The gondola is the only boat in the world which, being just 11 metres long and weighing more than 600 kilograms, can be steered with agility and easyness by just one person and with only one oar and it has become, for millions of tourists, the very symbol of Venice.

It is unique, just like the town that it represents, also for its constructive characteristiques. First of all it is asymmetrical, as its left side is larger than the right one for 24 cm and so it always sails tilted on one side. The keel, thus, is not straight but it bends to the right, so that the gondola floats particularly tilted on the right-hand side.

That allows the counterbalancing of the push of the only oar which would tend to carry it to the left side. It has got a flat bottom which let it sail in shallow water. For its construction eight different types of wood are used and 280 are the parts tha gondola is made of. The only metal elements are the characteristic ‘fero’ (iron) made of six teeth at the bow (front), whose S form should imitate the winding of the Canal Grande and the lunette, placed under a stylized doge’s cap, the bridge of Rialto, while the six teeth should represent the six sestieri into which Venice is divided and the ‘risso’ (crook) astern (back), which should symbolize Giudecca island.

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It has been said that travelling is an art, but also that art is like a trip. A journey by sea, according to the Venice PassengersTerminal which, until September 30, offers cruise passengerspassing-through or stopping over its structures, a chance toadmire the sculptures by Gianmaria Potenza shown in theexhibition called “The harbour for Art” and rightfully so. Fifteen giant bronze sculptures, the favourite material of theVenetian artist, welcome visitors on the Palazzo and Isonzoquays, while the smaller works are kept at the first floor near the Torcello hall. The achievement is a homage to the greatmaestro, to his attachment to the city of Venice and his love forthe vastness of the sea, the bustling of harbours, and complex spaces of ships; elements which have inspired him since theearly Seventies, when he started sculpturing in cooperationwith world famous architects (like Giò Ponti, Nervi, Vieti andJoe Farcus) in accomplishing and mounting decorationsonboard most famous Italian turbine ships and cruise ships.

In fact, Gianmaria Potenza combines craftsmanship with Art,recognisable by its skilfulness and artistry, which is recognis-able in his ever new experiments with techniques and lan-guages. So much so that the Venetian sculptor works have beenexhibited exactly eight times at the Biennale di Venezia andcan boast over one hundred personal exhibitions to his credit. Famous for having revolutionized use of materials typical of Venetian

Blood Brothers (Tiantang kou), Alexi Tan’s first feature film, produced by John Woo and Terence Chang, is to be the closing film at the 64th Venice Film Festival, which runs from 29th August to 8th September 2007 at Venice Lido, and is directed for the fourth year by Marco Müller and organised by the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Davide Croff.

With the decision to open its 64th edition with Atonement, the second film by 35-year-old director Joe Wright, and to close it with Blood Brothers (Tiantang kou), the first work by Alexi Tan, the Venice Film Festival has confirmed the trend of recent years of discovering young, promising talent, who are able to offer unusual viewpoints and new trends in contemporary cinema with their films. In recent years, the following are just some who have had their debut in Venice with enormous success: Santiago Amigorena, Allen Coulter, Aleksey German Jr, Miyazaki Goro, Ethan Hawke, Gregory Jacobs, Francesco Munzi, Fausto Paravidino, Liev Schreiber, Nomura Tetsuya, Piotr Uklansky, Ivan Vyrypaev.

 The film which is a Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong co-production, stars Daniel Wu, Chang Chen, Shu Qi, Liu Ye, Tony Yang, Sun Honglei and Lulu Li, and is an action-packed thriller with an epic range. Inspired by John Woo’s masterpiece, Bullet in the Head (Die xue jie tou, 1990), the film tells the story of the events of a group of friends and the loss of their innocence in 1930s Shanghai. Blood Brothers (Tiantang kou) will be presented out of competition for its international premiere on the evening of 8th September in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema, in the presence of the director and cast.

The International jury for Venezia 64 has been finalized, it will be composed entirely of directors for the 75th anniversary, just like the 50th anniversary in 1982.

The members of the Jury for Venezia 64 –all important figures in the Venice Film Festival’s recent history– are:

director Catherine Breillat,
one of the most important names in today’s French cinema, and who has been in competition several times at leading international festivals and was present in Venice in 2001 with Brief Crossing (Brève traversée);

Oscar-winning New Zealand director Jane Campion, who has been a leading figure three times at the Festival – in 1990 with An Angel at My Table (1990, Jury Grand Prix), in 1996 with The Portrait of a Lady and in 1999 with Holy Smoke;

the Italian director, Emanuele Crialese, winner of the Silver Lion at the 2006 edition of the Venice Film Festival with Golden Door;

the Mexican director now firmly established in Hollywood, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and who participated in the

Venice, such wonderful town rich in history, art, culture and tradition, offers a wide range of hotels and other kinds of accommodations able to satisfy any need or desire.
If you desire a holiday under the banner of luxury, you can choose among different types of hotels of extra-luxury category, for instance endowed with an unforgettable and evocative view on Canal Grande or on St.Marc’s Basin. There are, of course, also a lot of hotels of lower category, even in silent areas and rather far from mass tourist itineraries, where you will find, in any case, an impeccable service.
If you, instead, want to be fondled or plunged into a really homely atmosphere, you could choose among different Bed and Breakfast accommodations. Otherwise if you want more autonomy, you can choose to rent a flat for your holidays, and you will feel as if you were at home. There are all kinds of flats, from very small and comfortable to large and stylish, modern and welcoming ones, enriched with slight touches of authentic design.
There are also lots of accommodations for young people such as youth hostels and campsites, not only along the coast of Cavallino, but also on the mainland, just few minutes, travelling by bus, from Venice.
On the mainland you will also find a wide range of farm holidays, where you will enjoy the pleasant welcoming of their owners as well as the pleasure of a good cooking. You will be spoilt for choice.

Visit such marvellous town rich in history and art, culture and tradition. Let yourself enjoy an unforgettable stay in a magic place. Let yourself be charmed by the wonderful sunsets on the lagoon, the typical glimpses and the famous monuments which make Venice a unique town in the world!

For the summer 2007 the Casa della Commedia gives the opportunity to watch  an Italian traditional theatre show in its ideal setting: on this occasion, in the garden of Ca’ Rezzonico, one of the most beautiful palaces of the city, will be set a wooden stage built on renaissance projects, on which the famous masks of Arlecchino, Pantalone, Colombina will play a scenario that corresponds the traditional canons of Commedia dell’Arte, without forgetting the present, emphasizing the modernity of this type of theatre. This theatre genre , that had a huge diffusion throughout Europe between the middle of XVI and the middle of XVIII century, paving the way for modern theatre, finds in Venice its adopted country; the Commedia dell’Arte is therefore a fundamental aspect in Venitian culture and we want to revive it in its original strength putting together its spectacularity with the quality ensured by a professional  theatre company. 

Multilingual performance 
In this show, the traditional mixture of Italian dialects enriched by multilingual devices creates a genuine game filled with the harmony of different languages, that becomes possible thanks to an international company that includes actors from all over the world. This peculiarity, together with the refined gestural language of Commedia dell’Arte, with a strong relation to the audience , with the ability of the actors to translate in several languages the key points of the show, as well as with the thirty‐year experience of the artistic director and his crew, make the show perfectly understandable and enjoyable by a multilingual audience .

The show:  HARLEQUIN IN ISTANBUL 
It is a typical scenario of the Commedia dell’Arte, with lovers, intrigues, disguises, surprises, and recognitions. In action the typical Commedia dell’Arte masks: Harlequin, Pantalone, the Captain, the Lovers’ in a magical context with

Palazzo Ducale – Doge’s Palace

from july 28, 2007 to november 25, 2007

After Paris and New York, this large-scale exhibition dedicated to the relationship between Venice and the world of Islam arrives in the city itself, finding an ideal venue in the Doge’s Palace, a building that is the very symbol of the Venetian Republic’s thousand-year history.
The fruit of collaboration between scholars from the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musei Civici Veneziani, the exhibition is promoted by the Venice City Council and by the Fondazione di Venezia, with the participation of Venezia Musei. The catalogue is published by Marsilio.

The exhibition charts the complex and intense relationship between Venice and the vast area of the Muslim world. The hundreds of exhibits – including paintings, glassware, ceramics, metalwork, textiles, books and prints – come from prestigious Venetian collections and from important museums in Europe and America. Illustrating how interaction between the two cultures affected the development of artistic languages within them, the material charts the continuous exchange of knowledge and technical know-how between artists, craftsmen, merchants and entrepreneurs. Furthermore, it also recounts a tale of refined and skilful diplomacy.
Complementary to the show itself is an interesting itinerary through the city in discovery of the various extant traces of