autumn in Venice

Start is located in Stra, a small country town about 25 km west of Venice), at the beginning of the Riviera del Brenta, and ends in the historic centre of Venice, on Riva Sette Martiri, in a scenic position facing the lagoon.

Autumn is the season of mushrooms, chessnuts ... let your holiday be completed by eno-gastronomical appointments into the Veneto Region, let your senses indulge on tastes that are not into Venice island's tradition but belong to the mainland, to the beautiful area of Treviso and Padova.

Although the holiday in Italy is on November 1 for All Saints Day, Halloween celebrations are becoming more popular: dressed up little kids run around with parents in tow, picking up lollies from wherever and whomever they can. They even run into shops and were giving bags of sweets!

Together with this funny appointment, many groups of tourists try to explore in these days the magic atmosphere of a foggy autumnal Venice with its obvious stories of ghosts.

Many scaring stories circulate about the so called "House of the spirits" isolated over the lagoon, in the north of Cannaregio, some steps from Madonna dell'Orto church. This large 16th century house is indeed part of the Contarini del Zaffo palace. Some say one can hear uncanny noises coming from it at night, other that they have seen flickering lights through the windows. Some say that magical rituals took place there. Others that back in time the deceased used to be put here for a while before being sent to San Michele.

All this about this "palace of ghosts" originates from the “arcane noises” known to be heard in it, perhaps generated by the wind or by echo, which send from the palace all the voices spoken from the end of the Fondamente Nuove, a phenomena other times believed by the folk’s superstitions as a diabolic magic.

If you have already been in Venice, you probably took a picture of this Basilica that closes St. Mark's basin on the right side watching the water with its distinctive shape.

This wonderful church though has a particular history, deeply linked to the heart of her citizens: in October 1630, the Venetian Senate decided to build a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary if the city was delivered from the plague that was killing a third of the population: the plague ended, so young architect Baldassare Longhena completed it in 1681, as a vast, octagonal building on a platform made of 100,000 wooden piles, constructed of Istrian stone and brick covered with marble dust.

Every year, on November 21, a major event in town takes place in front of few tourists' amazed eyes, something not touristic but flag of a popular religious sentiment: crossing a pontoon bridge across the Grand Canal, every Venetian with the family visits the church, in order to light a candle to seek pardon in front of the Madonna Mesopanditissa Byzantine Icon, radiant among hundreds of candles brought by the faithful themselves: along the way and in front of the church there are stalls which sell candles and sweets of every kind for the happiness of the little ones. All this, while a procession, led by the Patriarch, leaves St. Mark's to come to a solemn end at the Salute Church.