Also in this city, during the night between 5th and 6th January  is tradition to hang stockings out the window or on the fireplace, waiting for the old witch riding her mop to fill it with sweets for good children and coal for bad children .

Epiphany is a national holiday and various events are going on, such fairs, festivals, concerts, , fireworks, exhibitions and markets, or the traditional concert which takes place in different municipalities. But several are also the Epiphany party or the election of Miss modern witch.

The best way to celebrate the Epiphany in Venice is a rowing regatta race,
On Jan. 6, 50 athletes, members of the oldest rowing club of Venice the “ Bucintoro”  disguised as old witches, race from S. Tomà to the Rialto Bridge.
The finish line consist on an enormous sock hanging down from  Rialto Bridge.
The Befana is one of the most popular traditions in the collective imagination of the Italians. Its legend dates back to pre-Christian traditions.

 Today, in popular Christian culture, the Befana brings gifts in memory of those offered by the Magi to the Christ Child. This charming old lady in the night between 5 and 6 January, flies on a broom carrying a bag stuffed with toys and candy. Then, sliding down the chimneys of the houses, fills stockings left hanging by the children.

Major Orsoni, a great fan of Sailing, hardly hides his emotions and excitement: he think that Venice is a perfect location to host the event, the city can brilliantly provide to all the sailor needs  and assistance for their boats (catamaran Ac45).

 The logistic point and the organizational base of the cup will be the “Arsenale” ( the old venetians shipyard  during the 14° century).  The race will take place along the area of the Lido seaport.
10 teams will race, amongst them “Luna Rossa” , and probably also “Venezia Challenge” whit 30 competitions, 3 per days.

According to the program there will be race regattas, regattas  and speed time trial of 500 meters.

The America’s Cup, is a great train oppurtunity for the  teams for the next and most famous sailng competition: the Louis Vuitton Cup.

The idea of the Regatta of the Ancient Maritime Republics was realized in 1955 and the first edition took place in Genova. The constitutive act was signed at Amalfi on ecember 10, 1955.
The boats,called “galleons”, designed for eight rowers and a cox, represent the four seafaring Republics.
Each is marked by different colours and figureheads: deep blue with a winged horse for Amalfi; white with a winged dragon for Genoa; crimson with an eagle for Pisa; and emerald green the St. Mark’s Lion for Venice.
The launching took place at the Giardinetti ex Reali in the presence of the Patriarch of Venice, later to become Pope John XXIII.

The race is preceded by a historical pageant. Nearly 400 people in period costumes parade down Riva dei Sette Martiri and Riva degli Schiavoni, commemorating the deeds of the ancient republics.

Flags and festoons, trumpets and drums, horses and sedan-chairs add glamour to the solemn procession.

Sunday 5th June 2011

Every year Venice attracts millions of visitors to events that are famous the world over. The Festa della Sensa, is one of the city’s best known festivals that bring to life its thousand year history and its close ties to the sea and the art of “Voga alla Veneta” rowing.

The Sensa (Ascension Day) Festival was celebrated by the Venetian Republic on the day of Christ’s Ascension. Sensa is the Venetian dialect word for ascension.
It commemorates two important events in the life of the Republic: one on 9 May in the year 1000, when Doge Pietro Orseolo II came to the rescue of the inhabitants of Dalmatia, who were under the Slav menace. The second event took place in 1177, when, in the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani, Pope Alexander III and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa signed the peace treaty in Venice that put an end to the century-long diatribe between the Papacy and the Empire.

The rite of the Wedding with the Sea used to take place on the occasion of the Ascension Day Festival. Every year on that day the Doge on his state barge, the Bucintoro, sailed to Sant’Elena, at the level of San Pietro di Castello Church. The Bishop waited to bless him on a boat with gilt sides. To emphasise the Serenissima Republic’s dominion over the sea, the Festival culminated with a kind of propitiatory rite: the Doge sailed to the channel between the lagoon and the sea and threw a gold ring into the water.

La Sensa today
Thanks to the Comitato Festa della Sensa, Venice began to celebrate Ascension Day again in 1965, with a programme that goes far beyond mere re-evocation: the Gemellaggio Adriatico (”Adriatic twinning”) project now links the Serenissima Republic with a city or a geographic area that has had a special historical relationship with Venice, joined in a bond of culture, love of the sea and the activities connected with the sea. In 2010 the ring that is its symbol has been given to the City of Larnaca (Cyprus).
In addition to this, the Festival is the occasion for the award of the “Premio Osella d’Oro della Sensa“, which is given to public bodies, institutions and private citizens that have given lustre to the city by means of their activities in the spheres of culture, crafts and trade.

Part of the commemoration today will be the Doge’s procession in San Marco Square, the Sensa Market at the Church of San Nicolò on Lido, Venetian style rowing races, a water parade by the local rowing clubs, the Fort of Sant’Andrea Festival and many other events that confirm that the Sensa today is a great time for meeting and fully realising the value of Venetian history and traditions: it is the festival of the city itself and its relationship with the sea.

Until June 25th his work will be interpreted by the international troupe that costitutes the Arsenale della Danza, young people between 19 and 24 years of age, from all over the world.

Babylon, Babel: the Divine Gate, the Third Paradise, the mother of all whores, first collective act of resistance against God. A symbol embracing the opposites of human destiny, separation from the Divine Creator. After man’s expulsion from Babel, he arrived at the Third Paradise, the central circle respective to the other two which mark the entrance to the Infinite, indispensable for guaranteeing survival to humankind.

Last year, I saw Michelangelo Pistoletto trace with a plow the sign of the Third Paradise at Assisi: an experience of great vibrations of peace, which maybe Ivo will be able to reproduce in his burning desire to find a place of comunication between separated, isolated bodies, points of view oppressed by the weight of contemporary ideology, and commit the true sacrilege: touching oneself, going beyond the limit of skin, finding one’s most intimate aspect.

The new choreography by Ivo concludes one year’s activity of the Arsenale della Danza, an integrating part of the project of permanent activities at the Biennial. Following its debut in Venice on the 11th of May (with a repeat performance on the 13th), the spectacle will continue in tournée in Veneto, and will then go on to Brazil.

Information:

Official WebSite

VENICE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM BOATS

The core of the edition 2011 will be in San Giuliano Park from the 7th to the 10th April. The park is accessible by car and by water.
The purpose of the Show is to facilitate the access to nautical, to the culture of the sea and to the market of both.
The location is easy to reach ad it presents a big car park, close to the highway, to the airport and the train station.

VENICE FOR BIG BOATS

The Venice Boat Show gives importance to the big boats. The Arsenal is the area dedicated to yachts and glamorous events.
A shuttle boat links San Giuliano Park and the Arsenal in 20 minutes.

STRONG POINTS

• The location, Venice, in its international context;
• A basin with 12 metres of draught;
• An exposition area easily reached by land and water;
• Big parking;
• The possibility to try out vessels on the water at Giudecca, San Marco or in the Lagoon;
• 24 hour assistance to exhibitors;
• Quality events for exhibitors and their guests;
• Free entry for the visitors

ADVANTAGES FOR EXHIBITORS

A year-round promotion, with integrated marketing initiatives: from “365 Boat Show”, present in Internet 365 days a year, to online reservations, by which visitors may set one-to-one appointments at the shipyards, television and press specials and publicity in the best journals of the sector.

All this, with the added value of an exceptional setting: Venice.

Information:

Expo Venice Spa

Marittima Fabbricato 103

30135 Venezia- ITALY

Tel. +39 041.5334850

Fax +39 041.5334760

Commercial Office: direzionevendite@expovenice.it

Exhibitors Office: commerciale@expovenice.it

Marketing Office: marketing@expovenice.it

Information Office: info@expovenice.it

The Air Festival, organised also this year by Expo Venice in cooperation with Prima Aviator – an agency specialized in organizing exhibitions in this field – promises to entertain the guests with a calendar full of events: besides the stand area, it will take place various shows, first of all the exciting “air extreme” that consists in a sequence of flight acrobatics made by the best European pilots.

The Air Festival offers also the possibility to take part in meetings and congresses held by important representatives of this branch or to enjoy shows of airplanes, helicopters or double-decker airplanes and, thanks to the cooperation with Heliair, all the guests will have the opportunity to try the breathtaking experience of seeing Venice from the sky on board of an helicopter.

On the occasion of the Festival, Nicelli Airport at Lido di Venezia will be open to General Aviation traffic and to ULM.

More Information On the Official Website

The Venice Marathon brings thousand of participants and is always an exciting show.

Start takes place in Stra, a small town a few kilometers east of Padova, in front of the magnificent Villa Pisani, built in the 18th century, which is the first and the largest of the beautiful mansions of the Brenta riverside.

Course follows the National Road N.11, running through the small towns of the Riviera: Fiesso d’Artico, Dolo, Mira, Oriago and Malcontenta. Runners will arrive near Marghera to enter the center of Mestre and San Giuliano’s Park. Venice appears on the horizon, at the end of the never-ending five-kilometer-long Ponte della Libertà.

From here there is no more tar: you’ll be running over cobblestone, overpassing, one by one, the 14 bridges which created the Venicemarathon legend. After a long and exhauting race into the heart of the city, passing through all the most important monuments, the runners will finnally arrive at the banner at the center of Riva dei Sette Martiri.

www.venicemarathon.it

PROGRAMME

THURSDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER
6.00 pm, Campo della Salute
Presentation of the teams and blessing of the gondolini, with the accompaniment by Coro Serenissima

SUNDAY 5th SEPTEMBER

4.00 pm
Historical and Sport water pageant: parade along the Grand Canal by historical crafts with costumed crews, boats and gondolas
of the Venetian rowing associations (Voga alla Veneta)
Course: from St. Mark’s Bay all the way down the Grand Canal.

4.45 pm
Maciarele regatta
Two oared regatta on mascarete dedicated for children, Junior category (under 12 years) and senior (up to age 14).
Course: From San Stae to Ca’ Foscari

4.50 pm
Young rowers’ twin-oared pupparini regatta
Course: the Castello Gardens, St. Mark’s Bay, Grand Canal, Rialto (around the paleto in front of the Banca d’Italia),
and back to finish at Ca’ Foscari.

5.10 pm
Women’s twin-oared mascarete regatta
Course: the Castello Gardens, St. Mark’s Bay, Grand Canal, Rialto (around the paleto between Riva de Biasio and San Marcuola),
and back down the Grand Canal to finish at Ca’ Foscari.

5.40 pm
Six-oared caorline regatta
Course: the Castello Gardens, St. Mark’s Bay, Grand Canal, Rialto (around the paleto in front of the Santa Lucia railway
station), and back down the Grand Canal to finish at Ca’ Foscari.

6.00 pm
Universities Boat Challenge
Challenge on eight-oared galeoni boat by the crew of the Ca’ Foscari and Iuav Universities of Venezia versus the best teams
among the Universities of Genoa, Pisa and Salerno.
Course: From Rialto to Ca’ Foscari

6.10 pm
Twin-oared gondolini regatta
Course: the Castello Gardens, St. Mark’s Bay, Grand Canal, Rialto (around the paleto in front of the Santa Lucia railway
station), and back down the Grand Canal to finish at Ca’ Foscari.

I gioielli di Nino: parade of boats built by Giovanni Giuponi, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Within the Historical and Sport water pageant

Concerts on the Grand Canal during the Regata Storica
- 4.00 pm, Campo della Salute: Concert by Coro Serenissima
- 4.00 pm, Piazzale Stazione Santa Lucia: concert by Banda Musicale di Tessera
- From 3.30 pm, on the Grand Canal: concert by Banda Musicale di Pellestrina on boat

The 16th May a non-compehetitive race will join all the historical sailing boats with newer models. The start will be in front of Sant’Elena, they will pass in front Saint Mark’s Square, sail until Mulino Stucky and back to Saint George Island.

If you have a sailing boat you cannot miss this opportunity!!! For the subscription please visit this website .
For all the non sailor it will be a great show to admire from Riva degli Schiavoni.