Floating Island

This was brought to my attention a while ago, and with all that was going on,
I forgot to post it.
Here's a couple who have built themselves a remarkable floating habitat up in western Canada.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/08/freedom-cove-island-house/

The Gondolas on Zappi's Wall

I was in Niagara Falls yesterday.
No, I was NOT researching my next gondola expedition,
but only because my wife vetoed the idea.

While there, I sought out the best pizza in town, and found Zappi's
(founded by the Zappitelli family).
Great pizza. It even impressed my New York Italian in-laws - and that's not easy to do.

Sure enough, there on the wall of the building was Venice.

Classic approach: bright red and green paint, framing photos

or paintings of a scene in Italy.
Most restaurants choose one of the standards - Colosseum,

Tower of Pisa (not always with the correct amount of lean),

Fountain of Trevi, and of course Venezia.

 

Here we see a gondolier who wears his winter garb,

and we know he's a true Venetian, because he's on his cellphone. 

He's skilled enough at his job that he can row with one hand, 

while handling whatever important business presents itself.

Rows with the Gods

Here's a nice snapshot from inside what I believe may just be the most
beautiful sandolo in the world.  And while there are many impressive
sandoli in Venezia, this one is actually in Canada.

My friend Lorne of Honeymoon Gondola who has the enviable job of rowing her sent me this photo with the words:

Poseidon the Greek god of the sea and god of horses.

Poseidon is carved into the bow of my sandolo with a gold guilded trident and sash.
(Cupid) Eros the Greek god of love.

A bronze statue on the bow and on both sides of the boat bronze cupid riding a (hippocampus) seahorse with the tail of a fish.
From this comes the term.

"Rows with the Gods"

For almost two years Lorne and his sandolo have glided across the waters of "Lagoon City" in Ontario, Canada.
I just got news that they will move to a new home soon
at the Driftwood Cove Resort in Port Severn, Ontario, Canada.

Congratulations to Lorne on the move.
A beautiful boat in a beautiful location - sounds like a winning combination.

To learn more about this remarkable boat,
see my post "Carved Boat in Canada".

Just the Photo - Canadian Brass

Here's a close-up look at the brass trim plates on the trasto da prua of a passenger sandolo in Ontario, Canada.

Anybody want to guess the meaning of the engravings?

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Read more about this boat at:
"Carved Boat in Canada"

"Attention to the Details of the Tramontin Sandolo"

"Serious Sandolo Scimier"

Serious Sandolo Scimier

When I first saw photos of the new sandolo in Canada, I was impressed.
Here was a boat that had all the details - a fully carved passenger sandolo.

The boat was built in the Squero Tramontin, and was in fact the first sandolo to come out of that yard in over fifty years.

Roberto Tramontin gave extra attention to the details on this boat.

As I looked at the photos that Lorne sent me of his beautiful new sandolo, I noticed somethinig familiar about the scimier (that decorative piece that rests atop the seat back).

Lorne told me that the piece that rides on the seat back of his boat is
"the first known copy of the Royal scimier" - an impressive piece of "gondola art" in the private collection of the Tramontin family.

I'd seen that scimier before: in Gilberto Penzo's "La Gondola" (on page 173, to be exact), it is said to be about a hundred years old.

The "Royal Scimier".

 

I must admit that I'm not clear on the exact history of this piece,

but Lorne tells me that at the varo, many Venetians were nodding their heads in approval, and seemed proud of the scimier.

 

Here are a few photos showing some of the stages in the creation of this beautiful piece.

The design was drawn out on a single piece of wood,

the silhouette cut out,

and with age-old hand tools,

the craftsman gradually removed wood in small places.

Once the carving phase was completed,

a flat black base coat was applied.

Then a shiny coat of black was applied.

(my guess is that there were several shiny coats applied)

Finally, gold guilding and brilliant blue were added in the appropriate areas.

People look at gondolas and many other Venetian boats and just assume that the detail pieces are just fancy dress-up stuff, or as a shipbuilding friend of mine likes to say "decorative gingerbread", but in many cases there's history behind every detail.

Thank you Roberto - for bringing something beautiful into the world.

Attention to the Details of the Tramontin Sandolo

 

A while back I posted about a beautiful new passenger sandolo in Canada (see "Carved Boat in Canada").

The owner of that exceptional boat just sent me these images, which give us an idea of how hands-on the Squero Tramontin was with this sandolo.

 

As she is a full fledged passenger vessel, she has all the parecio,

including the "pusiol" armpieces like the one above.

 

 The oars for this boat were made in Squero Tramontin.

 

These beautiful forcole were also reportedly crafted by the men who built the boat.

 

Often these pieces of rowing hardware are made by a separate craftsman known as a remer, but as you can see, Tramontin tended to every single detail.

 

Including the chairs.

 The chairs begin as a stack of wood, which is trimmed down into specific pieces that fit together like a puzzle.

 

 All those pieces are put together with a special glue, and then the whole thing is clamped together from what looks like just about every angle.

 

The end result is a pair of chairs that are specially built to fit next to each other with an arm on each side.  I was told that they arms were meant to be on the outsides so the whole thing is like a love seat, but I can see how swapping sides can be a better choice if the two passengers seated aren't a couple (or aren't on speaking terms).

 

As the first sandolo to come out of the Tramontin yard in fifty years, clearly they were determined to dictate every single detail.

 

The boat is beautiful, and I understand that the owner, Lorne, has taken over one hundred cruises since he launched her earlier this year - lucky couples, all of them.

Roberto and the Chair

photo courtesy of Lorne Fernhout

Just a snapshot in time, of Roberto Tramontin - Venetian boatbuilder and heir to the legacy of the Tramontin family.  The very impressive sandolo that was recently launched in Canada is one of his most recent projects.
Here we see maestro Roberto tending to some of the details on one of the chairs of that beautiful fully-carved boat.

Carved Boat in Canada

This is a beautiful boat.
Really, she is a shining example of the heights that Venetian boat builders can ascend to in both quality and aesthetics.
A while back I came in contact with the owner of this sandolo and I can't wait to make a trek up to his neck of the woods so I can see this floating gem first-hand.

The boat, of course, is a sandolo, but not just any old sandolo.
This vessel is fully carved (like a wedding gondola), her decks are adorned with details that only a true Venetian intagiadór can produce.  She is believed to be one of only two fully carved sandoli afloat - anywhere.
 Her parecio (removable parts) are all of great quality, and it's clear that little, if any expense was spared in putting this sandolo together.

Oh, and there is one other thing worthy of mentioning:
this is the first sandolo built in a Tramontin squero in over fifty years.







I'm sure that anything Roberto Tramontin builds is remarkable,
but the first sandolo in fifty years?
That had to be more of an obsession than a project.

The lucky owner of this boat is Lorne Fernhout, and his company is called "Honeymoon Gondola".

Operating on the canal waters of "Lagoon City" in Ontario, Canada, Lorne has twelve kilometers of canals to entertain his passengers in while rowing this sandolo - which he has named "Vischio".
I understand that he also has the unique situation of rowing-to-work - with about a seven minute commute.
Rough life, I tell you.

Lorne's boat was finished at the end of March, and of course they had a proper "varo" to get her blessed and floating.

Lorne writes:
I think I saw your friend on the kayak, René cruise by.
I'd never seen so many gondolas in the canal at the squero as the day of the varo.

He continues:
The boat was put in the container the next day.
I got the sandolo the last week of May customs had it sit in the warehouse for 10 days. I paid.  Then they released electronically with out looking at the boat.

And of course, who doesn't love the customs and import process.
In this case, however, I think it was worth the hassle - the boat is incredible.
I'm certain that we will see more of her here in future posts.

Happy Canada Day!

As one of my friends described it recently:
"Canada Day is like the 4th of July, but it comes earlier and has real beer."

To my knowledge there aren't any gondolas currently operating north of the border, but there have been a few Canadian gondola operations over the years, including one I helped set up a long time ago in the nation's capitol of Ottawa.

Other operations have taken passengers in Victoria, Vancouver, Nanaimo, and long ago, I'm told there were gondolas in Montreal.

Here's a small snap of one of the gondoliers in the Ottawa servizio when it was in operation.

Funny thing about the gondoliers in Ottawa - they always insisted on wearing red and white stripes because it matched the Canadian flag.


To all my Canadian friends out there - raise a Molson for me, and if you're in BC, make it a Kokanee!