenticeship.

by: www.latimes.com

Venice first woman Gondolier

Posted on by
Reply

 

giorgia_boscoloVenice gets its first woman gondolier
A mother-of-two has become Venice’s first woman gondolier.
Giorgia Boscolo, 23, overcame one of Italy’s last all-male bastions that has kept the trade all-male for 900 years to become a certified gondolier after she passed the city’s exhaustive gondoliering course.
“I’m immensely happy and proud but today my day starts like every other, taking the children to school,” she said.
 
Related Articles
Ask Gill: airline glitch leaves family in a fix
Trading places: the city dealers who become teachers
After the anabolic steroids, our son went like Road Runner…
Swine flu: parents ‘frightened’ as schoolgirl in Devon struck by virus
Andrei Arshavin’s wife in WAG heaven at Arsenal
Two other women were enrolled on Mrs Boscolo’s course, which consists of 400 hours of instruction, but neither made the grade. One of them has accused the Venice Gondola Association of being sexist and of deliberately blocking her attempts to join, but the association said she was simply not good enough.
Mrs Boscolo’s six-month course, which was introduced by the city council in 2007, teaches aspiring gondoliers how to propel the narrow boats with a single oar; how to navigate Venice’s winding waterways; and how to predict treacherous tides and currents.
Mrs Boscolo will now be able to row tourists around the city’s picturesque canals alongside her male counterparts after demonstrating that she has mastered the tricky art of manoeuvring her 500lb, 35ft-long gondola.
Her new qualification will enable her to make a decent living. The rate for an evening tour of Venice is 100 euros (£92) for 50 minutes, with each additional 20 minutes costing 50 euros.ladygondolier
Her father, Dante, said he was proud of his daughter but was still unsure about whether women were up to the task of a profession which has been handed down from father to son since the 11th century.
“I still think being a gondolier is a man’s job but I’m sure that with experience Giorgia will be able to do it,” he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5652589/Venice-gets-its-first-woman-gondolier.html