VENICE IN WINTER  WITH VENICE HOLIDAYS: A MAGICAL SURPRISE!

A holiday in Venice in the wintertime allows you to visit the most important sites and monuments of the city without the confusion and crowds of the summer season. You can experience that special feeling of losing yourself in the foggy walkways and discovering corners and slices of how Venice used to be the romantic and magical Venice.

What would be a better way to experience these moments?

Staying in a typical Venetian apartment you will be able to live first-hand the “Venetian’s Venice”, with its slow rythms, its style, and its atmosphere.

We can offer, valid until November 5, pass you by. Prices are discounted  for a week’s stay in December , January and February ( Carnevale time excluded).

One example: CA’D’ORO APARTMENT ( maximunfive  person )     one week 1190 euros with discount 990 euros

Please fill out a booking form on our site, www.venice-holidays.com or send us an email at the address: info@venice-holidays.com indicating the offer code: “OFFERTA NEWSLETTER”

Staff of Venice Holidays

San Marco 4307
30124 - Venice
Italy

Tel: 0039 0412602334
Fax: 0039 04158131178
Web:www.venice-holidays.com

The Giudecca Island is located about 400 meters south of Venice and is separate from the city by the homonymous canal. The Giudecca is comprised by 8 islands and has about 4500 inhabitants. In ancient times its name was “Spina Longa”, due to the long and narrow profile similar to that of a bone fish. The stretch of the lagoon between Venice and the Giudecca was a canal called “Vigano”. Later the name became Giudecca because in this part of the city were confined Jews. From 1298 they were transferred to the mainland, but in 1516 they were forced to reside in the Ghetto of Venice. Thus it became an exclusive place for the nobility of that age, before the area of Riviera del Brenta, with its villas, became fashionable. The Giudecca lived a period of brilliance with the construction of palaces, villas with gardens, churches and monasteries (in ancient times there were eight). In the course of the twentieth century this became a popular suburb of the city with some medium-sized industries such as Junghans, the Mulino Stucky (built in 1896 by the German architect Ernst Wullekopf), and many small shipyards located in the south.
The area north of the Giudecca is connected by a long waterfront, where we admire the “Zattere”, the St. Mark’s Basin and S. Giorgio Maggiore. From that waterfront through the long and narrow streets you get to the south part of the islans: from there you see a nice view of the lagoon with a few islands not far away. The major sight of the Giudecca can be considered without doubt the Church of the Redentore, (Christ the Redeemer), in neoclassical style (begun in 1582 by Palladio and completed in 1592 by Antonio da Ponte). This votive temple was erected for the will of the Senate following the end of the terrible plague of 1576 that decimated the population of the city. Every third Sunday of July, the Doge had to visit the church for the occasion. Inside there are some remarkable paintings such as “The Baptism of Christ” by Paolo Veronese and “The Descent from the Cross” by Jacopo Palma the Young. Actually, the Feast of Redentore owes its notoriety to the fireworks being exploded in the S. Mark’s Basin at 23.30 (on Saturday) and lasting nearly 40 minutes, that assist thousands of people by boat and from the waterfront. For that special event is positioned a bridge made by boats, which starts at Zattere, crosses the Giudecca Canal and arrives just in front of the Redentore Church.
How to get to the Giudecca.
From Piazzale Roma or the train station you take the waterbus line 2 or 41 provided by Actv (price € 6.50). To reach the Giudecca from S. Mark’s area you take from stop “S. Zaccaria” (Jolanda) line 2 or 42. The Giudecca has the following waterbus stops: “Palanca”, “Redentore” and “Zitelle.” The word “Palanca” derives from the name of the coin that you once had to pay for ferries to cross the Giudecca Canal. From stop “Zattere” you cross the canal by ferry line 2.

Church of the Madonna dell’Orto
The Church of the Madonna dell’Orto was built around the middle of the 15th century by Fra’ Tiberio da Parma and took the name of Madonna dell’Orto due to the ancient picture of the Virgin that was found in a garden nearby and which was then taken to the church. Building on the church lasted for about one century and the result was extremely worthy of note: the façade is still the best example today of Venetian Gothic architecture from the 15th century. The row of niches that were originally galleries that ran down the wings of the building, now hold the statues of the twelve Apostles. Inside there is a nave with no transept and side aisles with chapels that are separated by two rows of Greek marble columns. The picture of the “Vergine con Bambino” that gives the church its name hangs alongside the Chapel of San Mauro and is a fine example of art work from the 14th century made from soft stone. Inside there are frescoes by Palma il Giovane, Ponzone and Tintoretto.

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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:
info@venice-holidays.com
www.venice-holidays.com

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.)

                                                        Special price for charming apartment located in “Frari area”, just only 10 minuties by Rialto Bridge.

PRICE FOR 3 NIGHTS/6 PEOPLE: 480 euros
PRICE FOR 5 NIGHTS/6 PEOPLE: 740 euros
PRICE FOR 7 NIGHTS/6 PEOPLE: 950 euros

Frari Holidays

LOCATION
The Frari apartment is a large and bright apartment situated on the third fllor of a Palace very close to the Church of Frari,masterpiece of venetian gothic architecture with Tiepolo and Tiziano paintings. Exellent location,in the heart of Venice,the flat is located in the Sestiere of Santa Croce,from where you can go easily get both to the train station and to Piazzale Roma,the two main Venice’s terminals. Rialto and Accademia can be easily reached in less than 10 minutes. Very closed to the water bus stop of S.Toma’,this area is reach of good restaurants and schops.

DESCRIPTION
The apartment is composed by an entrance, a large and very sunny living room with double sofa , a double room, a bedroom with one single bed and an extra pull-out bed, a good furnished kitchen and a bathroom with tub. It is the best choice for large families looking for a central apartment and a good price. 80 sqm.  SERVICES: independent heating microwave toaster fridge hairdryer sheets,blankets and towels dishwasher air conditioning (in double bedroom).

FOOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.venice-holidays.com
info@venice-holidays.com

The Isola di Sant’Erasmo (St. Erasmus) is the largest island in the Venetian lagoon, but it’s only sparsely populated. For years this has been Venice’s countryside, the agricultural zone which produces the fruit and vegetables consumed by the hungry city. Among its produce, particularly renowned are the artichokes (carciofi). The landscape is flat, and dotted with farms and rural small-holdings. It couldn’t be more different from Venice, whose bell-towers and churches can be seen on the skyline.

Travel

The Sant’Erasmo ferry is the number 13 which departs from Venice’s Fondamente Nove stop on a roughly hourly basis. The boat calls at three stops along the shore of Sant’Erasmo: Capannone, then Chiesa, and finally Punta Vela. The journey takes 30-50 minutes, depending on which stop you get off at. Note that not all the services run the full route; check a timetable. It’s also advisable to note the return times before you set off to explore the island.

Walking around the island

The island is a long strip of land running from the south-west to the north-east. The three ferry stops are all on the north-western ‘inner’ shore, looking over the lagoon rather than towards the sea. This long stretch faces across the water and mudbanks towards the islands of Burano, whose coloured houses can just be distinguished, and San Francesco del Deserto. One of the island’s only notable buildings, the church, is on this shore. Another, the Torre Massimiliana, is down in the bottom corner of the island. This building is a nineteenth-century fort surrounded by a stagnant moat, started by the Napoleonic regime and finished by the Austrian. Its name recalls a time when Archduke Maximilian (Massimiliano) took refuge here. Recently the fort was restored and it is now open to the public, housing occasional exhibitions (opening days are limited).

Our walking tour of Sant’Erasmo
We got off the boat at Chiesa, the stop by the island’s church. This is one of the island’s landmarks, but it’s a fairly recent building with nothing to grab the visitor’s attention. We then set out along a lane next to the church, which headed across the width of the island, away from the northern lagoon shore. This route passed various allotments and fields, a new housing development, and Sant’Erasmo’s little cemetery. A farmer, stripped to the waist, laboured in one field, while another buzzed past in a little Ape (one of those tiny three-wheeled lorries) with his mother squeezed in next to him.
Reaching the other side of the island in a few minutes, we turned right and continued for a short distance before we came to a path leading out to the shore of the lagoon, where a comfortable track led along a bank. Down to our left were picturesque mud flats and shallow lagoon waters, where three people were wading in search of some delicacy for supper. Even on a peak holiday (Easter Monday) this part of the island was quiet - for whole stretches of the shore path we didn’t see anyone. The views over towards the mouth of the lagoon were interestingly dotted with boats and sandbanks; inland we passed more fields and gardens. Several battered rowing-boats were drawn up on the mud below us, and a couple of wading birds strutted about in a pool of water. If you’re interested either in boats or birds, it would be a good idea to bring binoculars on this excursion.

Finally, as we approached the tip of the island and the restored fort, we came upon hordes of Italian day-trippers, obviously not very keen to leave the vicinity of their fellow-Venetians or of the humble little bar-trattoria. Some - children and adults - were doing their best to pretend the muddy slope leading into the water was a proper beach. Gaggles of little boats had pulled up for socialising and refreshments. The bar, mostly peopled by old men speaking an indecipherable dialect, made a welcome break with its cheap wine and pleasant outdoor tables.

From the fort behind the restaurant, a small road leads back, past canals and ditches, towards the ferry stop of Capannone. The outing - including a break for refreshments - took us around an hour and three-quarters.

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

                                                                            Museum of Natural History
In the palace known as Fontego dei Turchi, once the Turkish legation - now the premises of the Natural History Museum, a room is completely given over to Venetian entrepreneur and palaeontologist Giancarlo Ligabue and his scientific expedition to the Sahara desert in Niger which, in 1973 discovered the famous fossil remains of
dinosaurs. The almost intact skeleton of an Ouranosaurus came to light in the sands. Seven metres long and three metres in height, it is one of the most rare finds of this type known anywhere. Today the remains of this iguanodon from 110 million years ago, and the cranium and part of the skeleton of a giant crocodile Sarcosuchus imperator - a flesh-eating creature of gigantic proportions (12 metres in length, weighing 8 tons) - seen in this appropriate setting astound visitors to the new hall on the first floor of the museum.

Lastly, on the ground floor, the new aquarium holding five thousand litres of sea water, gives an idea of the environment on the reefs known as ‘tegnùe’, which are situated off the Venetian coast and host some fifty species. This display offers an extraordinary insight into the reef’s diversity.
A reconstruction in the Aquarium of the ‘Shoals’
Info: Museum of Natural History
Sat and Sun from 10am to 4pm
ph. (+3…
Upon reservation for workshops: ph. (+39)041.5236830

                  We can suggest for the Carnival event one splendid apartment with view Grand Canal, located in Campo San Vidal:

Vidal

LOCATION
Vidal is a luxurious and prestigious apartment located in Campo Vidal near the Accademia Bridge and the Accademia Museum.
The central neighborhood allows the guest to reach many points of artistic, historical and cultural interest in just a few minute walk. The Zattere, a romantic walkway along the southern end of Venice from the Salute church down to the Maritime Station! The closet vaporetto ACTV ( water bus) stop is located at the Accademia Bridge, just in front of the apartment. Otherwise one can reach the property by water taxi which can come directly to the apartment.The apartment is part of an exclusive and elegant condiminum, situated on the second floor ( third floor American) of the building. There is an elevator. The property is very bright and from certain windows you can see a “slice” of the Grand Canal. Elegantly decorated with antique furnishings, paintings and rugs, this property gives the guest the opportunity to experience an exclusive vacation in a typical Venetian residence. An internal terrace that can be accessed from the kitchen offers the opportunity to enjoy your breakfast or brunch relaxing in the open-air.

DESCRIPTION
Very spacious and comfortable, this 150 square-meter home includes and entrance, a large living room with television, sofa and aemchairs and table with chairs. From the windows there is a pleasant view of Campo San Vidal. In addition there is a dressing room from which one can reach the terrace, a master bedroom with Grand Canal view, bathroom with tub, well-equipped kitchen that accesses the terrace, two single bedrooms with single beds, and a second bathroom with shower.This property is ideal for those wishing to have an exclusive stay in an exclusive residence.

The price for 1 week : 1700 euros

FOR MORE INFORMATIONS:
info@venice-holidays.com
www.venice-holidays.com