Venice Events: Regata Storica 2014
We didn’t even have time to recover from the excitement of the film festival and another major event is almost here!
Next Sunday, September 7th the Regata Storica will fill the canals of Venice with races, historical parades, and much more. It is definitely one of the most important events of our city and we strongly advise not to miss it!
Let’s get into the details, starting with a little bit of history.
Since 1500 Venice has always loved celebrating events with “regate” – basically boat races – and the tradition has had ups and downs until 1899 when, during the 3rd edition of the Biennale, the major declared the birth of the annual Regata Storica.
La Regata Storica consists in several races with different kinds of boats, and today the most loved one is the race of “gondolini“ which literally means “small gondolas”.
Gondolino during the Regata Storica
Back in the days, before starting the races, special boats with local nobles entered the area of the Regata. Their role was to throw (with bows) balls of terracotta to the boat crews that didn’t respect the rules. Nowadays, this event (unfortunately no longer necessary) is replaced by the awesome Regata Storica, a parade of boats where all the crews wear typical historic dresses and escort the most important person in Venice: The Doge.
So here is the program for this year’s Regata Storica:
Thursday 4th:
- 6PM, @Campo Della Salute. Presentation of the boat crews and blessing of the boats
Friday 5th:
- 12, Palazzo Corner. Classical 1500 music concert. Free. (details here)
Saturday 6th:
- 8PM, SAN SALVADOR Rialto. Classical music concert. Free. (details here)
Sunday 7th
- 4PM, Bacino di San Marco through Canal Grande. Corteo Storico. Our tip? Easy to find, free and unmissable!
- 4.30PM. Rialto to Ca’Foscari – San Stae to Ca’Foscari. Regata Maciarele e Schie (crews up to 14 yo)
- 4.50PM. Giardini di Castello – Bacino di San Marco – Canal Grande – Rialto – Canal Grande -Ca’Foscari. Regata on pupparini (a traditional kind of small boat)
- 5.10PM. Same as above. Women regata on mascarete (another kind of typical local boat)
- 5.30PM. Punta della Dogana to Ca’Foscari. Regata of “bisse” from Garda lake.
- 5.40PM. Giardini di Castello to Ca’Foscari as above. Regata of Caorline (6 oars – typical boat of Caorle, a city near Venice)
A couple of tips from your Italian Buddy. As you can figure out from the program, all the main races start in Giardini di Castello, pass through Canal Grande, Rialto and end up at Ca’Foscari (the university of Venice btw). Basically any place in this route gives you a good view of the event, but you might want to avoid San Marco that is already overcrowded even without special events.
Rialto will be a good place because here the boats make a U-turn so you’ll have the chance to take a good look at them. Unfortunately Rialto will also be very crowded. I’d suggest if you feel like staying in a place where tourists normally don’t hang out too much to look at the boat either at the start in Giardini di Castello or at the finish in Ca’Foscari.
You can check here the official page for updates.
We hope you’ll enjoy this amazing event, and we’d like to hear from stories of your experience. Come back here to your Italian Buddy and comment this post with your opinions. We are here to listen and answer!
