Italian Violin Makers
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 Fine ITALIAN violin by ENRICO MARCHETTI Warren cert  US $50,000.00
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 HOW TO MAKE A VIOLIN DESIGN PLANS 12 VINTAGE BOOKS ON CD US $6.97
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 Violin Repair Wood Spruce Tonewood 3 pcs 2mm 3mm 5mm US $9.00
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 3 Units 63mm Violin Sound post Sticks 15 Pro Grade Spruce US $18.00
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 6 Big Pieces Violin Repair Wood Excellent for Repair Shops US $16.00
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Paganini by Accardo: Complete Recordings
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Photo Jigsaw Puzzle of Stradivarius/postcard from Mary Evans
Sale Price: $29.99 |
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Violins and Violin Makers Biographical Dictionary of the Great Italian Artistes, their Followers and Imitators, to the present time. With Essays on Important Subjects Connected with the Violin.
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The Violin Maker: Finding a Centuries-Old Tradition in a Brooklyn Workshop
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Masterpieces of Italian Violin Making (1620-1850)
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Visiting The Veneto
I last went to Italy as a teenager in the 60’s, with my English parents who had just discovered the cheap package tour. The hotel was an oasis of fellow Brit tourists and the strangeness of Italian food was the hot topic. We didn’t venture beyond the resort except to go into town for tacky souvenirs. No one considered that we were within driving distance of famous historic cities full of priceless art. My folks didn’t know, and would not have risked uncharted territory if they had. Years later I regretted the missed opportunity, and promised myself I would one day return. I am now past fifty, and along with two friends, am traveling back to Italy to make good on my promise. First stop is Italy's Veneto, La Serenissima... Venice.
I step out of the Stazione Ferroviaria Santa Lucia and behold the Grand Canal, alive with boats and launches, Venetians going about their business on gondolas and vaporettos… cabs and buses to you and me. An immediate first-time excitement rises up in me, and it banishes the jet lag.
We trundle our rolling cases across the Scalzi bridge. A five minute walk from the station brings us to the Hotel Marin. The place isn’t fancy, and it’s not on a canal, but it came highly recommended. The rooms here are clean and comfortable, our stay includes a wonderful continental breakfast of fresh dark coffee, crusty rolls and Mama’s homemade preserves, and the prices, for Venice, are a steal.
Venice’s distinctive energy speaks to the lover and the artist in every traveler. It will slow you down. If you're lucky it will stop you in your tracks. This city is about remarkable architecture, palaces, churches, and art… you won’t have to search for it, it’s everywhere you go. While you wander the piazzas and linger on the bridges, imagine the famous Venetians who might have lingered there before you... Marco Polo, Casanova, and the red priest himself, Antonio Vivaldi, ushering his all-girl orchestra to San Marco for a performance of his latest concerti.
You quickly realize how little the city has changed over the centuries. Find the Basilica San Marco or San Giorgio Maggiore, or the Doge’s Palace, depicted in some famous fourteenth century painting, and the image will be exactly as the structure stands today. You are surrounded by living history.
We are going to a concert tonight at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco... a beautiful church famous for its Tintoretto paintings. We go early to view the art before the show starts. The canvases are huge, the images bold renditions of biblical scenes: The Adoration of the Magi, The Slaughter of the Innocents, The Annunciation… each scene emerging out of darkness, illuminated by an unseen light source glowing somewhere within the painting. We are dazzled, glad we chose this concert from the many that take place each night all over Venice.
A trio performs Vivaldi… violin, flute and lovely soprano. They keep us enchanted for a half hour. The performance ends, rather prematurely, I think, and everyone rises and heads for the stairs. “Where are they going?” I ask the man seated next to me. “The gallery,” he says, pointing up. It’s not over, this is intermission.
We follow the crowd up a grand staircase to an even grander salon. At the top of the stairs, a man hands each of us an elegant, double handled, polished wood mirror. It becomes clear that the paintings downstairs were just a fraction of the Tintoretto collection. The rest are here, dozens of them, not just lining the walls, but all over the ceiling, reminiscent of the elaborate ceilings we have seen in the Doge’s Palace. The mirrors are to save us from twenty minutes of neck pain. Venetian glass makers invented the mirror in 1508, so this is how people viewed these magnificent ceilings when they were new… the striking reflected images must have been the equivalent of sixteenth century MTV…hi-tech of the day.
Walking back to the hotel we pass an alley and see a welcoming brazier lighting up the night. A collection of motley tables sprawl into the alley outside the Ostaria al Vecio Pozzo – The Old Well Pub. And sure enough there is an ancient well set into the cobblestones. It’s late, but the dinner tide naturally rolls in much later here.
We take a table and ask the young Adonis who comes for our order what he recommends. He brings homemade pasta, a platter with three different fish, a seafood risotto made with champagne and a simple carafe of house white. No king’s banquet ever tasted so delicious. We will return twice more before we leave.
Adonis’s name is Andrea. Someone takes our picture with him and when it is developed, high in the sky above our heads, to no one’s surprise, is a full moon.
Of all Italy's wonderful cities, Venice is the place which has stayed in my heart. It tugs at me still, in part because you can’t visit Venice without tripping over one very poignant fact.
La Serenissima remains a tiny city built on water, which now stands defenseless against the onslaught of twenty-first century climate change descending upon us all. High tides have always flooded Venice, but whereas in the past the flooding occurred a half dozen times a year, today it happens forty times. Cherished buildings and monuments continue to be badly damaged by the erosive tides.
The Italian government, UNESCO and a charity called Venice in Peril are raising money for restoration and research into a system of gates or barriers which would block the high tides and save Venice. Plans so far have been highly controversial, exorbitantly costly, and no one is sure that it can actually be done. If it can’t be done, there is every likelihood that Venice will be the first major casualty of global warming, and the city will be lost.
There will come a generation who will only know the glory that was Venice through recorded film, pictures and written travelogues. They will miss the feel of water slapping against the gondola’s prow, the verismo serenade of the gondolier, the softness of a Venetian breeze dancing across the lagoon. As one who might have missed those things myself, I am eternally grateful that Venice has remained standing long enough for me to meet her in person.
About the Author
Sue Rauch is a freelance writer who runs www.GrabYourPasssport.com - Online travel guides for the world's great tourist destinations.
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