Venice, Italy
4-17th
July 2015
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| Bird's Eye View from the Campanile di San Marco |
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| Riding the Grand Canal in a Vaporetto |
Beguiling
Venice! It’s so easy to be overwhelmed
in Venice, especially in July – the heat intensified by huge crowds, many in
holiday mode. It’s a frenetic pace, and an
island repository of visually stunning beauty housing amazing art & history
in every corner, not to mention wondrous structures, old and new. So, I quite forgot my textile challenge and,
as nothing especially reminded me until we stepped off the vaporetto on Burano,
I felt quite chastened.
Of
course, when I say few textiles, I’m not counting rows of Italian designer
boutiques, mansions crammed with all things evocative of wealth and power,
religious vestments or art festivals aplenty.
It’s just that it fits in, a hand and glove story if you will, becoming
part of Venice’s bold statement about itself, and you don’t want to unravel the
strands.
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| Luxurious Velvet & Textiles on Ceremonial Gondola_Naval Museum |
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| Only the Best Furnishings_Querini Stampalia Museum & Gallery |
Mansions
are full of great tapestries, lush curtains, upholstery and bedding,
complimented by the sheen of silk wallpapers.
Soaring cathedrals and modest basilicas alike are adorned with humble
cloth transformed into resplendent precious pieces, heavy in embroidered gold
and silver threads. Have I mentioned glass?
Famous Murano is just across the lagoon and its Glass Museum (Museo del
Vetro) positively drips with crystalline decadence. I think I’ve found the modern-day home of
Odysseus’s Sirens!
Another
take on a self-guided tour of traditional fabrics of Venice can be found on
this VeneziaSi site. Yet another site (link) has a brief summary of textile history that I really wish I had read when
planning my trip. This way I might have
at least discovered Cà Mocenigo and the Museum of Textiles
and Costume. Grrrr!
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| Punting the Inner Canals in a Gondola |
