1277 Francesco di Mosto's Venice

For anyone that's interested, this wonderful series is being repeated on BBC2, starting on Thursday 8 September at 7.00 p.m.

Category
General chat about Italy

Oh fantastic. Mouth watering telly. Thanks for the tip.
I ache to be in Venice sometimes.

M

Got the book, BBC never released the series on video though, more's the pity...

Hi there,
yes, have just checked in my TV mag, and the series is in 4 parts. I have not seen this programme before, so am looking forward to it. Guess where I shall be at 7 this Thursday evening and for the next 4 weeks :)

Sano, you mentioned a book, can you tell me where you can get it from please?
Kind regards
Frances

[QUOTE=Francesca]Hi there,
yes, have just checked in my TV mag, and the series is in 4 parts. I have not seen this programme before, so am looking forward to it. Guess where I shall be at 7 this Thursday evening and for the next 4 weeks :)

Sano, you mentioned a book, can you tell me where you can get it from please?
Kind regards
Frances[/QUOTE]

Frances, my sister bought it for me as a Christmas gift. I would suspect she got it from Amazon.co.uk but I recall seeing it for sale on the online BBC shop as well.

Hi Sano,
thanks for the quick reply. I shall have a look on both sites.
Meanwhile am looking forward to tonight's programme.

My brother bought me my copy from Amazon and I think it was £10 cheaper than anywhere else from there.

Thank you, Janie, for letting us know!! :)

We were in Venice in February and absolutely loved it! Glad I checked this forum today....

But ... oh no... what do I see?? BBC2 Scotland don't show it!!! :eek: :eek:

~sob sob sob~

Enjoy the programme!!!

Stephanie

[QUOTE=Iona]Thank you, Janie, for letting us know!! :)

We were in Venice in February and absolutely loved it! Glad I checked this forum today....

But ... oh no... what do I see?? BBC2 Scotland don't show it!!! :eek: :eek:

~sob sob sob~

Enjoy the programme!!!

Stephanie[/QUOTE]

Cheer up, no doubt you can watch the highlights of the Auchintoggle Highland Games, or something of that ilk, instead. :)

[QUOTE=derekL]Cheer up, no doubt you can watch the highlights of the Auchintoggle Highland Games, or something of that ilk, instead. :)[/QUOTE]

Hahaha nope, I think it's rather something like 'House Detectives' !!!

Not sure what's worse.... :rolleyes:

Hi there,
have just watched the first part of Francesco da Mosto's Venice, and have taped it for future viewing. Well, if you love Venice like I do, then this mini-series is a must!! Just seeing Venice again, makes me want to be there again ( was last there in July ).
Regarding the book, I tracked it down in my local W.H.Smith's, but priced at £25 :eek: On Amazon I think it was priced at about £17 or thereabouts.
There is one thing that puzzles me, in the programme when Francesco is seen talking in St.Mark's Square, the whole place is empty!!! Is Venice ever empty of people?
One of the people interviewed, a cleaner who sweeps part of St.Mark's Sq. every morning, said that Venice is like a woman, even when you gaze upon it every morning, you fall in love all over again. :rolleyes: He never said a truer word. :)

I think he is there at the crack of dawn to find it so empty. I was once in St Mark's Sq at 4 a.m. - had it totally to ourselves apart from these weird heaving giant molehills in the middle of the square. As we got closer we realised they were the pigeons all sleeping together in a huge pile to keep warm. A cat came out of the shadows, grabbed a sleeping pigeon and slinked into the basilica for a snack with it hanging from his jaws.
I love Venice at night.

Marina

Hi Marina,

have just read your very descriptive message, so even at 4 in the morning St.Mark's Sq. is not empty!! Never been there myself at that time of the morning, but hey, perhaps when I finally retire over here, I can get a job as a sweeper in the square, just to see it relatively empty!! :p

Did you manage to watch the programme yesterday evening? I found it very informative, but also quite bloody in parts, still that is all part of Venetian history. Looking forward to the next 3 parts of the series.

Bye for now
Frances

When we were in Venice in late February, my other half got up around 5 am on our first morning and went out for a stroll (I must admit that the cold put me off hmmm :o ). He said there was a small number of people already busily wandering around a slushy St Mark's Square!! But he still loved it!

We arrived during a mild snow storm and it had kept snowing throughout our arrival day and first night. I even took some pics from our hotel room that night which shows a thick flurry of huge snow flakes! Very romantic... :cool:

Must stop warbling on now!!!

I did watch the show last night - will miss it next week but saw them the 1st time round. All wonderful - the photography is astonishingly good. But it is hard to take a bad film in Venice..
I got married in Venice last year - it was our 10th visit and we've vowed to go every year at least once a year..
The place lifts my heart like no where else. Wish I could afford to buy there!

M

Hi Marina,

oh how wonderful to be married in Venice, I really envy you!
To see Venice also covered in a thin layer of snow must be really beautiful as well, it must look more magical than ever! :p

Yes I agree the photography and effects were marvellous in the programme last night.

I do not know when we will next be in Italy, hopefully next March or thereabouts, so I keep looking at my holiday snaps to remind me :rolleyes:

Bye for now.

P.S. Would love to see a picture of your Wedding. Was it a Church Wedding?

Frances

[QUOTE=Marinaw]... I got married in Venice last year - it was our 10th visit and we've vowed to go every year at least once a year..
The place lifts my heart like no where else. Wish I could afford to buy there!

M[/QUOTE]

It's a most amazing place.... I'm sure my boyfriend would like the idea of a Venetian wedding!!! :D

BTW, would love to see some pics too! ;)

Hi Iona,

sorry there, I got your post mixed up with Marina's!! :o

As I said, Venice must look like a fairytale come true in the snow.

I have only ever seen Venice in the sun, rain and also when St.,Mark's Sq. was flooded!! Just need to see it on a foggy day ( probably would not see much ) :D and in the snow, then I have seen it in all different weathers!!

Sorry getting carried away. :p

Bye for now
Frances

Although there was indeed no video/DVD put out of Francesco da Mosto's fabulous series, anyone who loves Venice might also like Nic Roeg's creepy 1973 film Don't Look Now with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. Very atmospheric, lots of ravishing shots of La Serenissima - although it is slightly 1970s (viz Mr Sutherland's dodgy sideburns). You can pick it up on Amazon for about £3.50 on DVD.

Best time of the year for me in Venice is March - fog and snow in a near-deserted St Mark's Square. Truly amazing.

Mike

Slightly off the thread I'm afraid.
I visited Venice a couple of years ago for a week during 'Carnival', what an experience, I've never been in a place so busy, they shut the bridges at one point to stop people going in.
The 'highlight' of the week was when they had a rope attached to the tower and tied to some columns about 50 ft away, on this rope was a 6ft model of a bird (I was told it was a pigeon), this bird slowly came down the rope until about halfway down. it stopped and opened its 'bomb doors' it showered everyone with bits of silver paper. I was told that this depicts what pigeons do naturally on the heads of un-suspecting visitors.

True story honest

Stribs

Its really easy - we organised everything over the web dealing directly with the very charming people who run the registry office. The registry office is on the Grand Canal near to the Rialto in a wonderful old palazzo. Had to have our bans read in the UK and then send copies to the UK consulate in Venice who sent them on the ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs with a certificate of Nul impedimenta. We married on a Friday - it cost 300 euros -its a bit more pricy on a Saturday. We had a translator but the only word I had to say was 'Si'..

We went down the G Canal in a riva to get to lunch with our guests all crammed in beside us afterwards - that was the most expensive taxi of my life but worth every euro. Ooh I love those boats.

Can recommend it all highly. I'll try to find a couple of pix if you're realy interested..

M

[QUOTE=johnsm13]Although there was indeed no video/DVD put out of Francesco da Mosto's fabulous series, anyone who loves Venice might also like Nic Roeg's creepy 1973 film Don't Look Now with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. Very atmospheric, lots of ravishing shots of La Serenissima - although it is slightly 1970s (viz Mr Sutherland's dodgy sideburns). You can pick it up on Amazon for about £3.50 on DVD.

Best time of the year for me in Venice is March - fog and snow in a near-deserted St Mark's Square. Truly amazing.

Mike[/QUOTE]

Mike,

That's such a fantastic film. Saw it last some years ago, but could do with it again... :D

Yep, Venice in my view is best covered in snow!

Stephanie

[QUOTE=Marinaw]... Can recommend it all highly. I'll try to find a couple of pix if you're realy interested..

M[/QUOTE]

Marina,

Sounds wonderful. This is definitely a once in a lifetime thing to do (well, supposed to anyways ;))! Would love to see some pics, please!

S

Hi Marina,

sorry I have not replied sooner, but have just spent a few days in Devon.

Yes, I would like to see some Wedding pics. as well, if at all possible, thanks. :)

Frances

Ooh wasn't the Venice prog wonderful last night? Not sure about those nasty scars all that naughty living led to though..

As promised attached should be a couple of wedding pix on the balcony of the palazzo which is the registry office. Hope I've got them to a small enough size..

Don't have many outdoor shots as it was chucking it down with rain - apparantly 'Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata'...

M

My file is 132k and it can only take 30k - have made it as small as I can I think - its only wallet sized now - anyone got any ideas how to make it smaller?

*sigh* Sorry..

M

[QUOTE=Marinaw]My file is 132k and it can only take 30k - have made it as small as I can I think - its only wallet sized now - anyone got any ideas how to make it smaller?

*sigh* Sorry..

M[/QUOTE]

Try increasing the compression if it is a JPEG file or reduce the number of colours down from 16.7 million to 64,000 or even 256 all will help to shrink it substantially