Until recently all gondoliere in Venice were men. This summer a Venetian woman, the daughter of a gondoliere, decided to try the exam, and she passed it as the first woman ever. New gondoliere will start to work as substitutes for the older...

Yesterday we had one of the first acqua alta’s of the winter. It wasn’t exceptionally high, reaching a level of 100cm above the historical average water level, but it was just enough to wet a few places around the city, and more than enough to ground...

The elephant sculpture in the lagoon now has a father too – the sculpture is made by the Dutch artist Serge Van de Put. The Elagoonephant The Angry Elagoonephant

Today we had the end of season event at the Diadora rowing club, where I should have spent a lot more time this summer. Most of the morning was taken up by ’social’ regattas for each of the types of rowing practiced in the club, both ‘English’ rowing...

Last year I started rowing Venetian style, voga alla veneta, where you stand up in the boat, looking forward, pushing on the oar to move forward. I continued Venetian rowing when I returned to Venice this spring, but then work took over, and I haven’t...