One word is enough to describe Venicemarathon course: spectacular.

However, if you are running the Venicemarathon not to gaze at the landscape, but to improve your personal best, don’t worry: the race track is mainly flat and fast. Moreover, meteo conditions are usually perfect to perform at high level.

Start takes place in Stra, a small town a few kilometers east of Padova, in front of a magnificent mansion, Villa Pisani, built in the 18th century, which is the first and the largest of the beautiful mansions of the Brenta riverside.

Course follows National Road N.11, leaving the river on the right, and running through the small towns of the Riviera : Fiesso d’Artico, Dolo, Mira (10th km) and Oriago. Then, the road and the river turn right heading to Malcontenta (20th km).

Runners are now near Marghera industrial area, which is quickly passed to enter the center of Mestre (25th km). After running for 4 kilometers in the heart of the city, course enters San Giuliano’s Park, a vast green area located on the edge of the lagoon, between Venice and Mestre.

Venice skyline, with its countless bell towers, already appears on the horizon, at the end of the never-ending five-kilometer-long Ponte della Libertà (i.e. Bridge of Freedom). Probably, this is the most challenging section of the entire race, where athletes’ psychological strenght is heavily tested, and where leading runners usually make their moves to win.

At the end of the bridge there are 2 kilometers inside the port-area, then begins the most spectacular and exciting stage of the race. From here there is no more tar: you’ll be running over cobblestone, overpassing, one by one, the 14 bridges which created the Venicemarathon legend.

You face the long Zattere stretch, keeping the Giudecca Canal on the right and taking advantage of the slope of the bridges - there are 6 of them in this section - to speed up your run. All of a sudden, the course turns left, among the houses and in a moment you are in front of the Grand Canal, while going round S. Maria della Salute church. You head to Punta della Dogana and climb the short ramp leading on the pontoon bridge.

On the other side of the Grand Canal, new energy pushes you between two wings of crowd, as you take a quick look at St. Mark’s Square, on your left. At the end of Palazzo Ducale is time to climb the large steps of Ponte della Paglia - the only bridge without ramps - always spurred by the fans’ cheers.

There are only 5 bridges left, but nothing can stop you now. You follow the gentle bend rightwards of the Gran Canal, leaving Riva degli Schiavoni, Riva Ca’ di Dio - where the finish line was between 1991 and 1995 -, and Riva San Biagio behind you…

…then you run downhill the last bridge, trying to increase the pace, asking an ultimate effort to your body, your eyes stuck on the time under the finish banner, at the center of Riva dei Sette Martiri.

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A city on water

The first description of the inhabitants on the lagoon comes from the 6th century AD and was written by the Roman Cassiodoro:

It appears as though you slide across fields with your boats because from afar you cannot discern the canals from the sandbanks… and whilst in other cities you tether animals to the front of the house, you, with your houses of wicker and reed, tether your boats.

Even in those days, the city’s relationship with water was clear. It is a relationship that has distinguished Venice and her inhabitants ever since.
 
Since the beginning of its history, Venice has lived alongside water and transformed it into its major sources of income: salt extraction, fishing and river and maritime commercial traffic.

  
 
Over the centuries the city gradually extended its control of the seas and the ensuing commerce. In fact, the Adriatic was known as the Gulf of Venice.
 

The city’s development brought with it a transformation in the natural environment: in order to grow, the city needed to make living space out of the water, orchards, fens, mud and sandbanks. More and more land was reclaimed thanks to millions of poles driven into the mud, which then became land to build on. An entire forest of upturned trees lies at the base of the city.
  
The Venetians
The Venetians have always placed the utmost importance on water and its regulation: for centuries they have controlled the flow of rivers, even diverting their outlets to prevent the slow but progressive flooding of the lagoon. Over the centuries, the flow of the Brenta, Dese, Sile and Piave rivers has undergone substantial diversions to allow Venice and its lagoon to survive.

Great attention was given to providing drinking water and its use was regulated by specially formed magistrates. 
 
Birth of the Regatta
The regata or rowing race is the most specifically Venetian of local competitive events and has always exerted considerable appeal for both Venetians and visitors.

The earliest historical evidence relates the races to the celebrations surrounding the festival of the Marys and date from the second half of the 13th Century. However, it is probable that similar events were already popular: Venice was essentially a seafaring city and ready reserves of expert oarsmen were a prime necessity.

The etymology of the term regata is uncertain. Some trace it to the word riga (line), others to the verb aurigare (to compete in a race); and others again to ramigium (rowing); in any case, the Venetian term “regata” entered the main European languages to denote a competitive event raced in boats.

During the Renaissance regate were organized mainly by the Compagnie della Calza (associations of young noblemen) but from the mid-16th Century, the Venetian government appointed specific noblemen - called direttori di regata - to arrange and supervise the races.

 The competition
A typical regatta has always comprised various races using different kinds of boats and on the occasion of a regatta, the Lagoon in front of St. Mark’s and the Grand Canal is always teeming with decorated craft of all kinds, full of passionately keen spectators.

To clear the course of the race and to keep order, the regatta used to be preceded by a fleet of bissone, typical long boats containing noblemen standing in the bows and armed with bows. Their job was to pelt the more unruly of the spectators with terracotta shot. Now the bissone still head the procession before the races, but they no longer perform a disciplinary function.

The Regata Storica as we know it now, with its commemorative cortege acting as a prelude to the competitions, was conceived at the end of the 19th century for the 3rd Biennale d’Arte as a way of offering another tourist attraction.

For this period I can rental charming apartments locate in the center of Venice.

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San Marco Holidays

LOCATION
This apartment is located in the exclusive neighbourhood of San Marco, an area located in the very heart of the old town in which the most important noble families in Venice live.
Piazza San Marco is probably the best known spot in town, and it is so important amongst locals that it is said that everyone who lives in Venice passes beyond San Marco at least once a day. The wonderful square in front of the cathedral, full of children who feed the birds, souvenir sellers and cafés with live music (some of which are probably the most expensive coffee bars in Italy!), is definitely a must for those who visit marco Polo’s town. As you walk around it, don’t forget to have a look at the Palazzo Ducale (Duke’s Palace) and its Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs), which joins the courtroom with the ancient jail. For those who are not scared of heights, we recommend climbing the tower, which overlooks the entire town and gives you the most spectacular sights in Venice. If you prefer not to get so high, you could go for a ride on a Gondola around the Channels!
This apartment is very close to the Vaporetto stop, and in a high area. Therefore, you need not fear the yearly floods (the so-called acqua alta) in Venice, for they never reach the apartment area! Connections to the minor islands around Venice (including Burano, Murano and Lido di Venezia) are also available.

DESCRIPTION
This apartment has been recently renovated and provided with a wooden beam ceiling. It is located on the second floor (without lift).
The apartment includes one bedroom with a Queen size bed, the second  bedroom with 2 singles beds ,  one bathroom with a shower, a fully equipped kitchenette and a comfortable living room area that includes a fireplace.
This apartment is provided a dishwasher, a microwave oven, independent heating, AIR CONDITIONING, a TV set (TV only in Italian), a fireplace and stereo player.
The size of the apartment is roughly 65 square metres. For more informations:
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66th Annual Venice Film Festival Line-Up Competition:

• “36 vues du Pic Saint Loup”, Jacques Rivette (France)
• “Accident”, Cheang Pou-Soi (China-Hong Kong)
• “Baaria”, Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy)
• “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans“, Werner Herzog (U.S.)
• “Between Two Worlds”, Vimukthi Jayasundara (Sri Lanka)
• “Capitalism: A Love Story”, Michael Moore (U.S.)
• “La Doppia Ora”, Giuseppe Capotondi (Italy)
• “Il Grande Sogno”, Michele Placido (Italy)
• “Lebanon”, Samuel Maoz (Israel)
• “Life During Wartime“, Todd Solondz (U.S.)
• “Lo Spazio Bianco”, Francesca Comencini (Italy)
• “Lourdes”, Jessica Hausner (Austria)
• “Mr. Nobody“, Jaco van Dormael (France)
• “Persecution”, Patrice Chereau (France)
• “Prince of Tears”, Yonfan (Hong Kong)
• “The Road“, John Hillcoat (U.S.)
• “A Single Man“, Tom Ford (U.S.)
• “Soul Kitchen”, Fatih Akin (Germany)
• “Survival of the Dead“, George Romero (U.S.)
• “Tetsuo The Bullet Man”, Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)
• “The Traveller”, Ahmed Maher (Egypt)
• “White Material”, Claire Denis (France)
• “Women Without Men”, Shirin Neshat (Germany)

Out of Competition:

• “Anni Luce”, Francesco Maselli (Italy)
• “Chengdu, I Love You”, Fruit Chan, Cui Jian (China)
• “The Hole“, Joe Dante (U.S.)
• “The Informant!“, Steven Soderbergh (U.S.)
• “The Men Who Stare at Goats”, Grant Heslov (U.S.)
• “Napoli Napoli Napoli”, Abel Ferrara (Italy)
• “L’oro di Cuba”, Giuliano Montaldo (Italy)
• “Prove per una tragedia Siciliana”, John Turturro, Roman Paska (Italy)
• “REC 2″, Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza (Spain)
• “Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story”, Yousry Nasrallah (Egypt)
• “South of the Border”, Oliver Stone (U.S.)
• “Yona Yona Penguin”, Rintaro (Japan)

Midnight Movies:

• “Gulaal”, Anurag Kashyap (India)
• “Dev D”, Anurag Kashyap (India)
• “Brooklyn’s Finest“, Antoine Fuqua (U.S.)
• “Delhi-6″, Rakeysh Omprakash (India)
• “Valhalla Rising”, Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark)

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2009 - John Lasseter and the Disney/Pixar Directors:

• “Toy Story 3-D” (New Version), John Lasseter (U.S.)
• “Toy Story 2-D” (New Version), John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon (U.S.)

 Several film festivals top the list in terms of exposure and prestige, especially for indies. In North America, Toronto takes the prize. Overseas, Berlin and Venice are generally considered the cream of the crop. The Berlin Film Festival took place earlier this year. The 66th Venice International Film Festival will be unspooling from September 2-12, just prior to the Toronto International Film Festival (which opens on September 10).

“The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote all the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance,” according to their mission statement. “The Festival will include retrospectives and homages to major figures as a contribution towards raising awareness of the history of cinema.”

Sections include:

Venezia 66 - International competition of feature films, presented as world premieres
Out of Competition - Important works by directors already established in past editions of the Festival
Orizzonti - The new trends in world cinema
Controcampo Italiano - The new trends in Italian cinema
Corto Cortissimo - International competition of short films

The independent and parallel sections include:

International Critics’ Week - A series of 7 or 8 films, debut works, independently selected by a commission nominated by the National Syndicate of Italian Film Critics).
Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days - A series of 10-12 films independently organized by a commission nominated by the Italian Association of Film-makers (ANAC - Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici) and by the Association of Independent Directors and Producers (API - Associazione Autori e Produttori Indipendenti).

SUMMER 2009: VENICE JAZZ FESTIVAL

The 2nd edition of the Venice Jazz Festival will take place  from 27^th July to 2^nd August 2009.

The excellent programme featuring the best of national and international jazz as well as the magnificence of the locations place the Venice Jazz Vestival among the best musical events in Italy.

The line-up consists of a series of concerts performed by artists of international fame as well as emerging talents in the prestigious La Fenice Theatre, in Piazza San Marco and in other charming areas around the city.

Location:

Saint Mark Square - La Fenice Theatre - Malibran Theatre - Goldoni Theatre - Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Campo dell’Erbaria, Rialto - Venice Casino - Island of San Servolo - Fondamente Nuove Theatre - Arsenale - Fondazione Querini Stampalia

The programme:

And from 18:30 to 22:00 in Campo dell’Erbaria, Rialto, COCKTAIL CONCERTS

From 18 Juli 2009 to 19 Juli 2009

Redentore Fireworks Festival 2009 - Venice

The Redentore festival is close to the hearts of Venetians, and is celebrated on the third Sunday of July, with a grandiose fireworks show on Saturday night as the main attraction. The Venetians take in the spectacle of the fireworks right from their boats which are usually decorated with balloons, festoons and lights. Starting before sunset, the boats make their way to the Saint’s Mark basin and to the Giudecca Canal. The waters sparkle with the reflection of boats and lights. On the boats, among song, dance and typical food, people wait for the fireworks that begin at 11.30pm and go on for almost an hour. Along the banks thousand of people also wait for the fireworks at long tables set up for the occasion. The origins of the festival dates back to the horrible plague that devastated Venice between 1575 and 1577. In three years the plague killed 50,000 people, more than a third of the population. In 1566 the Senate for the Republic decided to erect a church in honor of the Redeemer, hoping that a divine act put an end to the plague. On July 13, 1577 the plague was declared finally over and from then on Venice has been marking the event on the third Sunday of July with a religious celebration and a popular feast. During the days of the Redentore festival a bridge of boats, 330 meters in length, straddles the Giudecca Canal. The bridge allows Venetians to easily access the Redentore basilica, where the faithful take part in religious celebrations. The most important one is the Votive Mass presided by the Patriarch. When: July 18-19, 2009

Venice’s newest art gallery, the Museo Vedova, by celebrity architect Renzo Piano has put a 21st century twist on the art of picture hanging.

Dedicated entirely to the work of the Venetian abstract art pioneer Emilio Vedova (1919-1996), paintings at the Museo Vedova don’t hang at all - they float.

Suspended in the air by a fleet of robotic shuttles moving along a track fixed to the ceiling, the paintings glide through the exhibition space at various heights, periodically coming to rest at strategic points under the lights before floating away to a different position.

The paintings are brought out together in series according to their chronological or thematic contexts and then whisked away to a storage space at the back of the museum to be replaced by others.

The public can view the paintings from the floor or from an elevated wooden mezzanine along the wall.

Set to open on June 3 for the 53rd Venice Biennial art exhibition, the Museo Vedova is located in the artist’s former studio, a renovated warehouse at the historic Venetian salt docks.

Explaining how he came by the idea for the museum, Renzo Piano explained, ”the warehouses are narrow and long and so it made sense to imagine that down at the far end, a bit hidden in the shadow, would be the storage facility, and out of this, as if by magic, the works would appear in a certain order. From this came the idea of mobility, whereby it’s not the spectator who goes to the artwork, but the artwork that comes to the spectator”.

Piano was introduced to Vedova in the 1980s by the composer Luigi Nono, with whom the two collaborated in designing the set for the premiere of Nono’s opera ”Prometheus” at the 41st Venice Biennial in 1984.

A frequent visitor to Vedova’s studio, Piano said, ”there was always the feeling that one day that imposing warehouse, a rather magical place or kind of cavern, could be the home for his works. He had always imagined this…and it was obvious that it wasn’t a question of hanging works the way one normally does”.

Emilio Vedova was a seminal figure of the post-war avant garde, emerging from the anti-fascist art group ”Corrente” in Milan to co-found the ”Fronte Nuovo delle arti” in 1947, a short-lived but prominent movement which looked to the neocubism of Pablo Picasso as the model for a modern new aesthetic.

His career exploded in the 1950s with a solo show in the prestigious Catherine Viviano Gallery in New York followed by his inclusion in the landmark exhibition ”Gruppo degli otto pittori italiani” at the 26th Venice Biennial in 1952, which established him among the foremost abstract artists in Italy.

Vedova would return to the Biennial eight years later to claim the Grand Prize for painting.

From the dark geometries of his experiments with cubism, Vedova’s work from 1950 onward grew increasingly abstract, placing him in league with the European ”Art Informel” movement that paralleled the work of abstract expressionists in America like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

”My [works] are not creations, but earthquakes,” Vedova once said.

”They are not paintings, but breaths”.

Vedova’s experimenting would eventually carry his work off the canvas altogether into the groundbreaking new terrain of artificial light play and installation art, for which he was featured in the Italian pavilion at the 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal.

Vedova died in 1996 at the age of 87.

In addition to the cutting edge new Museo Vedova, his works are also on display at the nearby Peggy Guggenheim collection as well scores of other galleries and museums around the world.

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                                                                                          Biennale Art
The 53rd International Art Exhibition opens on 7th June 2009
The 53rd International Art Exhibition, titled Making Worlds // Fare Mondi // Bantin Duniyan / Weltenmachen // Construire des Mondes // Fazer Mundos…, directed by Daniel Birnbaum, will open to the public from June 7th to November 22nd 2009 in the Giardini and the Arsenale exhibition venues, as well as in various other locations around the city. (The press preview will take place on June 4th, 5th and 6th 2009).

Two Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to Yoko Ono and John Baldessari – two of the most important artists of our time. 53rd International Art Exhibition
2009  Press accreditation
print media, broadcast media, Internet media  Biennale Art
53rd International Art Exhibition
The 53rd International Art Exhibition will run June 7th to November 22nd, 2009.
A renewal project will be in place on the occasion of the 53rd Exhibition: the Arsenale area will be linked to the city via a new bridge; in addition, the former Italian Pavilion in the Arsenale will become the “Padiglione Italia”, and the former Padiglione Italia in the Giardini will become the “Palazzo delle Esposizioni” of the Venice Biennale.

The history of the Venice Biennale began in 1895, when the first Art Exhibition took place. Accreditation for the Preview days
In order to get press accreditation to the Preview of the 53rd International Art Exhibition (June 4th, 5th, and 6th 2009), Press crews (newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, television networks, and Internet-based media) should follow the regulations for press accreditation. Deadline: May 16th 2009.

Professionals (Chairmen, Directors and Curators of museums, Heads of cultural organizations and other professionals involved in the Contemporary Arts area) should request invitations for the Preview (Deadline: May 2nd 2009; for further information please contact the Organizational Secretariat, Tel. +39 041 2753311).

FOR YOUR STAY IN THIS PERIOD I CAN RENTAL APARTMENTS LOCATED IN THE CENTRE OF VENICE.

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                                                                                 Vogalonga is a boat race that was first organised in 1974 by a group of rowing enthusiasts and has since grown into a hugely popular occasion.
The Vogalonga competition takes part in Venice history since its birth it is one on the main events, especially spring. Vogalonga’s birth is due to a few Venetians and has always been supported only by the participants.

The race course that was laid out has remained virtually unchanged over the years. It covers about 30 kilometers by way of canals and through the most beloved and picturesque parts of the Lagoon of Venice. The boats gather in St. Mark’s Basin in front of the Ducal Palace. 500 boats with nearly 1500 participants meet on the fated day and after singing hymns to San Marco and to Venice, the “start” is given. At the finish line each participant receives a commemorative medal and a certificate of participation, a souvenir of the day. Prizes were also awarded (which in later years were drawn by lots).
More Informations
Website: www.vogalonga.com

Address and phone:
Comitato Organizzatore Vogalonga
S.Marco, 951 - 30124 Venezia
tel. 0415210544 - fax 0415200771
info@vogalonga.it
www.vogalonga.it