Venice Research Paper

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Venice’s sleek and graceful gondolas are a symbol of the city, in this paper I hope to fully explain the usefulness and the powerful image of the gondola. From the start around the sixth century, Venetians lived in huts built on stilts surrounded by “Silt from the rivers, reeds, swamps, and salt marshes of the lagoon” (Ferraro 2). These Venetians resided between a harsh environment brought by the Adriatic Sea, thus creating a separation and a uniqueness of the people the eventual collaboration of the floating city known as Venice. Venice’s shore line was made up of low-lying beaches, high reef bars shoal, marsh lands and salt pans. It created a major problem, for ships that had a deep hull, to land and dock to trade merchandise. The Area was comprised of “two thousand miles of intricate coast” (Crowley 4). After Venice took shape upon the “floating island,” ports were set up outside, “the paving of forty-nine calli; the building of no fewer than fifty-five bridges, thirty-three of stone and twenty-two of wood”(Norwich 312). The Island was filled in with waterways, and small overpasses throughout the city. Trading was only able to be conducted at the outer ports of the city because; ships…show more content…
“The crafting of the 280 piece gondola was complex” (Ferraro 8). The oak that was imported, had to be treated with water and then molded into shapes that curved slightly toward the middle of the craft. After molding the wood it had to be treated by heat then painted with many coats of paint to insure that it was waterproof and to keep out water damage to the hull, then the wood was assembled to form the gondola. Each gondola weighed nearly 1,100 pounds, “these sleek yet ornate boats typically are about 35 feet long and 5 feet wide” (Steves 294). Each rowlock is hand crafted and uniquely different for every boat. Today there are only two or three squeri “gondola makers” left in Squero San Trovaso in Venice,

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