Chioggia

It has been shown how the power of the doge was gradually limited on one side, and that of the people on the other, how the Major Concilio, or greater council, became the dominant power in the state, how it was confined at last to certain favored families, how the resistance of the great nobles was suppressed, and the oligarchy confirmed by the Council of Ten.

Pisa and Genoa were the natural rivals of Venice in the field of maritime trade, but Pisa was destroyed at Meloria in 1284, and the Genoese were finally conquered at Chioggia in 1380.

From this epoch a new period began.

Venice, hitherto engaged in extending the limits of commerce and civilization further and further to the east, was now pressed by enemies on both sides.

Pula was just an early stepping stone on his career path.

In 1227 to 1228, he was putting his administrative skills to good use back in Venetian territory in the town of Chioggia at the southern end of the lagoon.

Again, we can reasonably assume that he did a decent job because he would be invited back to that role a further two stints later in his career.

But he wasn't gathering any moss, and the following year he moved down the road to take up the role of podestà in Verona, back in imperial territory.

The bishop promptly announced that he was excommunicating the whole city government and then flounced off up the road to Reggio Emilia, leaving the pope to sort out the mess.

Things were smoothed over in Bologna, and Zen's excommunication was reversed.

But it was still probably a welcome respite when his next job in 1233 was back in Venetian territory again with a second stint leading the community of Chioggia.

But that didn't mean that Zen was settling down to a quieter life after all the excitement of Verona and Bologna.

This is Jack Vandenberg.

All right, my absolute favorite, Marina di Chioggia.

And so this is an old Italian squash associated with Chioggia near Venice on the coast there.

It's historical records placed the Chioggia squash as far back as the 1600s.

So the look is very dark blue-green, warded all over the place, lots of sugar in there, gnarly looking.

It has that blossom end that opens up and is very thin there, perfect to put the knife in to make the cut.

But I think it's so appropriate in this case, because like you talk about a lot in the book, it's fascinating.

For farmers, it's a process of figuring out which radicchio varieties grow when in their area, but also some of the varieties of radicchio beyond the Chioggia, if I'm saying that properly, people may not be familiar with.

I'm thinking that if growers want to grow these varieties, they kind of need to also be able to tell people how to cook with them, how to prepare them.

So I think it makes a lot of sense to take the history, the growing and the cooking all together in one book.

be awesome.

And yes, so in the book, it is this mixture of like, kind of like these classic, as you can imagine, like radicchio with polenta, radicchio in risotto.

There's actually a cake with radicchio that's in Chioggia that they make.

So we put that one in there too.

from here the city looks well one sees the ducal palace faintly pink the green woods of the public gardens and the vast blue venetian sky the true native seems to have a strange affection for the lido one cannot tell why or wherefore but it is so lido has never been a name to conjure with one cannot tell what associations and sensations of pleasure and charm are connected with it at the present day it is a flat piece of somewhat marshy ground with large gardens intersected by canals the woods of the favorita on the shore of s elizabetta are delightful with their groves of acacia and catalpas where the ground is carpeted with wild flowers and the grass is greener than elsewhere in venice and the nodding violets grow behind the acacia grove there is a protestant burial ground where rest the bones of many englishmen who came to venice for pleasure and stayed to die the tomb of our ambassador sir francis vincent is here a beautiful walk is towards the ramparts of st nicolo where the blackbirds sing in the old convent garden and in summer crimson poppies purple salvias and vivid green grass are luxuriant san nicolo de barri is the patron saint of sailors they have erected a magnificent church dedicated to his memory on the most beautiful point of the lido here the crews of the merchantmen and warships of the republic would linger for a while before sailing to ask a blessing on their voyage the saints remains do not really rest here venice failed in her endeavour to obtain them by force from the people of pari but she spread the fiction among the people to this day the sailors of the lagoon firmly believe that san nicolo still watches over and protects them and when in doubt or danger are enabled by the campanile of his church to find the direct course to the lido port at the lido is the cemetery of the jews the graves are covered with sand and vegetation and children never hesitate to dance on them to do so is a favourite pastime if one remonstrates they will look at you with wide-open eyes and explain that these are only graves of jews a jew with the venetians being no better than a dog the grave of a christian is treated with the greatest reverence even the children and the gondoliers salute it as they pass there is something pathetic about the jewish graves from the stones over which the inscriptions have been effaced chioggia is one of the greater islands it has a large town with an immensely broad street and a wide canal here is the most famous and most picturesque fish market of all suburban venice in it one comes across the finest venetian types magnificent models for painters bronze giorgione figures and black-eyed swarthy women Their dialect is beautiful, far more so than that of Venice proper, and at night Ariosto is read publicly in the streets by a musical sweet-voiced Chiozzotto.

Here the dramatist Goldoni lived, and the painter Rosalba Carrera, and the composer Giuseppe Zalino.

Chioggia reminds one of the Jewish quarter in the east end of London.

The people, mostly fishermen, are extremely poor.

this is the place for colour there is colour everywhere in the sails of the boats in the costume of the people and even in the red cotton curtains of the churches unfortunately one stay there was brief because of the insects a fisherman in chioggia took us for a sail we had bargained for an hour's journey but we had not been out for more than ten minutes before he landed us on the rocks and demanded five francs we were entirely at his mercy and were forced to concede but his action struck us as being high-handed sometimes the fishermen of chioggia if they are so inclined will tell you tales of angelica and orlando and the pageant of the carolingian myth torcello is one of the most interesting islands of the lagoon it is seven miles from venice and a pathway is made to it through the sea by stakes the island is for the most part a waste of wild seamoor great and lifeless in colour it is a desolate place and you feel as if you were at the end of the world at one time it was extremely populous but now it is impossible to live there because the marshes breed malaria any count whose title and estates the venetians deem improbable they call the count from torcello one passes six miles of the most beautiful scenery on the way thither the entrance is by a canal and the banks on either side are covered with dwarf bushes and lilac trees thirteen hundred years ago the grey moorland looked much as it does now except that where a city stood the cattle feed what was once the piazza of the city is a grassy meadow and a narrow pathway is the only street two hundred years after the invasion of attila the inhabitants of aquileia and altinum with their most precious possessions flew from their houses to the island of torcello now there is scarcely a sign of human habitation and only the ruins of an old quay an ancient well foundations of marble buildings a great church and a campanile are left to show what at one time was a populous city which was called the mother of venice by the remains of these buildings one can see that they were constructed by men in great distress seeking a shelter yet not wishing to attract the eyes of their enemies by their splendour the church of torcello shows force and simplicity of character and a certain reverent religious feeling on the part of its founders everything is on a small and humble scale the columns which support the roof are no higher than a man yet these columns are of pure greek marble and the capitals are enriched with delicate sculpture one sees everywhere in this church an earnest and simple desire to do honour to god in the temple they were erecting and that it should not form too great a contrast to the churches they had loved and seen destroyed torcello is equally delightful in springtime and in autumn in spring the orchards are in full bloom and the hedges throw their pink and white sprays of fawn against the sky in autumn the water-meadows are a shimmer of purple and red from the masses of feathery lavender that grow there it has much the same colour and feeling as a scotch moor torcello is interesting from its venerable traditions its desolation its wildness and its profound silence there are many expeditions on which one could go if one had the time to spare for example there is an island near torcello called san francisco in deserto the name is well applied st francis's island certainly stands in a desert there is still an islet monastery of the franciscan order the brethren show you with much enthusiasm a stone coffin in which the founder of the convent was in the habit of lying in order to acclimatize himself to the sensation of death also there is pointed out a penitential cell which was once inhabited by the saint and a tree said to have sprung from his staff which he planted this legend may sound mythical but perhaps it may not be so it is quite possible for a staff even if it has lain by for some time to shoot out in several places in green sprigs and one of these cut in proper manner might easily take root and grow into a tree the real charm of the island lies in the garden of the monastery where narcissus are abundant and there is a great avenue of cypresses the finest in venice triporti is different in fact no other island of the lagoon is quite like it here are great sweeps of sandy land covered with coarse grass and heather and pools of brackish water the island is more or less uncultivated and the air is full of strange aromatic odours from the sea it is a marvellous place to bathe in the sand is fine and soft and yellow and the sea lies wide open before you warm and limpid if you have any doubt as to where murano is look for a great black cloud hovering over an island and you may be sure that there are the glass factories of murano

But next year, the Bride of the Sea humbled the pride of Genoa in a disastrous engagement off Alghero.

And in 1380, when the Genoese had gained possession of Chioggia and all but occupied Venice itself, the citizens rose like one man to meet the desperate emergency, and not only repulsed but surrounded the invaders and forced them to capitulate.

From this time, Genoa declined in power, while Venice waxed stronger and more haughty.

The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, followed rapidly by the expulsion of the Genoese from Trebizond, Sinope, Kaffa, and Azov, was the end of the commercial prosperity of the Ligurian Republic in the East.

And, um, in Sweden actually did all these drawings.

And so, um, yeah, I mean, some of them are, you know, as early as like the 1990s, like the Bianco di Chioggia.

And so those like the Bianco di Chioggia is a, um, just a selection from, right.

It was like an off type or something.

It was a selection that came from that.

Um, Or someone made, you know, but that was like in the 1800s.

But since then, I just want to make sure I had the dates right.

We have like the 1940s for Luzia, another one in the 30s, the Variegato di Chioggia, the Bianco di Chioggia was the 1990s, and the Rosso di Chioggia, the one that we all know the most, was like in the 1950s.