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TRAVEL/TOURS ADVERTORIAL www.nadfas.org.uk NADFAS REVIEW / AUTUMN 2016 59 Above: An elaborate ceiling in the Doge’s Palacepowerhouse. By the 13th century, the city controlled 70% of the lucrative spice trade from the Far East. Venice’s exotic trading partners – such as Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) and various Arab nations – shaped a unique aesthetic that infused a strongly Gothic template with Byzantine and Islamic forms. Venice became perhaps the most ‘Eastern’ city of the West. St Mark’s Basilica, for example, is signifi cantly modelled on the sixth-century Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, a Byzantine marvel destroyed by the Turks in 1453, leaving the Venetian ‘copy’ as a glorious reminder of the lost original. Just above the main entrance in the lobby, admire Byzantine mosaics, while the Islamic ribbed lanterns topping the domes take their cue from medieval Egyptian minarets. The Doge’s Palace also sports Islamic touches such as the infl ected window arches in its façade and the stone framing of the main windows that nod to an Arabic alfi z. Over at the 15th-century Ca’d’Oro palace near the Rialto fi sh market, there are echoes of madrasas in Cairo. The building’s infl ected arches are also Moorish, as are the crenellations, which provide the architectural icing on the top of its stony cake. Venetian architecture has long forged a distinctive relationship with its watery setting. Structurally, for example, building on sometimes less-than-fi rm tidal land led builders to swap heavy or infl exible stone for lighter materials like brick. The effort to reduce the weight of buildings also saw Venetian architects incorporate far more wood than other Italian cities. The most glorious manifestations are the ornate and brightly painted ceilings. One gorgeous example is the Sala dell’Albergo in the Great School of Saint Mark, now part of Venice’s main hospital, decorated in ravishing blue and gold by Pietro and Biagio da Faenza in 1504. The duo later created the wonderful ceiling of the Scarlet Room in the Doge’s Palace. Venice’s grand palazzi are also striking because of their large windows. An aesthetic reason was to maximise the light bouncing off the waterways, but the presence of a major glass-making industry on the nearby island of Murano also made glass much cheaper in Venice than elsewhere! Local Venetian laws once restricted the use of ornamental statuary common in other Italian cities – rich Venetians instead showcased their elevated class by commissioning ornate carvings on their grand buildings. Other distinctively Venetian features included the use of balconies rather than gardens, to compensate for the lack of space.Even the humble chimney took on a special form. Look closely and you might wonder why so many palazzi sport funny-shaped chimneys, often in the form of an upside-down cone or pyramid. The reason is fi re – a constant threat in many ancient cities, but especially in one with plentiful wooden architectural features (remember those ornate ceilings). So chimneys in Venice were designed to keep embers from escaping and maybe destroying those buildings the city’s architects had designed so beautifully – with help from exotic friends. ■Images: Shutterstock.ITALIAN OVERTURE Combine an overnight stay in Venice with an exploration of other historic gems in Italy on Swan Hellenic’s ‘Italian Overture’ cruise. Two guest speakers accompany the 13-day cruise which starts in Venice and then travels to Ravenna, Kotor, Brindisi, Naples (from where you can explore Pompeii and Herculaneum), Livorno (for Pisa and Florence) and Civitavecchia (for Rome). The cruise departs on December 9, 2016; prices start at £1,895. Call 0843 316 1716 or see www.swanhellenic.com for further details.