Sunday, May 12, 2013

Get Me to the Church on Time: La Festa della Sensa, Today


Today was the Festa della Sensa (or Ascension) in which the doge was traditionally rowed to the entrance to the sea in his grand barque of state to undergo a symbolic wedding with the wide watery expanses upon which all of Venice's wealth and power depended.

These days the mayor is rowed to Lido to throw a gold ring into the sea to symbolize Venice's continued relationship with the Mediterranean.

I believe a good number of Venetians would have preferred, as our neighborhood butcher recently suggested, that the mayor himself be symbolically tossed overboard.



You're likely to find yourself beside a fisherman (& his tackle) these days no matter where you are

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